Chapter 3: Communicating

This is PK, the author of our first entry on chapter 3. In this childhood picture, her dad is holding her older brother and her. Happy reading!


Like Galinsky, I’ve always been fascinated by the development of language. I was surprised to learn that infants learn through parent-look and parent-gesture, which makes perfect sense, because how else would they have learned about communicating? I’ve always thought they learned language through listening to verbal communication. Reading this chapter gave me insightful ideas about how to help children with language development. It also allowed me to reflect back on my childhood and my experiences with language.

One of Galinsky’s suggestions for promoting communication with children was to read with them. While recalling my childhood, I don’t remember my parents reading to me because they didn’t speak the English language, let alone read or write in English. While suggesting this, Galinsky used research from Catherine Snow, indicating that children‘s learning and academic performance are enhanced when parents read to them regularly, prior to classroom learning. I think I performed well academically, despite the fact that my parents never read to us. Instead, my parents were very supportive and always reminded me that education was the key to success, and that alone was a motivating factor for me.

One of the topics Galinsky touched upon is learning a second language. Being a bilingual student myself, I remember the challenges of learning the English language, but overcoming these obstacles has led me to this wonderful asset of speaking two languages. I started preschool not knowing any English but I loved going in spite of that. I remember preschool being a real positive experience because we did so many fun activities like painting and singing songs. I just loved school! Having mentioned this, I believe that learning itself should be fun and exciting for all children. Learning a new language should be just as fun. Children should be encouraged to explore the world through play and learn as much as they can.

I was surprised that the game of “Simon Says, Do the Opposite” was mentioned in this chapter. According to Galinsky, games like this promote focus and self control. Not that she knew it at that time, but my older sister often played this game with us. She always had to be “Simon” and “Simon” always had to be the oldest one. The younger ones, including me, were the players. The winner would often get to walk with her to the store and buy ice cream. We loved the game because my younger siblings, who were then ages 4, 5 and 7, would always be the first ones out because they just didn’t understand the game. She would always do the opposite of what the command was just to trick us, but the younger ones would always follow her instead of the command. This would be a perfect example of children in Piaget's preoperational stage whose thoughts are still very rigid. For children during this cognitive development stage, they are unable to see things in reverse and instead focus on the appearance rather than the reality.

In closing, I found the reading to be worthwhile. I learned about the different ways that children first learn language and ways I can assist children in my future career. I feel that with unconditional love and nurturing from caregivers, a child’s language development will only continue to thrive and change the world.