What is the practice?
This practice uses formal and informal language and literacy learning activities to expose and introduce your child to listening to story tellers, reading books, playing word games, and so much more. Your child’s participation in these activities will provide him opportunities to learn all kinds of pre- and early writing and reading skills.
What does the practice look like?
A mother and her daughter have been attending a twice-a-week mother/infant playgroup for several months that is filled with songs, games, and storytelling. Their favorite activity is a simple version of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. The little girl especially likes this rhyming song because she enjoys wiggling her toes in the air while her mother and the other mothers sing the song. She even gets down on the floor and kicks her feet up in the air to let her mother know she is ready to play!
How do you do the practice?
Here are some ideas about places to go and things to do to involve your child in literacy-rich neighborhood
and community activities.
How do you know the practice worked?
- Does your child get excited when involved
in the activities? - Does he try to do part of the activities?
- Does your child vocalize to get someone
to continue an activity?
- Start by identifying things your child likes to do and enjoys doing. If an activity is interesting to him, chances are he will benefit from being involved in the activity.
- Look for places to go or things to do that involve activities that match your child’s interests and that will provide him lots of literacy-learning experiences.
- Play lap games and fingerplays, and sing nursery rhymes and made-up songs, as part of playing with your child.
- Formal activities might include library storybook times, storytelling at mother’s-morning-out programs, reciting nursery rhymes at parent/child play groups, and drawing and finger-painting at a beginner’s workshop for wee ones. Don’t overlook activities at book stores, community recreation centers, and similar places.
- Informal activities might include reciting nursery rhymes at a friend’s house, listening to songs at a music store, looking at a menu at a restaurant, visiting a book store’s children’s section, and talking to your child on visits to a petting zoo. Pretty much any activity provides opportunities for talking, listening, and learning.
Take a look at more fun in a world of words
Wonderful Walks
Fourteen-month-old Paige and her father very much enjoy neighborhood walks. Dad carries Paige in a baby backpack so she can see all the goings-on. On their walks, Paige’s father points out both familiar and new things. He points to a neighbor’s dog while saying “There’s Skippy!” Do you want to pet him?” while crouching down so Paige can pet the dog. Her father describes what his daughter is doing and encourages her to “tell him” using gestures or sounds what she wants to do next. Paige sees a familiar person approaching and starts to get excited and vocalizes as the person gets closer. Paige starts a “conversation” that includes many opportunities to listen and interact with her neighbor and father. These neighborhood walks are filled with lots of talking, listening, and communicating. Paige loves all the attention!
Words Everywhere!
Two of 5-month-old Wyatt’s favorite things to do when out with his mother are going to a baby-exercise class and swimming with mom at the community recreation center. They are his favorite things because there is so much to see, do, and hear. He is all “ears and eyes.” The babyexercise class includes lots of nursery rhymes, finger plays, and singing that Wyatt so much enjoys. The infant-swimming class includes music and lots of “dancing” while in the water! While involved in these activities, his mother describes and explains what they are doing and encourages Wyatt to communicate using gestures and vocalizations to tell mom “what he thinks” about all of the activities. These parent–child play episodes have become a way for mom and son to talk to each other while having fun.
