The Faculty of Education at USAL held an interactive meeting entitled “Learn to Talk by Talking: A Developmental Approach to Enhance Language, Reading and Writing Skills”. The meeting was part of the continuous training program activities which aim at building bridges of communication between academics and experts on subjects related to crucial issues for workers in the field of education.

The meeting approached the issue of exaggeration and excessive focus practiced by teachers and parents in order to enhance the skill of listening in children and teenagers at the expense of the skill of expression. This has great effects on the development of children’s’ language inventory, which is considered a sign of success in school and in acquiring reading and writing skills. Researches have shown that the difference in the language inventory ranges between 1000 and 4000 words in each child at the age of three years.

The lecture was delivered by the coordinator of the training program at USAL, Nadine Jouni, the audience of which were a group of teachers, coordinators and a number of interested persons in the field of education. In the meeting, emphasis was placed on presenting a developmental approach for acquiring language from birth till teenage years. Participants also focused on the essential role practiced by adults in children’s environment to develop the basic skills of reading and writing from kindergarten reaching the different stages of basic education.