Presenter’s Script



Presenter’s Script

Literacy in the Lives of Infants and Toddlers

• Slide 1 – Welcome participants to the workshop, and let them know that you will be talking about infant and toddler literacy development, and how to choose and read books at each stage.

• Slide 2 – Go over workshop objectives. (You may want to adjust these if you aren’t using the entire workshop or are adding your own content.)

• Slide 3 – We often think of lesson plans and curriculum kits for preschool curriculum, but for infants and toddlers it includes all daily routines and activities.

• Slide 4 – Ask participants to raise their hands if someone has ever asked them this, or if they have ever wondered it themselves. We need to understand how literacy impacts the daily lives of these very young children.

• Slide 5 – Infants and toddlers understand the words we say long before they can speak the words themselves. Even before they understand the actual words, infants pick up on the tone and emotion of what is said to them.

• Slide 6 – A newborn’s first form of communication is crying, and if caregivers respond to the cries, the baby develops a sense of trust and a reason to continue attempting to communicate – this leads to cooing, babbling, and eventually words.

• Slide 7 – Babies have to learn about the physical properties of books before they can be interested in the content of books, so mouthing, touching, smelling, and throwing books are all part of the learning process.

• Slide 8 – “Book speech” has a rhythmical quality that conversational speech lacks.

• Slide 9 – Writing is just as important to literacy development as reading, and infants and toddlers need lots of fine motor activities to strengthen their hands and fingers, so that they will eventually be able to hold a pencil and write letters and words.

• Slide 10 – You should never hear complete silence in an infant/toddler classroom if the children are awake. Caregivers should be talking to the children all day long, describing what is happening during routines and activities. Ask participants to imagine that they are at a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor comes in and starts doing a procedure, without talking to them or describing what is going to happen. How would they feel?

• Slide 11 – Tell participants that you are now going to go through the different age ranges and talk about how to use books with each age, based on what children can do at that age.

• Slide 12 – Child-directed speech is also referred to as “motherese” – the high-pitched voice we use with young infants. Research shows that young infants prefer this type of speech.

• Slide 13 – If you place books on the floor for the infant to see, make sure there is somewhere that he/she can look away if overstimulated or needing a break.

• Slide 14 – Black-and-white patterning is easiest for the young infant visually.

• Slide 15 – Infants in this age range start to practice the “give and take” of conversations by vocalizing, waiting for you to respond, and vocalizing again.

• Slide 16 – It is fine for the baby to mouth the book more than he/she looks at it; remember, they are learning about the physical properties of the book. Just make sure it is clean and safe to be mouthed.

• Slide 17 – Cloth and vinyl books are safer for mouthing – cardboard books eventually break down from mouthing and chewing.

• Slide 18 – Curiosity about cause and effect leads to ripping and crumpling of paper pages – they are not doing this to make you mad; it is all part of the learning process.

• Slide 19 – It is important to let the baby hold the book; if you try to keep it out of his/her hands or get upset when he/she doesn’t want to hear the whole story, the reading can become a negative experience. The focus should be on exploration at this point, not finishing the story.

• Slide 20 – Show the participants a Little Chunky book (one of the tiny board books). When you turn a page, the next page pops up for you to grasp, which makes page-turning easier for little hands.

• Slide 21 – Remember that they will understand more words than they can say.

• Slide 22 – Ask for a volunteer to help you demonstrate the 4-step reading process.

• Slide 23 – Lots of preschool books have been replicated in board book form (ie. The Eric Carle books). They will be labeled as appropriate for under age 3 because board books are safe for that age range, but the stories will be too long for infants and toddlers. If you do use these preschool board books, don’t try to read the whole story – focus more on labeling the pictures or saying some of the funny words, etc.

• Slide 24 – An example of a holophrase – the word “go” can mean “I want to go”, “go away”, “are you going to work”, etc. The toddler is being resourceful with his/her limited vocabulary.

• Slide 25 – Toddlers will often make a personal connection to the story by going to get an object (ie. If you are reading a story about a duck, he/she might go get a stuffed duck). They are making the reading more meaningful, and this should be supported.

• Slide 26 – An example of a theme book is a book with real photos of babies dressed up as different people (police officer, firefighter, etc.) and the job name labels each page – all the pages are tied together by the theme, but there is no plot.

• Slide 27 – Frustration often leads to toddler tantrums during this age range.

• Slide 28 – Make sure to give the child enough time to respond to your questions; a toddler who is hesitant at first will warm up to the process over time.

• Slide 29 – There are lots of board books that deal with the issues that affect the life of a toddler.

• Slide 30 – For this activity, have a variety of board books appropriate for the different age groups of infants and toddlers. Include some preschool books in board book format to see if the participants notice. Vary this activity to meet the needs of your group.

• Slide 31 – Imagination Library information.

• Slide 32 – Information about SIG.

• Slide 33 – Resources used to create this workshop.

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