Hello. Im joanne hendrick, author of the whole child and your guide to this video series. In this program, were going to look at not only traditional ways we can help our children learn language, but well also explore some interesting new ideas about laying foundations for later success in reading and writing. Its an area of study we call emergent literacy, and i think youll find it fascinating and helpful. As always in this series, well observe children in a number of different programs head start, family day care homes, university schools, and private child care centers. And well listen to their teachers as they describe some of the methods they use to enhance childrens language and literacy development. Teacher no way. Hendrick the task of learning all the intricacies of language can be a daunting one, and it doesnt always go smoothly for our children or for us. [boy counting] 5. Teacher so, there are about 5 . Hendrick as caregivers, we place such an Important Role in helping our children learn to be fluent, to communicate with others, and eventually, to read and write. Teacher use your words, adrian. Tell lee, those are my beans. Beans. My beans. Beans. Woman, voiceover i think its a really wonderful way to help children express what they know in terms of experiences. If they go to the Grocery Store, then if we set up a Grocery Store for dramatic play, it helps them role play. And i think it helps them to become aware more as theyre able to act it out of what theyve experienced. They were aware of it but not really that cognizant. But when they get into the role play themselves, then they have a greater picture of that experience. And it helps their language, i think it helps their interactions with other children. You have to learn how to negotiate, you have to, um, verbally as well as in your actions. And you have to be a creative person in that sense if youre going to be able to work with others and communicate with others. And i think its just a valuable experience for them. Hendrick how can we help the children in our care develop their ability to talk, think, and express their ideas to the fullest . And not only that, how do we encourage them to listen to other people . Teacher is that a train track . The pigs are playing with his toys. Would you be upset if some pigs came in your room and were playing with your toys . Do you think they would break them . What do you think would happen if you had pigs in your room . I would kick them out. You would kick them out . Hendrick we have 4 simple goals in this program to understand and appreciate the relationship of speech and language to the thought process; to learn new ways we can help foster the development of language and thought in our children; to understand and appreciate the value of language differences among the children in our care; to learn how to foster emergent literacy skills as foundations for reading and writing. Teacher i need to look at your food. Teacher how does that taste . [smacking lips] it sure sounds good. Hendrick language is so much more than the memorization of grammatic rules or learning the abcs. Teacher you would like more . Girl orange orange, youre right, thats what it is. Its an orange. Orange. More orange. More orange . Do we have more orange . How about a cracker . Cracker cracker, ok. Cracker. How about a cracker . One. Hendrick real language is also the giveandtake interaction that occurs when people actually try to reach out and communicate with each other to let others in on what were thinking, what were feeling, and whats on our minds. Teacher what is it . What do you see . What do you see . What do you see . [laughing] what do you see . Listen at you, listen at you. Youre giggling. Youre giggling evelyn. Hendrick did you notice the way this caregiver used very high pitch and then varied the range of pitch from high to low . She also spoke slowly, distinctly, and she repeated words and phrases. This is so important because sometimes we forget that just because babies dont use formal language, that doesnt mean they dont understand exactly what were saying. By using a special form of language, adults help babies learn that there is a sense of mutual trust and interest, that taking conversational turns is important, and that by pausing and paying attention to the other person, we can respond to what theyre saying. Teacher hi he has not eaten this morning. He was a good little boy. Hendrick dont underestimate their comprehension. Children understand a lot of whats said long before they can reply in words. Talking about babies right in front of them and assuming they dont understand conveys a sense of disrespect to them. You wouldnt treat adults or older children that way, and we shouldnt do it to our infants, either. Teacher hi, cutie. Hiya were constantly singing and talking and showing and exploring. Thats a big word that we use in our room, is exploring. They are such little explorers, theyre learning how to do so much. And, you know, a lot of people say that babies arent talking, but they are. I mean, you can just see it every day. Their singing, their cues, when they smile at you. I mean, to me, that is talking, that is their way of showing me that theyre happy or even when they cry, obviously, they need something, and well change the situation to see what they need. Boy you know what . Im gonna go to the zoo and im gonna see all the animals. Youre gonna go to the zoo and see all the animals . Whats your favorite animal at the zoo . At the zoo. Can i come . What will we see there . Youll see lots of stuff in there. Lots of stuff . Like what kind of stuff . Cant look. Cant look . Ha ha hendrick i think the most vital thing to stress about Language Development is the value of conducting a true conversation with children. This means listening with sincere interest, responding in a way that will enhance and continue conversation, and allowing children time to formulate their ideas and answers. Waiting for replies is one of the most important things we can do to encourage language growth. In other words, we need to slow down and take time to really listen to what our children have to say. Teacher his father said, im afraid it wont come up. Girl hes watering it. Do you think hes going to water it . Lets see. Hendrick take a look at this classroom. Whats the first thing you see the teacher doing to help move the learning process along . Teacher do you think its gonna come up . [children talking] leah, you said yes. Why do you think yes it will come up . Girl because he pulled the weeds and watered. Maybe the carrot said, maybe those people dont know im going to come up. Hendrick how do you think this is helping her children learn to communicate not only with her, but with other children in the group . Once again, one of the best things we can do for our children is to listen to them. And i mean really listen. Ive seen a lot of teachers, especially those who are new and nervous, spend so much time talking or worse yet, answering their own questions that the children can hardly get a word in edgewise. Lets look for opportunities to give our children Something Real to talk about. Its so easy for a childs attention to wander when we expect them to talk about something abstract or vague or something theyve never experienced in real life. Childrens talk should be based on solid, real, livedthrough experiences. Teacher well, cocoons, what are you doing over here . Child this lives in the pond. Are you at the pond now . Yes, were working on the pond. Youre building a pond . Yeah. What kind of things live at your pond . [children talking] hendrick for example, asking children to discuss ways they could get water to the sandbox extends their problemsolving abilities while keeping the subject both real and relevant to them. Whats more, they can make it even more real by trying out their ideas to see if they actually work. Enhancing a childs Language Development doesnt mean that we have to be continually asking questions or even talking. We can encourage children to ask questions of each other and engage in interesting conversations among themselves. Boy no, you go to church first, then you go to chuck e cheese. Im not going to chuck e cheese, only to church. Girl where did you get that thing . Teacher can you tell us about it . See, i ran 4 miles. 4 miles . That is really far. So there was a lot of water in case we got thirsty. Oh, good. So they had water. Did you get to stop every once in a while . Yeah, and get some water. But there were sprinklers every time and we got to ran through them. Whoa and then ievery time when we got water, i splashed it on me. I bet that felt really good. Hendrick encourage conversation and dialogue between teachers and children. Theres so much more to Language Development than learning to name colors or objects on demand. The skills involved in discussion and conversation are vital, too, and we should give our children opportunities to practice these skills as well. Ask openended questions questions that require more than a yes or no answer. Teacher what did you get a trophy for . Boy i got it from bowling. Bowling. The bowling party. Hendrick questions where the teacher doesnt already know the answer. Teacher how do you know you can get a gold medal from ice skating . Hendrick answering openended questions presents excellent opportunities for children to generate speech and develop language, because theyre engaged in dialogue and sharing ideas rather than simply responding yes or no to a question. All creepin crawler right up to your chin, chin, chin open wide your little mouth but do not let them in, in, in [singing in spanish] give one great big clap [singing in spanish] place them on your lap, lap, lap hendrick a few words about bilingualism theres no finer way to honor a childs ethnic or cultural background than by welcoming and encouraging her to use her native language or dialect at school. Of course, sometimes this is easier said than done. In the real world, were often torn in two directions on this question. On the one hand, we want to make the child feel welcome and facilitate the childs learning as best we can by using language she can understand. On the other hand, it is also true that the United States is an englishspeaking country, and to get along in our society, children must be able to speak english and speak it well. But speaking english doesnt mean you have to give up speaking the other language. In todays world, speaking more than one language is an asset, and bilingual people are in demand and command good salaries, so it makes good sense to preserve this skill. Boy go to store. Teacher oh, youre telling me about the money that you might put in a little, teeny hole to get Something Special at the Grocery Store. Yeah. Yeah. Some food. Some food. And some. I dont know english. And thats english. Youre talking in english. You know how to talk in hungarian, dont you . Yeah. Yeah. Can you say hi in hungarian . Oh, youre going to say hi, wave your and hi. That says hi in hungarian or in english. Even when we are not multilingual and dont speak the childs language, we can at least learn a few essential words and phrases, including and most especially the correct pronunciation of the childs and familys names. Teacher can you say imoja . Children imoja. Uhhuh. And i help light the colorful kwanza candles. Do you remember when we talked about hanukkah . Hendrick the whole point of speaking and communicating with one another is to share, to bring us closer together, to open up and include others in our world, and vice versa. Teacher can you say kwanza . All kwanza. Can you say swahili . All swahili. Swahili is an african language, and those are african words. Teacher ok, ms. Anwati, are you ready . Take over, lets go. One, two, three. Go. Kumbaya hendrick the most important thing for children to learn about school is that its a place where they feel warm and comfortable, a place they want to come back to. Including songs and stories in the childs native language, using multiethnic pictures, and observing cultural customs not only honors the family by using the language and customs of the home at school, it also does much to foster the childrens language and communication skills. Kumbaya boy hey, thats charlies. Teacher wheres charlie . This is charlie. Whos charlie . That is. Whos that . Thats charlie. Is that you . Uhhuh. Oh, it is . Wow. Find your eyes. Are they the same eyes . Yep. Wow. It looks like this is a big kid. It looks like thats a big kid . You are a big kid. Hendrick but speaking is only one form of communicating. Reading and writing are also an essential part of the language process, and the preschool years play a vital role in laying the sound foundation of skills on which future literacy is built. Perhaps now is a good time to talk in more detail about the need and value of a new area of preschool learning we call emergent literacy. Emergent literacy means that in order to learn the arts of reading and writing, Young Children must first acquire Many Foundation concepts and strategies that will help literacy emerge. This foundation is just as important as the final strategies needed for actual reading and writing later on. Man friends, what does our chart say up here . Girl helping hands. Helping hands, and these are our jobs. Whats our first job that we have this morning . Children leader the leader. I need to pick a leader this morning. Lets see whose turn it is this morning. Boy me. This friend right here. Who is this . Look at this name. It starts with an mary. Who is that . Girl mary marys our leader today. What does sherrod start with, friends . Children s s. Sherrody, will you do the calendar for us today . All right, whats our next job . Girl fish feeder fish feeder, right. Girl yemisi how do you know thats yemisis name . Because it starts with a y. Because yemisi starts with a y. Girl and an m teacher can you read it to me . Read it to me. Hendrick an Emergent Literacy Program means setting up the environment and activities to inspire an appreciation for words, story telling, and communication in all their forms. But while reading lots of wonderful books to our children is essential, theres much more to literacy besides books. Man shall we read it . Lets read it. When i grow up, my job will be to go to school and to drink and eat. I will sell money if i pay money. If you go to the store, if you buy food. I can play on the big swing if i pay money. If you dont, youll have to go to jail. Its at central park. We can eat on a picnic. All right. Anything else . Hendrick we can also convey to our children how satisfying and useful the written word is throughout the entire day. We can do this by writing down childrens stories at group time, taking their dictation as they paint, helping children dictate and decorate letters to each other or to their parents, or adding written materials such as signs, phone books, and menus to their pretend play. Teacher are you ready for to write down what you see . What did you see . A purple. Girl cat a purple cat . Ok. Its going to say kimmy. Boy im going to play with chalk. Teacher ok, theres some chalk on the bottom. Boy im going to write my mom. Teacher youre going to write your mom . Ill write moms name, and you can draw a picture for her. Mom. Boy thats mine. Thats your mom. Hendrick they key point of emergent literacy learning isnt only that its so interactive, but that its so participatory. The children guide and help direct what they want to say, deciding with the teacher whats important to them, and what they want to talk about and describe. The message we want to communicate to the children is that learning isnt unpleasant work. It can have richly satisfying rewards. And its an individualized, internal process, not something that can simply be imposed or directed from the outside. Thats why its so important to provide our children with plenty of opportunities for experimentation with reading and writing. Drawing, scribbling. Pretending to read or repeating Nursery Rhymes without pressure from anyone to do it right or correctly. Teacher life is but a dream. Can you sing that again . Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream yay one of the most important things we can do to assist our children in their emerging literacy skills is to advise and encourage parents and family members to regularly read out loud to their children. Center time is important, but the home is where so much of the real and lasting learning tes place. Teacher went up to their bedrooms. Papa bear looked in his bed and its gonna sound good if you all help me in your great big papa bear voices let me hear you say, someone has been sleeping in my bed. Hendrick lets review some of the key ideas weve discussed in this program. Weve learned how we can foster childrens Language Development by really listening to them and waiting for their replies. We can provide meaningful and real experiences for them to talk about. We can encourage conversation by using openended questions, as well as having children talk to each other, not just to their teachers. We can honor and encourage the expression of each childs native language and culture while teaching standard english at the same time. [singing in spanish] teacher very good. Give yourselves a hand. Ok, hello song. Get your hello hands ready. Martine . Hello hands ready . Hello, hello, hello, how are you . Im fine, im fine, i hope that you are, too [same song in spanish] hendrick and of course, weve talked about how we can encourage the development of emergent literacy in our children by. Creating a classroom rich with printed words and materials; sharing the joy of reading; by using drawing, painting, and dictation to help give voice to our childrens stories and experiences; and most importantly, we can encourage parents and family members to share the pleasure of reading out loud to their children every day. Teacher he likes to play in the block area, and zack is the. Girl square. Square friend. What friend is this . Tiara. This is tiara, tiara fuller. And where does tiara like to play . The quiet area. Youre right. Shes hearing a story in the quiet area just like you like to do. And tiara is the. What . What friend . Duck. She is the duck friend. Hendrick these suggestions for encouraging childrens language are especially important when working with children who have special needs. Sometimes i even show them. I put my hands, put their hands on my neck and i say, feel that. Thats a voice. Thats sound, you know, thats talking. And i have their little hand up there. And if you do it to yourself, you can feel the motion. And they begin toi had one kid, at first he was so scared, and i kept saying, see, im talking to you, i want you to talk back to me. I was trying to get him to say apple. And the vibration from up here, he could feel it, and every yhe would not say it for a long time he just let me put my