There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. – Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

I remember the moment—as the parent of a newborn—when I realized I would never be done with the laundry. Never. The vast amount of laundry babies create is surpassed only by self-feeding toddlers, dirt-digging preschoolers, and big kids playing sports.

But here’s the thing. There will always be laundry. Always. But you won’t always have the opportunity to maximize your child’s innate language acquisition window, which takes place during the earliest years of a child’s life and doesn’t last long.

So, what is a language acquisition window?

It is a span of time in a child’s development from birth to approximately 6 years old, when the brain is absorbing language from their environment, almost effortlessly. Imagine the mind as a sponge, soaking up sounds, rhythms and cadences which are then assembled into words and constructs of the child’s mother tongue.

Dr. Maria Montessori observed this phenomenon, which she describes in her book, The Absorbent Mind.

“He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so he passes little by little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love,” she wrote.

This phenomenon, also called a “sensitive period for language,” is evidenced by how children learn language organically through exposure, rather than direct instruction. Consider that in a few short years, babies, toddlers and preschoolers learn an entire language—thousands of words with a complex grammar system and many exceptions—without being formally taught. It is crucial then, that children be exposed to quality language, and plenty of it, during this sensitive period.

The primary vehicle for this is simply talking with your child. By interacting over daily routines, you provide vocabulary, sentence structure, and other nuances of communication: grammar rules, intonation and facial expressions. These are internalized and used as the child tries out their own language expression in ways beyond simple mimicry. It’s important to remove obstacles to this expression such as pacifiers and excessive background noise.

Second to dialog, reading aloud to children is the best way to expose them to quality language. Reading age-appropriate books expands a child’s vocabulary and introduces grammar, rhythm and rhyme.

For anyone who doubts toddlers are absorbing grammar, consider the 2-year-old who’s been playing in the sandbox but is now running towards you, shouting, “Her hitted me! Her hitted me!”

The child isn’t mimicking adult speech. His use of two incorrect grammatical constructions is a prime example of how young children absorb their own language intuitively. He’s beginning to apply the grammar rules he’s heard. He’s not doing it correctly yet, but the rules of grammar are evident in his outburst.

“Her” is a word we use to refer to another child playing in the sandbox. Maybe you reminded your son to play nicely with “her” or share toys with “her.” The use of “hitted” is even stronger evidence of imperfectly applied grammar rules. Here we see the application of the past tense—typically formed by adding “-ed” to the end of a verb—but applied incorrectly because “hit” is an exception to the rule and doesn’t change in the past. His brain has absorbed how we generally speak in past tense but hasn’t learned all the exceptions yet.

Children need a steady diet of quality language during this stage—beautiful language, poetic language, kind language. The cadence, inflections and pronunciations will be imprinted on the child’s brain in an intuitive way that cannot be taught from a textbook.

Where to start?

Carefully consider the media your children are exposed to. We had no wish to raise whiny or rude children, and wouldn’t allow them to watch TV featuring whiny or rude main characters. Limit the amount of screen time for young children so the majority of the spoken language they hear is from real humans, with real emotions and facial expressions.

Read the books your child chooses. Let your toddler or preschooler choose whatever piques their curiosity. Curiosity is the path to learning, and honoring their choices empowers them at an age when most of their life is completely at the mercy of others. If they want to read the same book over and over, honor that desire as much as you can stand. Children have a natural inclination toward repetition, which is needed for forming new synapses in their brains.

Read rhyming books and books with rhythm and cadence. From classic nursery rhymes like The Cow Jumped over the Moon to fun romps like Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton, the more rhyme and rhythm they absorb, the more complete their mastery of language. Read books with nonsense rhymes like There’s a Wocket in my Pocket (which trains the ear for decoding skills, syllabication and spelling patterns). Read books with strong cadence such as Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins and books that stretch a child’s sound repertoire like Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

Read beautiful books that grab a child’s attention and books that model kindness and compassion. Think Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Big Red Barn, Rainbow Fish and You Know How to Love.

Read board books they can hold with tactile and sensory elements like Pat the Bunny and “touch and feel books.” Almost any book by authors like Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton, P.D. Eastman, Bill Martin Jr., A.A. Milne, Laura J. Numeroff, Marcus Pfister, Shel Silverstein, Beatrix Potter, Eric Carle, Margaret Wise Brown, and so many others, will be a delight to your child and the foundation of their education.

Reading to children lavishly during the language acquisition window sets them up for success in school. If parents wait until kindergarten or first grade to start reading to them, children miss the critical sensitive period which makes learning language more difficult and creates less-confident readers. These less-confident readers often begin to struggle between fourth and seventh grade in multiple areas: not just English class, but social studies, science and even math.

This is the number one school-success factor over which you have control as a parent. You cannot control genetics or personality, but you can inspire a love of books and reading in your child. And through reading we unlock one of our greatest human qualities: imagination.