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:

Why I Read: Founder and President, Blanche Podhajski

by Blanche Podhajski
 
I love literacy because of precious memories. My mother and big sister worked in beautiful stone buildings that housed the libraries in my home town. I remember them bringing home treasures of books they would read to me as a preschooler. 

That’s probably where my love of language began. Curious George, Madeline and Babar became as close friends to me as Ruthie who lived down the street.
 
Learning to read when I entered Kindergarten couldn’t happen fast enough. But I was disappointed just reading sight words like run, jump and Spot which characterized instruction in my educational era. I was so much more excited when Miss Avery taught us about “magic e” in first grade and then showed us how to rhyme by changing initial letter sounds. I was off and really reading!

I remember curling up into a chair a few years later with the entire Freddy the Pig series. I felt especially proud that I could decode the title of Freddy and the Ignormus. I enjoyed talking at the dinner table about what an “ignormus” might be.

President's Message: Empathy

by Dr. Blanche Podhajski

I did not blog last month because December was a blur. I was away with family for the holidays and, like everyone, my thoughts were preoccupied with the tragic events in Sandy Hook.  Our hearts go out to the families and survivors whose memories are forever changed.  Those of us who work in schools and clinics know what little six and seven year old children are like in December.  Their exuberance and joy are palpable.  Their loss deprives us all.  May we honor their memory by being inspired to help all children as did the courageous teachers of Sandy Hook. Educators deserve such admiration and respect for the responsibilities they assume every day to advance the knowledge, preserve the safety, and sustain the self-esteem of our young.

One of the gifts I received for Christmas was Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon. It is a 700 page tome but written with such sensitivity and beautiful language that you don’t realize how much you have read.  You can bop around the book and read the chapters of high interest first but may be surprised by those you didn’t expect to relate to and do.  The stories shared are particularly compelling. What resonated for me was the responsibility all of us have when using language.