Enriching Early Literacy Experiences with Infants and Toddlers

Introduction Welcome to Enriching Early Literacy Experiences with Infants and Toddlers, hosted by the Center for Early Childhood Professional Development. In this course, we will discuss the theories on how…

Objectives At the end of this training, participants will be able to: Recognize the stages of language development. Define Self-Talk and Parallel Talk and implement both strategies in classroom. Identify…

Language Development Early verbal communication between infants often consists of unintelligible sounds. It’s important to let these dialogues play out. These early experiences are teaching babies a lot about communication…

Nativist Approach The Nativist approach to language development simply states that we are born with everything we need to learn and use language. This idea began in the 1950s but…

Social Learning Theory Research in the 1980s indicated that infants have the ability to differentiate any sound in any language but lose that ability by the end of the first…

Interactionist Theory The Interactionist theory is based on Lev Vygotsky’s theory of Psychosocial Development. Jerome Bruner, another American psychologist, expanded Vygotsky’s theory to language acquisition. Bruner proposed it is a…

Responsive Caregiving Responsive caregiving involves the creation of safe, structured environments with predictable routines and interesting materials to explore, and sensitive, caring and dependable interactions with consistent adult caregivers. The…

Responsive Care Giving Process Responsive care starts with the ability to recognize, read, and interpret cues from infants, toddlers, and twos. It is care that responds positively to a child’s…

Strategies for Responsive Caregiving, Interactions and Communication Click on the link below to access a handout with information about different strategies that promote responsive caregiving, effective teacher-child interaction, and communication…

Activity: What Do Responsive Caregiving Strategies Look Like in the Classroom? In this activity, you will choose the caregiving action that corresponds with the responsive caregiving strategy and drag the…

Mastering Language To master a spoken language, a child must learn basic sounds, how sounds are combined to form words, how words are combined to form meaningful sentences, what words…

Stages of Language Let’s go over the stages of language development for infants and toddlers according to the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2000): Sounds Crying, gurgling, and grunts—…

Culturally Appropriate Practice Language is influenced by culture and the way a person is raised. Keep in mind the following helpful tips regarding culturally appropriate practices:  It is important to…

Language Components Language is divided into five different components in the Oklahoma Early Learning Guidelines for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos (2011). Let’s review the standards and indicators for Communication Skills…

Receptive and Expressive Language in Young Infants (0-8 Months) Infants begin communicating with their caregivers at birth. They are comforted by familiar and soothing sounds and intently focus on faces.…

Receptive and Expressive Language in Mobile Infants (6-18 Months) Infants’ receptive language is far more refined at this age. They can understand much of what they hear. This is demonstrated…

Activity: Describing What Self-Talk and Parallel Talk Looks Like in the Classroom Self Talk and Parallel Talk activities help teachers and children develop their relationship. Teachers comment on a child’s…

Receptive and Expressive Language in Toddlers (16-36 Months) With this age group there is a rapid language acquisition. Toddlers listen, respond and gain new words every day. Receptive language also…

Caregiver Responses to Enhance Language and Communication Development in Infants *Although infants are tuned into language from birth, they learn language through interactions and imitation. A caregiver that encourages an…

Caregiver Responses to Enhance Language and Communication Development in Toddlers *As toddlers become more verbal and begin to use simple phrases, caregivers can use techniques to scaffold their language development.…

Activity: Extending Language Consider the following sample interaction where an early care and education provider extends the language of toddlers. Afterwards, you will need to record your thoughts and share…

Open-Ended Questions Open-ended questions have many possible answers. Rather than “Do you think the puppy is sad?” which can be answered with a yes or no, an open-ended question would…

Emergent Literacy The final component of Language Development is Emergent Literacy. Emergent Literacy includes all of a child’s early experiences that contribute to their ability to eventually learn to read.…

Promoting Literacy It is important to read, talk and play with children daily. A provider who promotes lots of play, reads lots of books, and talks a lot with (not…

Inclusion Infants and toddlers with special needs related to language can be successful in a traditional early care and education setting with the help of reasonable accommodations and supports. Making…

Activity: Inclusion Scenario After reading the following story about Kara and her son Phillip, choose two to three inclusion practices that might be appropriate for Phillip. Phillip is Kara’s quiet…

Creating Action Steps to Enrich Literacy Language development and emergent literacy are critical to success in school and life. The earlier a provider can set the course for this development…

Wrapping Up Children engage adults and each other in conversation that helps them explain and describe their world. They learn to express their thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs, to problem…

Resources The following resources are listed to provide additional information related to the practices presented in this course. Language Development Bridging the Vocabulary Gap: What Research Tells Us about Vocabulary…

References Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press; 2000. Dickinson DK. Putting the…

Post-Test Please complete the course post-test before continuing with the course.  Failure to complete the course post-test will prevent you from completing the course, earning your course completion certificate, and…

This is the final lesson of this course. Follow these steps to complete this course and receive your certificate: Make sure that you have completed all of the lessons in this…