Spanish Infant-Toddler language and
early literacy activities: Free and Reproducible - To download materials
go to http://www.walearning.com
and click on the purple button that says "Free Parent Education Handouts"
on the home page. These materials include twenty home and community
activities for adults and children birth to three that encourage early
language and literacy development. They are appropriate for children with
disabilities as well as children who are developing typically.
Emergent Literacy and Language
Facilitation: Videos for Staff and Parents
Available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin, and Filipino.
To preview the English version of the videos "Talking and Play" and
"Talking and Books" on the web, please go to
www.walearning.com. Washington
Research Institute (WRI) developed the Language is the Key program. This
evidence-based program helps staff show parents how to encourage young
children (birth to five) to talk and build the foundation for literacy.
Each language set includes two 20-minute videotapes and a manual for
conducting staff and parent workshops. Materials have been shown to be
effective with diverse groups of children, including children with
language impairments. Parents are encouraged to support the child's first
language at home. The video Talking and Books shows how to use books to
encourage language in young children. The video Talking and Play teaches
how to use play to get kids talking. Each language set includes
linguistically and culturally representative speakers. Each set costs $179
(plus $8 shipping/handling per set). Each set includes two 20 minute VHS
and one manual for trainers. More information is available at
www.walearning.com.
First Book is a
national nonprofit organization with a mission to give kids from
low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.
Working with existing community-based literacy programs, First Book
provides children with a steady diet of new books to help them build their
own libraries at home. First Book has distributed more than 30 million
books to kids in more than 900 communities across the country.
Bridges4Kids/Early On Review:
Literacy Play - What
a great way to promote early literacy! Teaching pre-reading skills in a
child's natural environment is a wonderful way to reinforce learning. This
book contains over 300 activities to choose from - each relating to
real-life scenarios - which are organized into 8 sections: Occupations,
Home, Nature, Science, Stories, Transportation, Performers, and Reading,
Writing, & Talking.
CA
San Diego Launches Preschool
and Family Literacy Initiative - San Diego schools chief Alan Bersin
yesterday launched a two-year plan to expand preschool and improve family
literacy. The plan would give some families a free newspaper subscription
and lessons on how to use those newspapers as an educational tool.
MI
Paid Parents Get the Kids Reading
- For $60 a month, they tutor their pre-K children in a program to boost
skills. Christian Morrow is 5 years old and of course that means he knows
his letters and sounds. "I got a big brain in my head," he declared one
summer Saturday as he was being tested to see how prepared he is to learn
to read.
AZ
Program Helping Kids Learn to Read Quickly - Ever heard of DIBELS?
Neither had I, but was delighted to find that DIBELS is an unusual name
for an inexpensive, easy-to-use tool that's helping thousands of Arizona
schoolchildren become better readers. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators
of Basic Early Literacy Skills. It's a set of short, individual
assessments developed at the University of Oregon to monitor the
development of pre-reading and early reading skills in kindergarten
through Grade 3.
Click on the logo to learn about
Michigan's R.E.A.D.Y. (Read, Educate, and Develop Youth) Program.
Using fMRI Technology to
Understand Hyperlexia - Georgetown University Medical Center
researchers today published the first ever fMRI study of hyperlexia, a
rare condition in which children with some degree of autism display
extremely precocious reading skills. Appearing in Neuron, the case study
uncovers the neural mechanisms that underlie hyperlexia, and suggest that
hyperlexia is the true opposite of the reading disability dyslexia.
Hyperlexia is found in very rare cases in children who are on the "autism
spectrum," meaning they display some characteristics of autism. Like
autistic children, children with hyperlexia have extreme difficulty with
oral communication, social interaction and expression, and yet can read
surprisingly well at a very young age.
IL
Early Literacy Intervention -
District Profile: Community Consolidated School District 15,
Palatine, Ill. When 25 percent of students come from
non-English speaking families, ensuring that students learn to read on
time is no easy task. But, as this district shows, it can be done.
MI
Camp Literacy jump-starts kids for school success
- Seven-year-old Felicia Wojciechowski was having trouble
reading, but by the end of Camp Literacy last summer she was reading
at a much higher level.
A Child Becomes a
Reader
Proven Ideas for Parents from Research--Birth to Preschool
When does a child learn to
read? Many people might say in kindergarten or first grade. But
researchers have told us that children can begin to learn reading and
writing at home, long before they go to school. This booklet offers
advice for parents of children from birth to preschool on how to
support reading development at home, and how to recognize preschool
and day care activities that start children on the road to becoming
readers.
Early Literacy Terms
- Here are some helpful terms that you may encounter as you read
more about early childhood education.
The Michigan Capitol Area District
Library librarians recommend the following books to parents who want to
read to their children ages infant to 5 years old: "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle
"I Like Me" by Nancy Carison
"Minerva Louise" by Janet Morgan Stoeke
"Mushroom in the Rain" by Mirra Ginsburg
"The Napping House" by Audrey Wood
Early Literacy:
Visit the
BrainWonders Early Literacy pages where you will find information on
how literacy skills begin in the early years in relation to the
developing brain. These question and answer pages are found throughout the rest of the BrainWonders site.
You will recognize the links for this Early Literacy information within
the Parents, Child Care Providers, and the Pediatric and Family
Clinician sections when you see an "Ever Wonder" tag. This index is
given as another easy option for accessing this Early Literacy
information.
Books are not just for reading -
They're for acting, writing and imagining too. In the second half of this
two-part series, Mrs Patricia Koh, founder and director of Pat's
Schoolhouse, offers practical tips on how to turn your child into an
ardent reader.
A professional development
resource designed to help preschool teachers understand how they
can support young children's literacy development while respecting
the development needs of the children they teach.
This video shows a preschool class engaged in a full range of
literacy learning activities designed to prepare the students to
enter kindergarten ready to work on the kindergarten expectations
established in primary literacy standards for grades K-3.
Accompanying the video are presenter's guides for an introductory
and an in-depth professional development session you can offer
your teachers.
Family Literacy: A Strategy for Educational Improvement
- There is an overwhelming relationship between parental
education levels, parental involvement, and children's school success.
Family literacy directly affects the role and effectiveness of parents in
helping their children learn. Click
here to download the pdf brief (size=222kb).
For Media-Savvy Tots, TV And
DVD Compete With ABCs - Infants, toddlers and preschoolers are
spending far more time watching DVDs and clicking TV remote controls and
computer mice than with books, according to a Kaiser Foundation study
released yesterday.
TX
Booking Success at Stop Six School - "We have children at Walton who
don't know the alphabet. They can't write their name. They don't know how
to open up a book. They don't even know what a book is for. Yet, over the
past decade, the school has found a formula for success, rising from the
lowest possible rating of low performing to the state's second-highest
rating of recognized.
A Child Becomes a Reader - Two new
booklets draw on findings from scientifically based research to suggest
how parents can help young children become strong readers. One booklet is
for parents of newborns through preschoolers; the other, for parents of
children in kindergarten through 3rd grade.
A Child Becomes a Reader:
Kindergarten - Grade Three
A Child Becomes a Reader:
Birth to Preschool
MITeachers Try Play to Improve Literacy - Livingston
agency offering session on child care method. Why would you want to teach
your toddler to read? Doesn't he already have enough to do just getting
from the cookie jar to the toy box?
MI Read, Educate and Develop Youth
(R.E.A.D.Y.) Program - Governor Granholm stated in her 2003 State of
the State address, “By the time a child arrives for kindergarten, 85
percent of the brain is developed. If the brain is purposefully stimulated
and nurtured before a child is old enough to tie his or her shoes, that
child’s lifelong capacity to learn will be forever enhanced. And,
unfortunately, if it is not, an opportunity is lost forever.”
Keep Reading Light For Tots
- With all of the emphasis on reading, what should I be doing to help my
preschooler learn to read?
Raspberry:
To Bridge Poor Childrens' Language Gap - "I've just finished a book
called Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American
Children, and I am confirmed -- in spades! -- of something I'd reluctantly
come to believe: That it is beyond unrealistic to expect schools to fix
children who enter school -- even preschool) -- already behind.
Books are not just for reading
They're for acting,
writing and imagining too. In the second half of this two-part series, Mrs
Patricia Koh, founder and director of Pat's Schoolhouse, offers practical
tips on how to turn your child into an ardent reader by Jane Lee, The Straits Times, Singapore
'I'VE always been told that parents should get their children into the
habit of reading at a young age. What is the ideal age for a child to
start reading? How can parents make kids interested in reading?'
The library is an ideal place to begin. Ask your local library if it has
children's story times or special hours devoted to youngsters. If not,
create your own story time with your child. Set aside 10 or 15 minutes a
day to read together.
Teach your children by example. Let them see you read. Also, read anything
and everything you can with them - notices, street signs, MRT station
names and so on.
Don't keep books out of the reach of young hands. A book perched high on a
bookshelf may look nice and complement your decor, but it will not do the
youngsters any good.
Keep books in plain view. Try placing them around your house in unexpected
places. The best place I've found is right on top of the TV set, right
next to the on/off button.
Let your children immerse themselves in their books, both psychologically
and physically. Let them spread the books across the floor. The more the
merrier. Get down on the floor with them, turn the pages, point at
pictures, tell stories, laugh and read.
Incorporate writing into your story times. Let your children write books
of their own.
Depending on their ages, have your children write a book for you to read.
Help them express themselves by putting their thoughts and feelings down
on paper.
Or, if they are too young to write, have them dictate or act out a story,
then put their story into words for them. Allow them to illustrate their
book.
The more personal you can make it, the better. Make a title page with
their name in big, bold print for them to see and admire as their own
creation. Read it to them, have them read it to you.
Buy a composition book just for their stories. You could very well be
creating something that they can keep with them forever, something they
will enjoy for many years and, when they look back on it, appreciate the
time you gave to them.
- Mrs Patricia Koh
Founder and director, Pat's Schoolhouse. She holds a master's degree in
child development from the University of London, and spent 10 years with
the then Institute of Education, mostly as the head of its early-childhood
education department. She started her pre-school in 1988.
