Babble to Books: Reading with Your Very Young Child

by Brenda Buzzell, Building Blocks for Literacy Coordinator 

The value of reading to infants and toddlers has been well documented by recent research studies. Reading aloud with young children, talking about the pictures on a page or even paraphrasing words expands children's imaginations and encourages language development. Reading aloud allows infants and young children to hear the sounds of our language combined in words and sentences. Infants progress through stages of babbling until they babble using the consonants and vowels of the language they hear. This babbling is a huge predictor of first words and language development.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you with reading aloud to your infant, toddler or preschooler: 

For infants and toddlers:
Use a variety of books to introduce simple words such as tree, ball, baby and car. As you are reading, point to each picture, say the word and ask the child to touch the object in the book. Here are some great book suggestions for starting out:

• Smile by Roberta Grobel Intrater is full of baby faces making all kinds of wonderful expressions and provides a great opportunity to teach about the different parts of the face.

• Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown is great for having young children mimic the sounds of the animals and tractor, which helps set the stage for learning that sounds are contained in words.

• Choose rhyming books, such as Jamberry by Bruce Degen, the beginning Dr. Seuss books and books that can be sung, such as If You’re Happy and You Know It. Sing the words and do the motions! Books like these expose children to the sounds of language while providing an opportunity to experience more words as you both clap, stomp, and shake as all are happy and know it!

10 Great Books That Help Promote Phonological Awareness

 

Reading aloud with your children is one of the best ways to prepare them for future reading success. Shared Book Reading helps your child develop language, build comprehension and learn more about print (see our Top 10 List of Books to Read with Your Young Child through Shared Book Reading). Shared Book Reading also helps children raise their knowledge of Phonological Awareness, the understanding that our spoken language may be broken into smaller parts: sentences into words, words into syllables and syllables into individual sounds. 

Phonological Awareness is a progression of skills that help children become aware of the individual sounds of our language and eventually code these sounds to the letter 
representations.

Many children's books have wonderful rhymes and many alliterations that help children to hear the same sound at the beginning of words. Our BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® coordinator, Brenda Buzzell, recommends some books that will help promote Phonological Awareness while reading. Here are 10 great stories to help get you started:

5 Games for Busy Parents to Help Their Young Children Learn to Read

Last week, in my Sharing Books, Building Brains blog post, I wrote about the difficulty I have had with not being able to send my kids to preschool due to scheduling and lack of child care. It is a worry to me that my kids may fall behind their peers who are able to attend preschool. I am not an educator and nor do I know how or what to teach my children to ensure they are ready for kindergarten. Making sure they have the early literacy skills needed to become successful readers tops that worry list.

I am lucky to work with many experts in just this area, who have helped me come up with activities to help with early reading that are fun and not overwhelming to me as a mom. They are games that can be played for a couple of minutes here or a couple of minutes there, don’t take a lot of explaining and usually leave my children asking for more.

This week’s five games are all about raising your child’s Phonological Awareness or helping them understand that words are made up of smaller parts. Words are made up of syllables, syllables are made up of letters, letters have individual sounds.

Please note, your kids do not have to know that this is what they are learning, it will automatically happen while you are playing the following games:

Clean It Up!
When it is time to pick up all the toys that have become scattered about you can make it fun and educational. Tell your child that you see something that needs to be picked up and it starts with the letter B, /b/ (make the sound a b makes), B. Your child can then start by picking up the ball or the bulldozer or the book. Keep going until the room is clean.

This game helps children think about the individual sounds in words, by isolating initial sounds.  

Sharing Stories, Building Brains

 

When conversations surrounding the necessity of high-quality preschool became a daily occurrence in the national media, I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was happy. I am a strong supporter of education and these early childhood programs are beneficial to our children and communities. On the other hand, it scared me because I am unable to send my kids to preschool.
 
While the town I live in has an amazing preschool program, the hours are challenging to coordinate with our family’s work schedules. Kids go to school four days a week from 10-2:15 and, unfortunately, at this point in time, there is no care before or after to cover early mornings or later afternoons.

The fact that my children are unable to attend preschool has drastically shifted my perspective on educational responsibility. Preparing our children for school now falls solely to me and my husband.

As a reader, I have made sure that books are an integral part of my children’s upbringing. We read together every day and most nights before bed. Is this enough? I know that reading with your child can alone build vocabulary skills, help children become comfortable with books, serve as a great conversation starter and help provide quality time as a family. But, does this prepare my child for kindergarten?

How-To: Help Your Child Get Ready to Read Through Games Part IV

This week's "How-To" focuses on vocabulary. Did you know that children from middle to high-income families have heard 30-million more words than their peers from low-income families by the time they are four? Unfortunately, this gap keeps widening as kids move through school. Below are two videos demonstrating ways to help increase vocabulary and understanding of words.

The more words a child hears, the more that child's vocabulary grows. There are numerous ways to promote language development in young children. Modeling gives you the opportunity to use multiple words with the same meaning so the child learns a word and its definition. For example, "That's a fragile statue. It's very delicate. If you knock it over, it could break." Watch how this preschool teacher models new words for her students:

Stern Center Celebrates Week of the Young Child

by Suzanne Loring
 
One of the best things that parents can do to ensure their children’s future success in school and life is to read aloud with them every day. Reading aloud with your child helps increase vocabulary, improve listening skills, promote language and broaden perspectives about the world around them. 

This week, April 6-April 12 celebrates the Week of the Young Child, an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), created to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.

Started in 1971, the Week of the Young Child recognizes that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children’s success in school and later in life. This year’s focus is Early Years Are Learning Years®.