Facilitating Speech and Language Development through Reading Aloud and More

Editor's Notes

• #3: I worked in Davis County School district until I got married in 2005. While there, I worked with a variety of disabilities including: language disorders, cerebral palsy, severe mental retardation, a variety of autistic children, articulation disorders, apraxia, traumatic brain injury, selective autism, fluency (or stuttering) disorders, and more. I also worked in a hospice care facility in Salt Lake, and got experience with St. Marks Hospital. It was in working with adults, that I realized my true passion lied with children. I was better at it, and better able to handle some of the tragedy that comes with SOME speech and language disorders. After I moved to SC and worked there for a year, I was invited to apply for a special position with their early intervention program. I was honored to get this position along with one other SLP in the district where we were responsible for evaluating, placing and developing treatment plans for all children entering the system between 3-5 years of age. It was during this time, I was nominated for SLP of the year.
• #4: After the birth of my first child, and completing my contract with the school district, I opted to say home with my children. It was a difficult and very personal decision, but one I haven’t regretted. I continue to stay certified, and keep my feet wet, but doing things like this, or helping friends and family with questions, evaluations, finding resources, and even developing a few therapy plans. Having my children has only amplified my passion for education and early childhood development. I recently participated in the Mrs. Utah pageant, where I was honored to receive the Listeners Choice Award. It was during this time I became familiar with the amazing company reading horizons. I was very impressed with their program and their community involvement, including these webinars. I am NOT an employee of Reading Horizons, but am happy to be working WITH them in educating parents, and spreading the love of learning and reading.
• #5: I want to let you know we are going to spend a fair amount of time on the ‘why’ in this presentation. The Primary reason for this is, if you feel the WHY is IMPORTANT, than you will actually DO the things that we discuss during this presentation. I feel if you don’t go out and DO some of the things we talk about, than my presentation has been unsuccessful.
• #6: Though we will be covering everything mentioned, we will be focusing a good majority of our time on how reading aloud can be so beneficial.
• #8: This picture could mean – give me cereal, this could mean give me ice cream, or soup, or mac and cheese
• #11: Most of the social implications of being able to speak are very obvious, but worth noting. Particularly with younger children, if they are able and willing to communicate their wants and needs, they will have less outbursts. They can also communicate WITH their peers about desires, or annoyances. This does not mean those with perfect speaking ability will have perfect behavior, but it does mean that if you give a child a way to express their feelings and desires, and unwanted circumstances, they have the opportunity to (and will sometimes choose to) use it.
• #13: (6:32) Though we ARE talking about the why and how of SPEECH AND LANGUAGE development, we are going to discuss slightly further the implications of reading, and why IT is so important. Because language development directly impacts reading development, keep the two inter related, as we discuss this next portion. That means that you need to have a good base of speech and language to do well in reading, but as you expose your child to reading aloud, you are going to increase those very skills needed. Once a child learns to talk, he will average as many as ten new words a day. Much of that pace is determined, however, by the amount and richness of the language he hears. Think of the things we do to try and ‘talk’ to our children. To my 1 year old – I talk like….. To my 3 year old I talk like…. It’s slightly better with my 4 year old but she is a fluent communicator now, and can already read. One of the EASIEST ways to increase the AMOUNT and QUALITY of language that my 1 and 3 year old hear, is by sitting down and reading them a book. It exposes the children to many new words that I may KNOW but don’t USE on a regular basis. I do want to highlight some of the significant impacts reading aloud in general can provide. One of the books I studied in graduate school was the Read Aloud Handbook – by Jim Trelease. Much of the next slides is taken directly from this book. He does a wonderful job compiling the very information I wanted to portray today in this portion of our presentation.
• #15: It was in response to growing lawlessness caused by the polarization between the rich and the poor in the 1830’s that compulsory education was born in Massachusetts. In the wake of public riots and lynchings, Horace Mann reasoned that the only way to close the cap between the top and the bottom is education. He said – This philosophy led to compulsory education in America. Obviously reading is the heart of education. The knowledge of almost every subject in school flows from reading. You must be able to read instructions and questions to be able to perform most tests in any area of education. You can not study unless you can write, read notes and books on subjects, etc. One could arguably state: Reading is the single most important social factor in American life today.
• #18: There are several studies that have been done on reading, but I wanted to highlight some I felt were extremely well done. The first was done in 1983 when a national commission was created and comprised of nationally recognized experts in how children develop, how they learn language, and how they learn to read. This group of professionals took two years to evaluate more than 10,000 research projects that had been don I the last quarter century in order to discover what works, what might work and what doesn’t work. When the Commission issued it’s report, Becoming A Nation of Readers, two declarations in it’s primary findings rang loud and clear:
• #20: One of the most comprehensive studies done internationally was done in 1990-1991 in 32 countries including Finland, the US, France, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Spain, Germany Etc. They assessed 210,000 9-14 year olds and determined which children read best. Two of the factors indicated that produced higher achievements around the world.1 – The frequency of teachers, 2- The frequency of sustained silent reading
• #22: So we know that reading aloud works, it not only helps develop language, but that in turn will help them be successful in many areas of life. Do we really not have 15 minutes a day? So what are some things we can DO while reading aloud to make it a more pleasurable experience for the children?
• #23: Decasper felt that infants might be able to recognize something they had heard prenatally. He asked 33 pregnant women to recite a specific paragraph of a children’s story three times a day for the last six weeks of pregnancy. Three different paragraphs were used among the women, but each woman used just ONE passage for the entire recitation period. 52 hours after birth, the newborns were given a special nipple and earphones through which they could hear a woman – NOT THE MOTHER reciting all three paragraphs. By measuring each child’s sucking rate during the listening period, researchers concluded the infants recalled the preferred passages their mothers had recited during the third trimester. Don’t feel if you haven’t started in utero, that you are at a loss. The general point of this information is that it is not too early to start reading to your child. BUT I do want to highlight the PRIME time to stimulate language. It is highly documented that children who are exposed to language, or a second language earlier on in life, have an easier time learning, than they do past age five. Discuss Neuroplasticity. Again, don’t get discouraged if your child is over 5 years old. Though the brain is more ‘plastic’ during that time, clearly children AND adults have potential for intellectual stimulation.
• #27: Once your child learns that first word, it is easy to then teach them multiple words that mean the same thing by using synonyms in similar places in the story. Prepositions can at times be difficult to learn on with two dimensional illustrations. With younger children learning these words can be helpful if you use the book itself. Remember learning LANGUAGE at that phase in their lives, is more important than reading the story word for word. Teaching language will better help them understand ALL stories.
• #29: Predicting a story before hand creates excitementProvide a demonstration with early learning book, and older book
• #31: Children’s storybooks are complete with idiomatic expressions (such as being a ‘crack up’), figurative language (heart cold as ice), and words with multiple meanings. To support students understanding ask questions when these come upShow demonstrations at each point
• #32: It is easy to become irritated by a child’s incessant questions – it is often felt it ‘ruins the story’ because sometimes questions can be completely off topic. Questions are a child’s learning tool, and we don’t’ want to destroy natural curiosity by ignoring or discouraging it.
• #33: Repetition is often seen as redundant and boring for adults, but this is not so for the child who asks for the same story, or same movie they have heard or seen a dozen times. When we strive to present the same stimulus over and over again, we maximize their opportunity to add it to their repertoire. Referred to as immersion
• #35: 4 mo – limited mobility, child has little or no choice to listen and observe. During this time any book will do, but remember repetition helps with immersion. Remember even infants 52 hours after birth responded to the paragraphs the mothers had read to them. Rhyme -
• #36: 6 mo – the child is more active at this point and wants to grab and suck on the book – though it’s OK to allow for book manipulation, and don’t give them the impression you don’t want them to touch the book – you can use a toy as a distraction to help give him something to do while he listens.
• #37: Simplifying the book – if there is a book that is slightly longer than their current attention span – you read the pages ahead of time to yourself and talk through the book rather than reading the story.
• #38: If you know the REASONS they become attached, you can understand what type of books to look for
• #41: Obviously 1-1 time would be wonderful to have with children daily. You should take those 15 minutes to read to your child, every day. If you set a schedule it helps both them AND YOU make time for it in your day. But there are other things you can do to facilitate language, WHILE doing the things you do every day.
• #42: Parallel talk – describing what your child is doing
• #43: You are going to get your children toys
• #44: ALL of the things I’m going to discuss CAN be good, but need to be monitoredChildren use pacifiers to sooth, and for infants in particular, it’s natural for them to want to suck to sooth themselves. BUT remember when they have them in for extended periods of time, they are not using their mouths for other things… like learning to talk.
• #45: Young children sit passively in front of the screen, oblivious to what is going on around him. Conversation during the program is rare because children aren’t motivated to communicate – they are motivated to be entertained. Children often won’t stop to ask questions about the material being covered, or when they do, sometimes parents aren’t familiar with what they have been watching, to be able to answer the questionIf the rate of language is based on amount and QUALITY – television largely consists of conversations that contain the same vocabulary words these children already know, few gains are made.
• #47: One common problem many devoted parents have is responding to their children without their child needing to talk. Kai’s hand signals for exampleSigns can be a GREAT starter for communication, but remember to move them forward. It takes less energy to say ‘drink’, than to move the whole arm/hand – so they will use the method that takes less energy once they learn it.
• #48: One common problem many devoted parents have is responding to their children without their child needing to talk. Kai’s hand signals for exampleOlder siblings wanting to talk for their siblings plus and minuses
• #49: American Speech and Language Association is my governing agency as a speech language pathologist.
• #52: This information represents, on average, the age by which mostmonolingual speaking children will accomplish the listed milestones.
• #61: Other trusted professionals – listen to recommendations given by educators and the physicians you work with, specifically the child’s pediatrician
• #64: Be cautious of all the websites that are available out there. These are two governing agency websites and I would go to them first.