Fostering Parent and Child Language

            The information I have learned thus far in the course has been fascinating. I have learned so much about how children learn and develop. Of the greatest interest to me thus far is analyzing how children learn language. I had written a previous post about infant language development but I wished to look at the topic from another angle. Specifically I wanted to get a greater understanding of the role of caregivers in developing language in children.

            Parent- child interaction is vital to the development of language in children. In her text Berk (2012) discusses how deaf children born to hearing parents who lack American Sign Language (ASL) skills tend to be delayed in language development, especially when compared to deaf children born to deaf parents who speak ASL (p.372). Those deaf children born to deaf parents are able to fully develop the language skills of ASL and develop normally while the other children tend to be behind in toddlerhood and preschool (Berk, 2013, p.372). Berk (2012) notes “deaf children need access to language models-deaf adults and peers-to experience natural language learning,” (p.372). Children need to connect and model the language of their parents. Without conversation and interaction with parents, children are unable to develop language.

            With this in mind I began to think about ways to foster the interaction between parents and their infants in order to develop language. One such way is the common use of a mommy and me class. These classes foster one on one time between a caregiver and child with the use of songs and play. But often these classes are unaffordable to young parents, with memberships around fifty dollars (Gymboree, 2014). That is why I am so glad to see libraries across the nation who have developed Baby Lapsit programs for their patrons.

            The State Library of Iowa (n.d.) has compiled a list of sample Baby Lapsit programs for anyone to use. These programs incorporate song, movement, simple books, early literacy modeling, and parental connection (State Library of Iowa, n.d.). When picking books for this type of program Susie Heimback of the New York Public Library suggests “choosing short stories that rhyme, have repetitive text, or allow the grown ups to read along,” (State Library of Iowa, n.d., The New York Public Library-Susie Heimback section, para. 2). Baby Lapsit programs are a wonderful addition to public libraries. They allow parents to connect one on one with their child while learning early literacy practices from their local librarian. In offering this program libraries are illustrating they value family interaction as well as literacy.

            In closing I will leave you with an example of my favorite rhyme I have seen used for Baby Lapsit programs, Acka Backa Soda Cracker. It is a great song to promote motion and rhythm with parents and is also great fun to say.

References

Berk, L.E. (2012). Child development. New York City, NY: Pearson.

enochprattlibrary. (2015, May 29). June 2015’s rhyme of the month: “Acka backa soda cracker” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOUPQraqXG0

State Library of Iowa. (n.d.). Sample lapsit programs. Retrieved from http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/tz/youthservices/forlibrarians/lapsit/s  amplelapsits

Learning Through Senses

            Children learn in a variety of ways. Different learners, learn at different rates and in different styles. The first lecture by R. Lynn Baker was a helpful look at the different literacies that children will gain as they prepare for kindergarten. The topic that was the newest and of most interest to me was the concept of multisensory literacy in a child’s learning. Multisensory literacy combines “sensory experiences with literacy skill practice [and] helps children to retain what they have learned and apply gained knowledge to everyday life,” (Baker, 2014). This combination of sensory integration and literacy development was fascinating to me and it had me thinking about ways to incorporate it into a storytime or other children’s programming. Below are some ideas I have gathered for possible multisensory activities for young patrons and their families.

            One fun activity that always gets children excited and participating is play dough. Kids love to feel the texture of the dough and work to build new creations. The picture above used play dough and sticks to allow a child to practice writing letters and words. While this may be too advanced for some younger patrons a librarian or parent can use the play dough to shape letters with a preschooler and describe sounds. This incorporates letter recognition into the child’s multisensory learning. The librarian may also allow the child free reign over the creation and then ask them to tell a story about what they have just made, thus utilizing narrative skills.

            Another way to get kids very excited about letter recognition is the use a fishing game as pictured above. This game has children “fish” for a ping pong ball. Once it is pulled from the water the librarian can discuss with the child the letter name and sounds it makes. The librarian can even go further by naming words that the letter begins and sounding them out with the child.

            Finally, you can always use my favorite multisensory activity, music! Baker (2014) notes that “music involves almost all parts of a child’s brain.” By incorporating music into library programming, like storytimes, librarians are promoting a child’s phonological awareness. Using songs that focus on movement, like my personal favorite “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” allows children to be active participants in the song. Further, this song encourages vocabulary with the movement by teaching children where their head, shoulders, knees, and toes are on their body.

           With so many options to use multisensory activities in the library there is no limit to what a librarian can do to engage children in early literacy.

References

A Ranson. (2013, Sep 9). Alphabet sounds fishing and matching game [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://theimaginationtree.com/2013/09/alphabet-ping-pong-fishing-and-matching-game.html

Baker, R.L. (2014). Early Childhood Literacy [Blackboard collaborate]. https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/nativeplayback.jnlp?sid=2011274&psid=2014-08-16.0731.D.422A4B025A5A9134B385708574C0A3.vcr

S Evans. (2016, Apr 20). Play dough writing tray [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/play-dough-writing-tray.html

Super Simple Songs- Kids Songs. (2013, Jun 24). Head, shoulders, knees, and toes (sing it) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZanHgPprl-0

Learning to Talk

            Literacy does not begin when a child begins to read, but actually far before that. Early literacy encompasses this pre-reading timeframe, which includes singing, playing, and of course learning to talk. Everything I have been learning in this course has made me extremely interested in how a child learns to speak.

            The first year of a child’s life is crucial to language development. Most parents begin speaking to their infants in what’s called Parentese. Parentese is the use of sing-song speech and exaggerated facial expression that is almost always used around babies (PBS Parents, 2003). This elongated way of speaking is utilized by parents and family around the world and with good reason, babies love the sound (PBS Parents, 2003). Infants will turn their head to the sound of Parentese regardless of the language spoken (PBS Parents, 2003). Further, research shows "The elongated vowels, high pitch, exaggerated facial expressions and short, simple sentences actually help infants learn language," (PBS Parents, 2003, Parentese Helps Babies Learn Language section, para. 1). Speaking to babies is critical to their language development and speaking in Parentese helps to engage them and allows them to hear the syllables in every word. The more they hear, the more they are able to try to replicate.

            Infants pick up on every syllable and sound spoken around them. In the Ted Talk featured below Patricia Kuhl discusses infant language development. In her study she compared the reaction to the English “r” and “l” sounds in English speaking and Japanese speaking children (TED, 2011). She notes that children aged 6-8 months are able to react to the sounds of most all languages but by the time the child reaches the age of 10-12 months they begin to lose this ability (TED, 2011). Instead the children have created internal statistics on the sounds they have heard and have begun to focus solely on the language they hear most frequently (TED, 2011). Infants 8 months and under then are primed to learn as many sounds as possible. Their brains are open and mapping every sound they hear in order to produce the language later in life. This is why the first years is so vital to a child’s development and later literacy. Speaking and interacting with children allows them to develop these skills as they listen and learn from their caregiver. Feel free to watch to the Ted Talk below and leave a comment with your thoughts.

References

PBS Parents. (2003). Speak parantese, not baby talk. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/child-development/baby-and-toddler/baby-talk-speaking-parentese/

TED. (2011, Feb 18). Patricia Kuhl: The linguistics of babies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XBIkHW954

Introduction

           I created this blog as a means of gaining greater depth from the resources found in my early literacy course. Over the next few months I will be posting information here regarding early literacy, child development, libraries, and children’s programming. From this course I hope to gain a more thorough understanding of early literacy and its role in the library setting.

            In looking over the readings of the first week I was inspired by The Institute of Museum and Library Services (2013) report on how museums and libraries play such a vital role in the learning of young children. 22% of children in the United States are living in poverty and face the possibility of falling behind in school due to lack of resources (Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2013, p.11). Libraries have the opportunity to combat this lack of resources by offering children and parents a place to learn, play, and interact together. Through the creation of family places, storytimes, or other early childhood programming libraries can be seen as a resource for new parents to help prepare their child to learn. Librarians then can be seen as “facilitators of learning, working with families and caregivers and transforming visits … into ;teachable moments’ that connect children’s experience to deeper learning and knowledge,” (Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2013, p.13).

            As this is my first blog post I wanted to share a little about myself and how I am working to be a resource for young children in my community. I first became interested in early literacy and working with children when I began working for FIRST5 after I graduated college. This organization’s focus is to ensure that all children 0 to 5 are happy, healthy, and ready to learn by kindergarten. Throughout this time I worked to promote early literacy practices to parents and monitored our free book program for the county.

            My current position is a library assistant for Monterey County. I work in our Early Literacy Mobile Outreach department and travel on the bookmobile to deliver storytimes to preschool classes throughout the county. Recently we have incorporated a science element to our storytimes.  Our new program, STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics), has children participating in a storytime with a science theme followed by a short experiment. These experiments include racing cars on ramps to discuss gravity and motion or building houses out of spaghetti and marshmallows to learn concepts of engineering. The children really enjoy the new program and it is so exciting to see as they begin to work with these new concepts in their minds and build a new science related vocabulary. I truly love to watch these kids every day. Below are pictures of the children and myself during our storytime visits.

References

Institute of Museum and Library Services. (2013). Growing young minds: How museums and libraries create lifelong learners. Retrieved from https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1212433/files/44590511/download