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Introductory Video (Teacher Shahiqa & Teacher Humairah)

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Introductory Video (Teacher Shahiqa & Teacher Humairah)

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Shahiqa & Humairah's Padlet Introductory Video

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Comprehension refers to the ability to listen to or read and understand text. It involves thinking about and making meaning from print (NEL, 2013, p. 10). Comprehension strategies are thinking processes and they can be used before, during and after reading. There is no neat linear list or sequence of strategies. (Hill, 2012, p. 221). The resources below offers various applications and activities for children to encourage thinking and make meaning from reading with parents as facilitators as, “Merely decoding, without connecting to meaning, is not reading” (Hill, 2012, p. 216).

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A Shift in the Literacy learning approach- Multimedia Composing

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A Shift in the Literacy learning approach- Multimedia Composing

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Effective early literacy teaching provides preschool children with developmentally appropriate settings, materials, experiences, and social support that encourage early forms of reading and writing to flourish and develop into conventional literacy (Roskos, 2003). It is understood that literacy learning encompasses of different medias practiced in the new millennium as a way to keep up with proving the best forms of learning approaches and tools for young children to learn.

In Multimedia Composing, children combine writing with visual and aural multimedia in their school projects by using various software programmes. The advantages that such exposures in literacy would be that it's multilayered compositions provide strong simultaneous support in reading and writing. (Caroff, 1998). In Multimedia composing children are exposed to a lot of different forms of medias, such as digital photography, inspiration software, and PowerPoint, through such opportunities children could understand the concept of print further to help in their literacy learning.

In addition, children are introduced to learning resources such as Ipads, Smart phones and Laptops in helping to promote literacy skills through APPs, websites and videos.

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Literacy is reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing and involves the knowledge and skills required to engage in activities required for effective functioning in the community (Hill, 2012, p. 3).

This padlet offers various multimodal reading and viewing resources for parents to implement with children. Multimodal literacy refers to meaning-making that occurs through the reading, viewing, understanding, responding to, producing and interacting with multimedia and digital texts (Walsh 2011). These resources include teaching strategies and practices which supports our understanding of the content areas which we will be focusing on (print awareness, phonological awareness and comprehension).
Moreover, readers take on four roles (code breaker, meaning maker, text user and text critic), when they read and the Four Resources Model was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke. The four roles are integrated, and early readers need to understand and experience using all four roles in order to develop into fluent and flexible readers (Hill, 2012, p. 197).

Every child is different and they learn differently at various rates. However, adults play a vital role in facilitating their learning environment. Bronfenbrenner emphasizes that to understand child development at this level, we must keep in mind that all relationships are bidirectional: Adults affect children’s behavior, but children’s biologically and socially influenced characteristics- their physical attributes, personalities, and capacities- also affect adult’s behavior (Berk, 2013, p. 27). Hence, we believe that these resources would guide parents to scaffold children’s learning in literacy development. When children are provided with opportunities to interact with adults and peers as well as engage in meaningful literacy activities with purposeful instruction, they develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills that enable them to be effective communicators (NEL, 2013, p. 4).

Furthermore, this is explained and supported by the socio-cultural theory in Hill (2012), “This theory views community and family as having positive input into each individual’s literacy experience and development and argues that these are vital for each child’s literacy development. Vygotsky (1986), Heath (1983) and Halliday (1985) have all influences the development of the socio-cultural theory. Their theories relate to the significance of social interaction between an adult, assumed to be more knowledgeable, and child, and the connections between culture and learning which support assisted collaboration between adult and child (p. 386).

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This resource offers an app called ‘into the book’ which has interactive activities for children to predict and make connections and question before reading. This is related to the concept of comprehension before reading as children visualise what may happen in the book and make connections. This is further explained and supported by Hill, “The connections children make with books can be categorised into text-to-self connection, text-to-text connections and text-to-world connections. Text-to-self is a personal connection. Text-to-text is a connection to another book or movie and text-to-world is a connection to wider knowledge (2012, p. 223).

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Into the Book is a reading comprehension resource for elementary students and teachers.

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This resource offers a play-based activity with the use of a beach ball and some questions. As an outdoor play activity, questions can be written on all sides of the ball and children can throw it to answer the question that faces them when the ball lands. Parents/caretakers can ask questions about the story prior to reading it to the children. For example, if the storybook is about a child who is looking for a missing pet, questions such as 'have you ever had a pet' or 'how would you take care of a pet' could be asked to children in order to make connections to the book prior to reading it. Moreover, questions asked before reading extend children’s thinking and comprehension skills and this is supported by the role of a meaning maker in the Four Resource Model theory of Luke & Freebody. Before children start a new book, teachers can initiate conversations that connect the text to children’s prior experiences (Hill, 2012, p. 199).

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Play Story Ball: A Reading Comprehension Game | Activity | Education.com

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Take a beach ball, a marker, and a first grader. What do you get? An outdoor activity that works on reading comprehension, in the midst of a game of catch!

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This resource offers a video that shows strategies on reading aloud. This video is beneficial for parents/caregivers as it gives them an idea on how to read aloud in an engaging manner to children and this is related to the concept of comprehension during reading and is supported by Hill, “Reading aloud or shared reading supports many important areas including children’s vocabulary development, syntax, listening comprehension, print engagement and early reading behaviors (2012, p. 103). During shared reading or reading aloud, meaningful dialogues are exchanged between the caregiver and child. When questions that starts with “I wonder” are asked, it scaffolds children’s learning and this is supported by “The fifth and the most important of Vygotsky’s ideas is the zone of proximal development. The books read aloud may be paper- or screen-based; however, it is the way they are read to children and the interactions between the adult and the child that influence the outcome of shared reading (Hill, 2012, p. 103).

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Teaching Strategies for Early Childhood Education

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Strategies for Reading Aloud to Young Children

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This resource offers an interactive and fun application for children to reread books and listen to them read and this is related to the concept of comprehension during reading as this allows readers to rethink and recheck to ensure that they clearly understand what they have read. This is supported by Hill (2012), “We are often surprised when what we predicted does not occur in the text, so we reread, recheck and rethink. Beginning readers need to use strategies such as monitoring and correcting to ensure the meaning of what has been read is clear” (p. 225). Hence, through this application, parents would be able to monitor children reread their favourite books and listen to books being read from various audiobooks. Rereading old favourites is important, as children learn the books off by heart and then find it easy to match spoken words with the written word (Hill, 2012, p. 52).

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After reading- Making own books activity

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After reading- Making own books activity

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This resource offers an activity for children to recreate the stories they have read or their own stories. Parents can upload the existing drawings or story creations of children. Also, children are able to use the art pad to create something new. This is related to the concept of comprehension after reading as children are encouraged to recall the main ideas of the story and include them in their very creations. This is further explained by Hill (2012), “When young children are retelling the events of or the main facts in a text, the retelling is usually ‘reading on the lines’ or literal comprehension (p. 226). Apart from retelling, children can create their books as a personal response to the book read. As supported by Hill (2012), “Making personal responses to books is reading beyond lines and commenting beyond the book. Responding personally can involve discussion and writing about the text. It can also link books to the reader’s experiences and increase engagement with books” (p. 227). Moreover, children’s creativity is tapped on as they explore both digital and hand made ways to create their storybooks together with their parents.

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Developing book and print awareness helps children to understand the conventions of written English. Children need to understand concepts about books such as the title, author and illustrator of a book, the front and back of a book, knowing how to hold the book correctly, turning the pages one by one and from right to left as well as indicating where to begin reading (NEL, 2013, p. 7). This resource contains various activities and videos for parents/caretakers to implement with children.

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This resource offers a video for caretakers about shared reading approach to implement with children and this is related to print awareness (directionality and concept of books) which is a concept of reading and viewing. Shared reading is when big books are used to draw attention to conventions of print. This is further supported by Hill, “The focus for shared reading might be to learn how to read various text types, how to solve problems in identifying various words, or, at the sentence level, ways in which punctuation and grammar are used to communicate meaning (2012, p. 84). Big Books allow all the children to see the print and pictures, enabling them to participate actively in the reading of the story (NEL, 2013, p. 35).

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Shared Book Approach in Starlight English Language Lessons

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This resource offers an activity for parents to create by collecting two of the same prints for children in order to develop print awareness through an environmental print matching and sorting game. This is related to print awareness which is a concept of reading and viewing and this is supported by NEL (2013), “Children learn to recognise and ‘read’ environmental print through their many experiences with it. A child who points to a box of cream crackers and says “I want cream crackers” may be using the context (i.e. picture of cream crackers on the box, recognising the shape and length of the word) rather than using the letters to ‘read’ the word” (p. 48). Moreover, this resource would be able to bridge the connection between letters and first efforts to read for emergent readers and creates an authentic context to learn about print.

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Environmental print is the print we see everyday in the world around us in the form of logos and signs. Young children learn how to recognize this type of print first, its an important part of the emergent literacy process. What is Environmental Print? Recognizing environmental print is one of the beginning stages of l

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This resources offers an idea for parents on how to label the things in the children’s environment. This is related to print awareness (concept of text) which is a concept of reading and viewing. Labels help children understand that print has meaning and this is further explained and supported by NEL, “They also help children know where to store materials such as shelves for writing tools and building blocks of different shapes. Labels can be accompanied by pictures to help children understand the meaning of the labels” (2013, p. 50). As parents, it is important that a meaningful learning environment is built for children in order for them to develop holistically. Moreover, EYDF (2013) states that, "Good language models are necessary when children's speech and language patterns are being developed. Being immersed in a good language environment, both spoken and written, help children tremendously in their language development" (p. 30). This is further supported by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory in Berk, “Ecological systems theory views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment (2013, p. 26).

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labelling the house or school ==> my older daughter did something like this with my younger one to help her learn to read | Preschool printables | Preschool printables, Preschool labels, Kids labels

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labelling the house or school ==> my older daughter did something like this with my younger one to help her learn to read

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This resource offers a video for parents/caretakers on print awareness and reading aloud to engage with children which is related to the concept of reading and viewing. This is further explained and supported by NEL, “Print awareness refers to the understanding that print carries meaning for the reader and can be read aloud. Children develop concepts of print as they learn the structure of print (e.g. sentences are made up of words separated by spaces and words are made up of letters) and conventions of written language (e.g. in English, print is read from left to right and top to bottom)” (2013, p. 8).

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How to Teach a Child by Reading Aloud : Demonstrating Reading Aloud to Kids

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Expert teacher demonstrates reading a book aloud the correct way in this free child-development video series on how to teach a child to read by reading aloud. Expert: Ann Kennedy Bio: Ann Marie Kennedy is a certified teacher who has successfully taught in and out of the classroom.

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Phonological awareness refers to the ability to mentally manipulate words, syllables and sounds in spoken language (Goldsworthy, 2010). It is of high importance for us to expose children to strategies in helping them to be phonologically aware as an introductory step to reading. Phonological awareness also refers to how words and syllables can be divided into smaller units (Machado, 2010). In promoting phonological awareness, children are exposed to the use of phonemes, rhymes, alliteration, sound-matching and the list goes on.
Such pre-reading skills are building blocks for further reading success, it allows children to hear and manipulate sounds in oral languages and might help them in becoming better readers in the future. Without such basic literacy skills, children could struggle with reading at a later stage.

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This resource introduces an APP that helps to enhance children's phonemic awareness. Being aware of phonemes allows for an understanding that every spoken word can be conceived of as a sequence of a representation of the letters of the alphabet. This wonderful APP is packed with activities to help children in phonemic awareness such as on letter sound recognition and letter sound matching. When using this APP, children would also able to familiarize on letter recognition as an added bonus, this is vital in helping them in their early literacy stages. Alphabet knowledge refers to the ability to name the letters of the alphabet and recognise the letter symbols (both upper and lower case) in print. Being able to name the letters of the alphabet quickly and correctly helps children in learning to read words in the future (NEL, 2013, p. 8).

Phonemic awareness is the key to understanding the logic of the alphabetic principal and thus to learnability of phonics and reading (Snow, Burns & Griffin 1998, p. 52).

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See why this app immediately hit the #1 spot for Paid Educational Apps on the App Store! Filled with valuable program content, it was originally designed to sell for $59.99. Due to the overwhelming response, the authors have kept it at its low introductory price.

As powerful as it is fun, this uniquely engaging teaching tool is changing lives one letter at a time! Lively Letters - Phonemic Awareness and Phonics simultaneously trains critical skills for reading, spelling, and pronunciation of English language sounds. Unlike most phonics apps, this one is actually teaching, as opposed to just drilling. With proven strategies such as memory tricks, mouth and hand cues, humorous stories (English and Spanish), colorful pictures of characters embedded into letters, and songs, this multisensory, structured approach has been shown to help students of all ages and abilities, including the most resistant learners and those learning English as a second language. Targeting phonemic (sound) awareness, phonics, and speech production, the three unique teaching activities are based on the key techniques of the world-renowned, research-based program, Lively Letters, created by speech language pathologist, Nancy Telian, MS, CCC-SLP, and published by Reading with TLC. Used by over 15 million students and 75 thousand teachers globally since 1990, the Lively Letters program has been shown to quickly boost skills.

This long-awaited app, created by Penny Castagnozzi and Nancy Telian, can be used successfully on its own or as a supplement to the Lively Letters program materials. It can also be implemented by those with no Lively Letters experience. Although many aspects of this app can be performed independently by students, best gains will be made with some instructor/parent involvement. Some adults and older students can use it independently. The app includes progress monitoring and three activities: Flashing, Tracking, and Matching. Choose which letters and what types of letters to use (i.e., Lively Letters pictures versus plain letters and lowercase versus uppercase letters). Record and play back the students' voices.

Flashing: This activity introduces, drills, and tests the letter sound associations for the 44 English speech sounds, using the multisensory cueing methods that Lively Letters is so famous for. As the chosen letters flash in, students can hear the associated sound, the song, and the story (narrated in English by Marianne Nice, MS, CCC-SLP, or in Spanish by Angela Livingston, MS,CCC-SLP, TSSLD, BE). They can also see photos of the hand and mouth cues can practice printing.

Tracking: In this activity, students engage in the powerful Lively Letters manipulative word play, (tracking) activities. Here you simultaneously train phonemic awareness and phonics, while further practicing letter sounds and speech production. Students have fun building the critical phonemic awareness skills of sound blending, segmenting, and manipulation while learning how to sound out words of increasing length and difficulty for reading and spelling. In response to prompts from the instructor or parent, the student reads and spells new words, based on letter or sound changes made by the instructor. Students can enjoy the Lively Letters "Human - Alien" game where they choose whether each word was a real or nonsense word. Some alternate uses of the Tracking Activity include receptive drilling, printing of the letters, spelling to dictation, marking letter patterns, and dividing multisyllable words.

Matching: Here's a playful way to practice letter sound associations and speech production skills. This activity also offers opportunities to associate uppercase to lowercase letters and to transition from Lively Letters pictures to plain letters. Students have fun playing the classic Match Game, now using the letters and letter types chosen.

Let the fun begin!

Learn more about Lively Letters by visiting www.readingwithtlc.com.

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Thank you for supporting Lively Letters!

An extraordinary new app

Admittedly, I am a Lively Letters devotee and have used this enjoyable, unique and high effective program to develop reading and writing skills with students in preschool through middle school. Children love this unique, multi-sensory approach to learn their letter sounds and develop phonemic awareness skills - advancing rapidly in learning to read and spell words. Parents frequently ask me why this evidence based program is not used in their child's school to teach literacy skills!

The new Lively Letters app is quite impressive and well thought out. It is truly sensational in bringing together the basic and most important elements of Lively Letters in a user friendly electronic format that is engaging and well polished.

I anticipate that this app will be a highly successful advancing literacy skills.

I recently updated this extraordinary app and discovered that the sound quality for the unvoiced phonemes is improved and it runs with greater speed and ease. Keeps getting better and better. My students so enjoy this program and the app is the icing on the cake!

Worth EVERY PENNY and then some....

I'm a mom of two. One stronger reader and one weaker. They both LOVE this app! With letter sound stories, music, games and an opportunity to practice reading and spelling words... I couldn't be happier!! I will NEVER go back to flash cards again!! Can't relate at all to that previous poor review..... Have to wonder if they saw the same app I did or if they are disgruntled competition?? Hang up your flashcards and join the 21st-century... If My kids love this other kids will too.

Even better!

I'd heard a lot about this app so I bought it a few months ago. I still can't believe the amazing impact it has on my students. They're learning their letter sounds at such a fast pace and are enjoying the activities so much that they're literally begging to meet the next letter sound character! The huge amount of content you get and the results I'm getting make this app invaluable! It's even better than I thought!

Information

Seller

Telian-Cas Learning Concepts Inc

Compatibility

Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Copyright

© 2017 Telian-Cas Learning Concepts Inc

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.

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‎See why this app immediately hit the #1 spot for Paid Educational Apps on the App Store! Filled with valuable program content, it was originally designed to sell for $59.99. Due to the overwhelming response, the authors have kept it at its low introductory price. As powerful as it is fun, this uniq...

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This resource suggests parents/caretakers of a simple activity in helping to familiarize "Rhyming" to children through a game with simple music and engaging movements. Such simple yet meaningful activities could be conducted in the comfort of homes and are hassle-free. Research suggests that the knowledge of rhymes is related to the development of more abstract phonological skills and emergent reading abilities (Maclean, 1987). This Rhyming activity allows for children to be able to identify and produce rhyming words as a way to assess their rhyme awareness.

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This resource provides the opportunity for parents/ caretakers to introduce "Alliteration" as a part of helping children in their pre-reading skills through the use of a simple song. Alliteration occurs when two or more words of a sentence has the same beginning and initial sounds.
Children use their understanding to decode and recognise words families through words of the same beginning or ending sounds as early readers (NEL, 203, p. 7). In this video, parents are being guided with a catchy song which teaches on Alliteration which could be used to introduce alliteration to young children in helping them to be phonemically aware and to be able to read well in the future.

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Alliteration Song, Alliteration for Kids Song, Alliteration for Children by Melissa

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This resource provides parents with abundance of ideas on activities to help children with recognizing the idea of "Syllables" in being phonologically aware. Being introduced to Syllables allows children to be able to segment a word into syllables and into onset and rime (e.g. segment “cat” into /c/ and /at/) (NEL, 2013, p. 10).
This resource provides a large array of activity ideas for parents to introduce and further scaffold children's learning and understanding on blending and deletion of syllables in oral language which would help them in future reading progresses.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Looking for fun syllable activities? You've hit the jackpot!

Hamburger. Ham-bur-ger.

Macaroni. Mac-a-ro-ni.

Motorcycle. Mo-tor-cy-cle.

Did you know that the ability to break words into syllables is an important part of phonological awareness? Phonological awareness. That's a big teacher-y word, but it's easy to define.
Phonological awareness = the awareness of sounds within words
Kids need phonological awareness before they learn to read. That's why I'm sharing six fun ways to teach kids how to count syllables as part of our Get Ready for Kindergarten series. And here's some great news - counting syllables is fun!

1. Jump.

First, I used painter's tape to make a numbered ladder on the floor. My Four stood behind the first line. Then I held up a picture card (get them at the end of this post), and he jumped once for each syllable.

"Ham-bur-ger." He looked down to see what number he was standing on. That's how many syllables the word had.

He loved this and breezed through 24 cards in no time!

2. Sort pictures.

Next, I put the 1,2,3 and 4 syllable headers on our pocket chart. My Two handed her older brother one card at at time. He named the picture, breaking it into syllables as he did so. Finally, he filed the picture under the proper header.

I showed him how to clap the syllables, but he only needed to do that once. By saying each word slowly, he easily counted the syllables. "Cal-cu-la-tor. Four!"

3. Sort objects.

My Seven and Nine gathered toys for me that were one, two, three, or four syllables. Then I provided some sorting containers for my preschooler to sort them.

4. Manipulate.

Print these free cards from This Reading Mama. Then give your child small counters to move, one at a time, as he says each syllable. Have him count the manipulatives to see how many syllables are in each word.

5. Build.

Check out This Reading Mama's post about counting syllables with duplo bricks - you'll also get a set of free picture cards.

6. Clip it!

Just grab our free syllable clip cards, and have your child clip the correct number of syllables with a clothespin.

Get the free sorting cards below. You'll find a total of 48 cards, in three different formats - depending on how much ink you want to use. 😉 Make sure you select the pages you want instead of printing the whole document.
And there you have it - six hands-on ways to teach syllables!

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Get six hands-on syllable activities with free printables - perfect to get your little one ready to read!

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Limiting device usages- Alternate Activity ideas to Replace Screen Time 

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Limiting device usages- Alternate Activity ideas to Replace Screen Time 

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As much as we would want to include the use of multimodalities in supporting a child’s literacy development, as teachers and parents, we need to ensure that children learn to use devices in moderation. Although adults assume that children learn from TV and videos that they watch through screens, research has indicated that children aren’t able to take full advantage as much as they would through active and rich exchanges with adults. Anderson (2004) explains that younger children face a complex task in making sense of video as they can’t mentally represent the relationship between video images and real objects and people.

This resource acts as a guide to assist parents in coming up with activities for children to help in their literacy learning outside of the use of devices. This is supported by Tanimura (2004), whom suggests that the amount of usage of devices for viewing is negatively linked to their language development. Children who are heavy viewers tend to have attention, memory, and reading difficulties in the early school years (Christakis, 2004).

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It started with video-chatting, then a glimpse of an advertisement, watching his videos on mommy's phone, a funny cartoon on TV, The Lion King movie, and now he's on his own pressing buttons on an iPad.

On this post we will discuss:

The Consequences of Screen Time to Toddlers

Alternative Activities for Children Instead of Screen Time

Creating a Structure to your Toddler's Day

More Toddler Activity Ideas

Distracted Parenting

How much screen time is too much for kids?

The Consequences of Screen Time to Toddlers

The earlier children are hooked on screens, the more difficult it is to wean them off.

Screen time doesn't allow much room for critical thinking and problem solving as learning in the real world does.

A sedentary lifestyle for children leads to poor coordination.

The instant gratification environment of the internet shortens the child's attention span.

Let's get real here and let me admit that as much as I love giving Seb his toddler activities so he can veer away from screen time, I also have my guilty moments when I let a gadget babysit him for a while so I can do chores.

It is inevitable I tell you and please do not judge me for this. I believe that screen time is not bad. Depending on how you let your kid get exposed to it, It's a simple matter of balance, knowing when is too much and what to do about it.

We can immediately tell if our child has become too attached to gadgets. And this is when we draw the line and step up as parents, to take action and that means limiting screen time.

People vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com

Let me share my parenting ways to engage my toddler in activities that reflect real play. Wherein he gets to develop, learn and aid him to become school-ready and hopefully, to gradually cut back screen time.

1. Nature Walk

We do it in the morning or afternoon. And if we're having a good day we do both times.

It serves a dual purpose of exploration and exercise to us. My toddler gets his souvenir such as a rock, leaf, flower or stem of a tree.

His socialization skills are also practice from greeting the neighbors along the way.

This takes close to an hour or more depending on our route. Based from observation, we are extending our time longer as he had become more aware and curious of everything. He stops so often and lingers.

Babies are born with an intense desire to learn about their world, so they're highly motivated to interact with people and objects around them - the beginning of real play.

2. Art and Craft Activities

To enhance my toddler's fine motor skills, we do painting, scissor skills, pasting and more eye-hand coordination activities.

Also, to familiarize him with shapes, colors and the STEM concept.

He can't do it perfectly yet but what's important is his exposure to these things. Mommy still do most of the work but his messy add on and placement of materials on our project gives it a personality and uniqueness.

3. Sensory Play

There are so many things that you can use. It can be rice, beans, sand, soil, clay and others.

Since this is a messy activity, we do it before bath time which is another form of sensory play and my son's favorite too.

4. Storytelling

Before his nap we do story telling which only takes a while because he falls asleep easily as he's max out from his busy morning.

We do this at night too before bedtime when he is more relaxed and is able to answer my questions about the book we are reading.

I find this as the best time to teach him something new as well, because I know that he absorbed concepts more easily if taught during this time.

5. Literacy and Writing Activities

This is where we do teaching of basic concept lessons such as numbers, alphabet, words and more.

We use books, charts, flashcards and worksheets for this since toddlers are natural visual learners.

Crawl like a bug through this fun maze from Education.com! Find more educational games for all ages at Education.com!

One of the best resources for worksheets I recommend is education.com

They have a wide and great selections of lesson plans and worksheets for different ages, levels and concepts.

Another fun activity to do with your child is to customize your own worksheet. Making it together will make it more special and memorable.
Worksheet Generator | education.com
6. Singing and Dancing

Nursery rhymes and action words.

Singing is an excellent way to learn. Also, this will become your child's advantage once he's in school as they will be singing nursery rhymes in class often. While dancing gets your child's energy going and helps with his motor skills.

7. Let your Kid Play with Other Children

Real play outside. Where they can run, look at things together curiously, speak their own mumbled words and know each other better.

By playing together, youngsters learn to get along with other people. They discover how others' mind work, developing empathy.

Going back to the basics is essential, and that is real play.

8. Let them be bored

Creativity starts with boredom. We don't always have to make sure that they are doing something. They need to know independent play and down time. For this unstructured time that they begin to pick up a book, look at pictures more closely, explore their own curiosity and more.

Give your child some space and see what he does. It will surprise you of how far their imagination can go.

These activities are also good components in creating a structure to your toddler's day.

I will be realistic and tell you that this is an ideal concept. This cannot be done consistently on a daily basis. But making an effort to commit your child to this set of activities even twice a week will help them to focus, learn and be engaged enough resulting to less screen time.

Here are more Activity Ideas to keep your Toddler busy and learning. Please see related posts.
15 Developmental Activities To Do With Your Baby Fun Activities That Will Keep Your Toddler Engaged For A Long Productive Time Check out my own set of Printables too! Click here.
We as parents are their first teacher. Let's do our part in giving them the best tools in learning. Our time and undivided attention to see what they are doing.

Even me at times is glued to my phone's screen side by side with my toddler on his iPad. This is the common scenario of Distracted Parenting.

And lastly just for fun, Let's see if you can relate to this post 🙂

Let's focus and make this week count by packing it with toddler activities and parent-child bonding resulting to less screen time, okay?

Parenting, Kids and Screen Time

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Alternative Activities for Children Instead of Screen Time - Tribobot

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It started with video-chatting, then a glimpse of an advertisement, watching his videos on mommy's phone, a funny cartoon on TV, The Lion King movie, and now he's on his own pressing buttons on an iPad.

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Danger of screen time in young children 

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Danger of screen time in young children 

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This resource attached allows for parents to have further insights and understandings on the danger that high and frequent exposure to devices and screen timings without moderation could bring. Through this resource both parents and teachers could understand the importance of having a balance in the usage of devices to help in children's learning. Parents and teachers bear the most responsibility in regulating children's exposure to devices.

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Assessment is "the procedure used to determine the degree to which an individual child possesses an attribute" and it can be used interchangeably with measurement (Gullo, 2005, p. 6). Assessments can be conducted formally and informally by adults to gain understanding to a child's overall development and progress.

Mindes (2003), astutely sums up that the process of assessing a child's learning is equivalent to the process of gathering information to make decisions about their learning. The process is appropriate and fair when it is consistent, systematic and is based on the every day tasks that children are involved in. Assessments are done to identify a child's patterns of weaknesses and strengths and to determine how much they have progressed.

This resource provides a video in

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How to proctor a phonemic awareness assessment

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Practising Respectful Caregiving in Assessing Young Children

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Practising Respectful Caregiving in Assessing Young Children

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In assessing children's learning, teachers/caregivers must be sensitive to and recognise that some children may be at the beginning stage of their language development, learning the sounds, words and rules of a language that is different from the language they are familiar with and are used to. Teachers and caregivers can help to facilitate their understanding of the language by using simple sentences, speaking slowly and clearly as well as pausing between sentences (NEL, 2013, p. 32). This resource provides an insight and enlightenment on the understanding of the speech and language developmental milestones to understand the strength that a child possess and the areas that they might need help in.

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Children vary in their development of speech and language. There is, however, a natural progression or "timetable" for mastery of these skills for each language.

The milestones below are identifiable skills that can serve as a guide to normal development. Typically, simple skills need to be reached before the more complex skills can be learned. There is a general age and time when most children pass through these periods. These milestones help doctors and other health professionals determine when a child may need extra help to learn to speak or to use language.

Following are age-related guidelines that can help you determine if your child's speech and language skills are developing on schedule. You should talk to your child's doctor about anything that is checked "no."

Milestones related to speech and language

Birth to 5 months

Reacts to loud sounds

Turns head toward a sound source

Watches your face when you speak

Vocalizes pleasure and displeasure sounds (laughs, giggles, cries, or fusses)

Makes noise when talked to

6 - 11 months

Understands "no-no"

Babbles (says "ba-ba-ba" or "ma-ma-ma")

Tries to communicate by actions or gestures

Tries to repeat your sounds

12 - 17 months

Attends to a book or toy for about two minutes

Follows simple directions accompanied by gestures

Answers simple questions nonverbally

Points to objects, pictures, and family members

Says two to three words to label a person or object (pronunciation may not be clear)

Tries to imitate simple words

18 - 23 months

Enjoys being read to

Follows simple commands without gestures

Points to simple body parts such as "nose"

Understands simple verbs such as "eat," "sleep"

Correctly pronounces most vowels and n, m, p, h, especially in the beginning of syllables and short words. Also begins to use other speech sounds

Says 8 to 10 words (pronunciation may still be unclear)

Asks for common foods by name

Makes animal sounds such as "moo"

Starting to combine words such as "more milk"

Begins to use pronouns such as "mine"

2 - 3 years

Knows about 50 words at 24 months

Knows some spatial concepts such as "in," "on"

Knows pronouns such as "you," "me," "her"

Knows descriptive words such as "big," "happy"

Says around 40 words at 24 months

Speech is becoming more accurate but may still leave off ending sounds

Strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said

Answers simple questions

Begins to use more pronouns such as "you," "I"

Speaks in two to three word phrases

Uses question inflection to ask for something (e.g., "My ball?")

Begins to use plurals such as "shoes" or "socks" and regular past tense verbs such as "jumped"

3 - 4 years

Groups objects such as foods, clothes, etc.

Identifies colors

Uses most speech sounds but may distort some of the more difficult sounds such as l, r, s, sh,ch, y, v, z, th. These sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8

Uses consonants in the beginning, middle, and ends of words. Some of the more difficult consonants may be distorted, but attempts to say them.

Strangers are able to understand much of what is said

Able to describe the use of objects such as "fork," "car," etc.

Has fun with language. Enjoys poems and recognizes language absurdities such as, "Is that an elephant on your head?"

Expresses ideas and feelings rather than just talking about the world around him or her

Uses verbs that end in "ing," such as "walking," "talking"

Answers simple questions such as "What do you do when you are hungry?"

Repeats sentences

4 - 5 years

Understands spatial concepts such as "behind," "next to"

Understands complex questions

Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult, or complex words such as "hippopotamus"

Says about 200 - 300 different words

Uses some irregular past tense verbs such as "ran," "fell"

Describes how to do things such as painting a picture

Defines words

Lists items that belong in a category such as animals, vehicles, etc.

Answers "why" questions

5 years

Understands more than 2,000 words

Understands time sequences (what happened first, second, third, etc.)

Carries out a series of three directions

Understands rhyming

Engages in conversation

Sentences can be 8 or more words in length

Uses compound and complex sentences

Describes objects

Uses imagination to create stories

How do speech and language normally develop?

The most intensive period of speech and language development for humans is during the first three years of life, a period when the brain is developing and maturing. These skills appear to develop best in a world that is rich with sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to the speech and language of others.

There is increasing evidence suggesting that there are "critical periods" for speech and language development in infants and young children. This means that the developing brain is best able to absorb a language, any language, during this period. The ability to learn a language will be more difficult, and perhaps less efficient or effective, if these critical periods are allowed to pass without early exposure to a language. The beginning signs of communication occur during the first few days of life when an infant learns that a cry will bring food, comfort, and companionship. The newborn also begins to recognize important sounds in his or her environment. The sound of a parent or voice can be one important sound. As they grow, infants begin to sort out the speech sounds (phonemes) or building blocks that compose the words of their language. Research has shown that by six months of age, most children recognize the basic sounds of their native language.

As the speech mechanism (jaw, lips, and tongue) and voice mature, an infant is able to make controlled sound. This begins in the first few months of life with "cooing," a quiet, pleasant, repetitive vocalization. By six months of age, an infant usually babbles or produces repetitive syllables such as "ba, ba, ba" or "da, da, da." Babbling soon turns into a type of nonsense speech (jargon) that often has the tone and cadence of human speech but does not contain real words. By the end of their first year, most children have mastered the ability to say a few simple words. Children are most likely unaware of the meaning of their first words, but soon learn the power of those words as others respond to them.

By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By age two, most are putting words together in crude sentences such as "more milk." During this period, children rapidly learn that words symbolize or represent objects, actions, and thoughts. At this age they also engage in representational or pretend play. At ages three, four, and five, a child's vocabulary rapidly increases, and he or she begins to master the rules of language.

What should I do if my child's speech or language appears to be delayed?

You should talk to your family doctor if you have any concerns about your child's speech or language development. The above checklist should help you talk about your concerns. Your doctor may decide to refer you to a speech-language pathologist, a health professional trained to evaluate and treat people who have speech, language, voice or swallowing disorders (including hearing impairment) that affect their ability to communicate. The speech-language pathologist will talk to you about your child's communication and general development. He or she will also evaluate your child with special speech and language tests. A hearing test is often included in the evaluation because a hearing problem can affect speech and language development.

Depending upon the test results, the speech-language pathologist may suggest activities for home to stimulate speech and language development. These activities may include reading to your child regularly; speaking in short sentences using simple words so that your child can successfully imitate you; or repeating what your child says, using correct grammar or pronunciation. For example, if your child says, "Ball baybo" you can respond with, "Yes, the ball is under the table." This allows you to demonstrate more accurate speech and language without actually "correcting" your child which can eventually make speaking unpleasant for him or her.

The speech-language pathologist may also recommend group or individual therapy or suggest further evaluation by other health professionals such as an audiologist,a health care professional who is trained to identify and measure hearing loss, or a developmental psychologist.

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Speech and Language Developmental Milestones

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Children vary in their development of speech and language. There is, however, a natural progression or "timetable" for mastery of these skills for each language. The milestones below are identifiable skills that can serve as a guide to normal development. Typically, simple skills need to be reached before the more complex skills can be learned.

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Further Insights on The Development of Phonological Skills

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Further Insights on The Development of Phonological Skills

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This resource consists of articles on further explanations on the development of phonological skills in young children. Through this resource, parents and caregivers could further understand the importance of strengthening phonological skills in assisting them to be better readers. It is important for parents/caregivers to be informative on such areas for a strong partnership between schools and homes.

A strong home-school partnership can eliminate unwanted stress while helping to build bridges between the cultures at home and in-school cultures. As suggested by the Ecological Theory of Bronfenbrenner, the Microsystem and the Mesosystem involved around the lives of children must work well with one another for their good and holistic development. (Freeman & Powers-Costello, 2011).

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Phonological skill develops in a predictable progression. This concept is important, as it provides the basis for sequencing teaching tasks from easy to more difficult. Table 1 outlines the relative difficulty of phonological awareness tasks. Table 2 is a more specific synthesis of several research reviews and summaries (Adams et al., 1998; Gillon, 2004; Goswami, 2000; Paulson, 2004; Rath, 2001) that ties specific ages to the typical accomplishment of those phonological awareness tasks.

Prerequisite to phonological awareness is basic listening skill; the acquisition of a several-thousand word vocabulary; the ability to imitate and produce basic sentence structures; and the use of language to express needs, react to others, comment on experience, and understand what others intend.

Table 1. Phonological skills, from most basic to advanced

Word awareness

Tracking the words in sentences.

Note: This semantic language skill is much less directly predictive of reading than the skills that follow and less important to teach directly (Gillon, 2004). It is not so much a phonological skill as a semantic (meaning-based) language skill.

Responsiveness to rhyme and alliteration during word play

Enjoying and reciting learned rhyming words or alliterative phrases in familiar storybooks or nursery rhymes.

Syllable awareness

Counting, tapping, blending, or segmenting a word into syllables.

Onset and rime manipulation

The ability to produce a rhyming word depends on understanding that rhyming words have the same rime. Recognizing a rhyme is much easier than producing a rhyme.

Phoneme awareness

Identify and match the initial sounds in words, then the final and middle sounds (e.g., "Which picture begins with /m/?"; "Find another picture that ends in /r/").

Segment and produce the initial sound, then the final and middle sounds (e.g., "What sound does zoo start with?"; "Say the last sound in milk"; "Say the vowel sound in rope ").

Blend sounds into words (e.g., "Listen: /f/ /ē/ /t/. Say it fast").

Segment the phonemes in two- or three-sound words, moving to four- and five- sound words as the student becomes proficient (e.g., "The word is eyes. Stretch and say the sounds: /ī/ /z/").

Manipulate phonemes by removing, adding, or substituting sounds (e.g., "Say smoke without the /m/").

Table 2. Ages at which 80-90 percent of typical students have achieved a phonological skill

4

Rote imitation and enjoyment of rhyme and alliteration

pool, drool, tool
"Seven silly snakes sang songs seriously."

5

Rhyme recognition, odd word out

"Which two words rhyme:
stair, steel, chair?"

Recognition of phonemic changes in words

" Hickory Dickory Clock. That's not right!"

Clapping, counting syllables

5½

Distinguishing and remembering separate phonemes in a series

Show sequences of single phonemes with colored blocks: /s/ /s/ /f/; /z/ /sh/ /z/.

Producing a rhyme

"Tell me a word that rhymes with car." ( star)

Matching initial sounds; isolating an initial sound

"Say the first sound in ride (/r/); sock (/s/); love (/l/)."

6

Compound word deletion

"Say cowboy. Say it again, but don't say cow."

Syllable deletion

"Say parsnip. Say it again, but don't say par."

Phoneme segmentation of words that have simple syllables with two or three phonemes (no blends)

"Say the word as you move a chip for each sound."

6½

Phoneme segmentation of words that have up to three or four phonemes (include blends)

"Say the word slowly while you tap the sounds."

Phoneme substitution to build new words that have simple syllables (no blends)

"Change the /j/ in cage to /n/.
Change the /ā/ in cane to /ō/."

7

Sound deletion (initial and final positions)

"Say meat. Say it again, without the /m/."
"Say safe. Say it again, without the /f/."

8

Sound deletion (initial position, include blends)

"Say prank. Say it again, without the /p/."

9

Sound deletion (medial and final blend positions)

"Say snail. Say it again, without the /n/."
"Say fork. Say it again, without the /k/."

Paulson (2004) confirmed the hierarchy of phonological skill acquisition in 5-year-olds entering kindergarten. Only 7 percent of 5-year-olds who had not yet had kindergarten could segment phonemes in spoken words. The production of rhymes was more difficult for 5-year-olds than commonly assumed, as only 61 percent could give a rhyming word for a stimulus. Only 29 percent could blend single phonemes into whole words. Although some young students will pick up these skills with relative ease during the kindergarten year - especially if the curriculum includes explicit activities - other students must be taught these metalinguistic skills directly and systematically.

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West.

For more information on Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) visit Voyager Sopris .

For any reprint requests, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Basic listening skills and "word awareness" are critical precursors to phonological awareness. Learn the milestones for acquiring phonological skills.

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Padlet References (Shahiqa Sadaf & Nur humairah Bte Mansoor)