What literacy resources do you have for Infants/Toddlers?
Question
Do you have any resources you would recommend for Early Literacy for I/T?
Answer
Yes! The time from birth to age three is the most important time for children to become literate and learn their native tongue (and a few others while they're at it). Here are a few simple things we can do to support language development at this stage:
- Have strong relationships based in positivity
- Tell them the names of everything in your home
- Explain what you are doing when you are changing them (before they're able to change themselves)
- Maintain an orderly/organized environment (don't overwhelm the visual field with too much stuff)
- Speak another language if you know one
- Sing songs
- Play music (not too loud, lots of varieties)
- Dance
- Recite poems
- Play games
- Read books aloud (and give them time to talk about what they see)
- Learn that words can be represented by pictures with Toddler Vocabulary Cards
- Go outside (great exercise for the eyes; supports visual development)
- Ask questions and invite them into conversations (they need lots of opportunities and inspiration to practice speaking)
- Limit (or completely remove) screens (bad for development of depth perception and children learn best from humans)
There are also a few videos and an article that might help:
- The Neuroscience of Language Development (video; first half is relevant for infants and toddlers)
- Practical Parenting to Support the Brain (video; includes specifics on language and lots of other things)
- Montessori Spoken Language Lessons (video; designed for preschoolers but most of the information is also relevant for younger children)
- Big Picture of Language Development (article)
We're also in the process of preparing our albums/teacher manuals for young children (infants/toddlers). Stay tuned for those!
We hope this helps!
