Building Narrative Skills

Narrative skills are an essential component of the early literacy skills children need to have in order to be able to read and write. Narrative skills are all about storytelling – being able to describe things, tell events in order and retell stories. The ability to do these things helps children understand what they hear when you read to them and will help with reading comprehension later on.

Here are some ways you can help your child develop narrative skills:

· Ask questions that encourage conversations rather than yes/no or right/wrong answers. Instead of, "Do you have your shoes on?" ask "Where are your shoes?"

· Talk about your day and its series of events. Narrate your actions in simple terms. You could say "First we’ll eat breakfast, then we’ll brush our teeth, and then we’ll get dressed and go to the park."

· Retell familiar stories without the book.

· When reading a story, guess what comes next – or come up with a different ending.

· Read stories without words. This is great for developing narrative skills!

· Read a story and let your child retell it, act it out, or draw it and explain the drawing.

· Have your child talk about what he knows and retell real-life events ("What did you do this morning?").

· Use props to retell a story – you can use puppets, toys, and even cardboard boxes!

· Ask your child to tell you a story.

· Have your child tell you about pictures she draws.

· As your child gets older, label not just things but also actions, feelings, and ideas. Talk about your own feelings. Use words to say what your child might be feeling. 

Guest post by Allison C.

Print Awareness

Print awareness is one of the six early literacy skills necessary for a child to have in order to be ready to learn to read. Print awareness is noticing print everywhere, understanding how to hold a book properly, and understanding that the words and letters on the page have meaning.

Children have to understand how a book works before they can be ready to read. They should know that books have front and back covers, are held a certain way, and that you read from the top of the page down and left to right (in English). They need to know that the words have meaning and that the words and pictures work together to tell the story.

Here are some ways you can help your child develop print awareness:

· Start babies out with soft padded books or board books with rounded corners that they can grasp and chew. It’s important for babies to explore books with all of their senses.

· Point to the words in the book as you read.

· Let your child turn the pages as you read.

· Turn the book upside down and see if your child notices. If not, tell him it was not the right way for reading and turn it right-side up.

· Point out signs as you are out and about and read them to your child.

· Point out print wherever you find it – cereal boxes, restaurant menus, recipes, shopping lists, etc.

· Play “I Spy” with words you see while driving (for example “I spy an M” as you near a McDonald’s).

· Read to your child every day.

These are just a few ideas to help your child develop print awareness. The more your child is exposed to print, the more she will see how print is all around us and used in our lives every day.

Guest post by Allison C.

Building Early Literacy Skills with Preschoolers

Recently I came across a great early literacy article online entitled "5 Tips To Build Language & Early Literacy Skills With Preschoolers During Book Reading." Written by Sarah Holden, a speech-language pathologist who has worked with children in both private practice and in schools, the article recognizes the “hurry up” nature of modern life and the push for teaching children to talk and read faster and earlier. The author advocates for slowing down and spending time on developmentally appropriate early literacy and language skills that are foundational to reading.

The article gives the following five simple tips to remember when reading to children:

· Slow down – Read just one or two books at a nice pace instead of rushing through four or five. Children need time to process the words being read. Take time to look at the pictures, ask questions, talk about the story.

· Be dramatic – Use your voice to highlight new vocabulary. Point to the pictures as you read a new word. If the word isn’t depicted by the illustration, make the word come alive with actions and gestures.

· Re-read – Children need to hear new words more than a couple of times to increase their vocabulary, and children with the richest vocabularies become the best readers. It may drive you crazy to read the same story over and over, but it is good for your child!

· Describe often/ask questions occasionally – Ask questions that encourage your child to predict, describe, and make inferences about the characters' thoughts and feelings instead of yes or no questions. For example, you can ask "What do you think will happen next?" before turning the page. Spend more time talking about and commenting on the story than asking questions. You can predict what happens next, relate something in the story to your own life, relate a character from the story you’re reading to one from a book you read previously, etc.

· Draw attention to the words – Call your child’s attention to the words in the story. Read the title of the book and point to it. Point out words in bold or color or large type in the text. This will help your child understand that the words on the page have meaning (print awareness) and that oral and written language are connected.

These are just the highlights from the article. For more information, the full article can be found here.

Guest post by Allison C.

What Are Early Literacy Skills?

Research has shown that there are six early literacy skills that give children a head start in reading readiness. These skills are print motivation, print awareness, narrative skills, vocabulary, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness. Print motivation, which is being interested in and enjoying reading, and is a skill that can be developed from birth. Here are some ideas to encourage that love of books and reading in your child:

Read aloud, early and often! The primary goal of reading aloud to children in the first three years of life is to encourage them to love books. Keep books in the car and diaper bag to be ready to read anytime, anywhere. Keep books in your child’s toy area for your child to explore.

Keep storytime informal. Young children have short attention spans and can sit still for only a few minutes. It’s okay to not finish a book if your child gets fussy or isn’t enjoying it. Reading shouldn’t be forced. You want your child to associate books with happiness, not stress. Reading should be fun for both of you!

Read at your child’s pace. Some kids will zoom through a book and others will want to spend lots of time on each illustration. It’s okay to skip pages or read the same page (or look at the same picture) over and over again. You might even want to take a picture walk through the book, just looking at and talking about the illustrations. You can tell the story or have the child tell the story from the pictures.

Choose age-appropriate books, and let your child help choose when he/she is old enough. Babies like books with large, high-contrast pictures and very simple stories. Babies learn through touch and will enjoy board books and touch-and-feel books like Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt or the That’s Not My… series by Fiona Watt. Toddlers like books about animals, nursery rhymes and other rhyming books, and books with repetitive language. They also like interactive books like lift-the-flap and pop-up books. Preschoolers will enjoy more advanced books with longer stories and a plot. They love silly or funny books like Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series.

Last but not least, let your child see you reading on a regular basis. Babies and young children are very interested in what their parents are doing and want to imitate them. Seeing you read can motivate your child to want to read too!

Guest post by Allison C. 

What Are Early Literacy Practices?

While you are in the library or at a child care center, you may hear teachers and librarians talking about early literacy practices and skills that will help your child get ready to read in the future. You know that these are important, but what are they? The five early literacy practices are talking, reading, writing, playing, and singing. These activities will help your child learn all of the skills necessary to read. There are six skills that these practices help your child build. These are print motivation, having an interest in books, print awareness, knowing how to read a book and the realization that print is everywhere in our lives, letter knowledge, knowing that letters are different from each other and knowing their shapes, names, and sounds, vocabulary, knowing all kinds of words, phonological awareness, hearing the smaller sounds that make up words, and narrative skills, describing things or events, telling stories, knowing the order of events, and making predictions during a book.

During storytime, we will always give you an early literacy tip so you can have ideas on how to implement these practices and skills at home. We also hold a program called Every Child Ready to Read several times throughout the year to give you more ideas. If you would like to read about these skills on your own, we own several books that will give you even more ideas and activities, including Preparing Children for Reading Success: Hands-On Activities for Librarians, Educators, and Caregivers by Julia Irwin, which is packed full of activities and recommended reading for certain skills. As always, if you’re looking for help, don’t be afraid to ask us! We are always willing to help you find resources.

Guest post by Sarah H. 

Hello...Can You Hear Me?

If you sung this post’s title instead of reading it, then I can only assume that you are under the same Adele spell that took hold of me from the very first time I heard that glorious song. Seriously, I know it’s played everywhere constantly, has been spoofed on Saturday Night Live, and remade with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots using classroom instruments (my personal favorite), but I CAN’T GET ENOUGH. So, you can imagine just how thrilled I was to realize that I could get Adele’s new album, “25,” for FREE! Yes, I’m talking about the same album that is featured in Target commercials as a critical Black Friday purchase. No, it doesn’t involve being trampled by crazed bargain-hunters. Yes, I said free. And, yes, you can have it too. All you need is your library card!

If you’re not familiar with Freegal, a fabulous music service provided by our library, it’s time to change that! With your library card, you can download five songs each week to your computer and/or smartphone from Freegal’s massive music directory. Unlike most things you check out from the library, these songs are yours forever. So, that means you can download almost half of Adele’s new album right now (or more, if more than one family member has a library card!). Now, THAT’S something for which we can all be thankful this Thanksgiving!

If you want some more tips on other life-changing library services, check out my Top Ten post from last Thanksgiving here.

And if you’re wondering what Adele has to do with early literacy, you bring up a great question...But, I have an answer! Singing with your children is one of the five early literacy skills that we promote at the library. So, if you’re singing Adele’s songs (or one of the many children’s songs found in Freegal’s catalog), you’re helping to improve your child’s early literacy skills. See? I wouldn't let you down! J Have a safe, happy, and music-filled Thanksgiving!

Take a Walk...A Picture Walk!

Picture walks are a great way to introduce a new book to your child and at the same time, improve his language and literacy skills. Picture walks are basically just a conversation between you and your child about the book. Here are some key components of a successful picture walk:

-Look at the cover and talk about the author/illustrator and what those words mean. Ask your child to guess what the book will be about.

-Ask your child to look at the pictures and to describe what’s happening. Have him predict what will happen next.

-When your child answers a question, rephrase his answer, adding more words to it.

-If you see any new vocabulary words, point them out and explain what they mean. Use them in a sentence to reinforce the new knowledge.

-Encourage your child to make real-world connections between the book and experiences that he’s had.

The Search for the Perfect App

These days, trying to keep kids away from the latest technology is like trying to keep them from jumping in a puddle on a rainy day; it’s pretty difficult, folks. Even our littlest children are constantly surrounded by smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more, and they don’t want to miss out on the action. Though there has been much controversy over issues of age restrictions and screen-time limitations, the idea that it’s okay for young kids to use gadgets is becoming more and more common. In fact, some experts are suggesting that learning apps, along with proper supervision, can actually be good for kids and can improve early literacy skills and school-readiness among some children (click here to see a recent article on this topic).

This begs the question: What are the best learning apps for kids? Since new apps are being created practically every second, it’s hard to keep up. Luckily for us, there are all sorts of online resources that provide current information on the best apps for kids. I looked around and found some of my favorites to share with you. All of these sites provide easy-to-find and really beneficial information about apps, allowing you to search by age, topic, price, etc. Hopefully they’ll help you navigate through the millions of available children’s apps and find ones that are both fun and educational for your little ones!

Children’s Technology Review

Smart Apps for Kids
Parents’ Choice
Teachers with Apps
A Matter of App

GET OUT! No, Really, Get Out.

Spring might not officially start until next week, but for those of us here in Ohio, where the winter has been long and fierce, the 50-degree temperatures that we’re seeing this week make us want to run outside in shorts and t-shirts and jump for joy! I’m sure that a much-needed trip to the park is on the schedule of many families with little ones who’ve been cooped up for the last several months. This is the one time of the year that I won’t be offended if parents choose a trip to the park over a visit to the library. ;)

Seriously though, playing is actually one of the best ways for kids to learn language and literacy skills. This may sound too good to be true, but it’s just good AND true! For one, pretend play helps children think symbolically. The ability to imagine that a swing is a rocket ship or a little brother is a dinosaur allows kids to use their imagination when listening to stories and even helps them to tell their own stories. Plus, the ability to understand that one thing can stand for another helps children realize that written words can represent real objects. That’s an important idea for pre-readers to grasp.

After a trip to the park, encouraging children to talk about their experiences—what they did there, what their favorite parts were, what they might do next time—helps them develop narrative skills.

So, thaw out and do some playing, and then remember to come back to the library to visit us again soon!

Dialogic Reading: How to Make Book-Sharing Even More Effective

Reading to your children is the absolute best way to prepare your little ones for later reading success. Research has shown, however, that the way in which you read to your children is just as important as the frequency with which you read to them.

Dialogic reading is a proven-effective method of reading in which adults prompt children with questions and engage them in discussions while reading to them. It encourages parents to go beyond just reading the words on the page. By asking questions, expanding on children’s responses, encouraging them to retell stories, and restating the names, objects, and events in the book, dialogic reading helps young children build and reinforce the basic language and literacy skills that will make them successful readers down the road.

For more information on dialogic reading and a step-by-step guide on how you can try it with your children, check out this article by Grover J. Whitehurst, whose research is the basis for dialogic reading. 

Happy Holidays!

Who doesn’t love a little holiday music to get in the spirit of the season? If you haven’t already, try teaching your kids some of your favorite holiday tunes. Singing is an important early literacy skill because it slows down language, allowing children to hear the smaller sounds in words. If you need a little inspiration, check out some of our library's great holiday music.

So, whether you’re on the road traveling or enjoying the holiday at home, try giving those vocal cords a workout! I hope all of you have a safe, joyous holiday with your families!

Follow Their Lead

Print motivation, defined as a child’s interest in and enjoyment of books and reading, is an important literacy skill for children to develop in order to become successful readers. That’s right; something as simple as making reading enjoyable can have a huge impact on your child’s reading success.

One way to foster your child’s print motivation is to make sure that when you read together, your child is in the right frame of mind—alert, not too tired, not too active. Reading often is certainly a key component to reading success, but when reading to your youngster, quality is more important than quantity. It’s normal to want to make sure to read for those recommended twenty minutes each day, but if your child is resistant, it’s better to not force it. Instead, read for shorter amounts of time throughout the day—even thirty seconds is okay, if that’s what your child’s mood/behavior dictates. Research has shown that if the interaction around books is negative, with impatient words and negative feelings, then the child will associate reading with a negative feeling. This could have long-term effects on your child’s reading success. So, the more you and your child share books and talk, the better, but just make sure that you’re doing it when it can be a positive experience for everyone!

Literacy on the Go!

 

Print awareness includes the understanding that print has meaning and the idea that print is all around us. Not surprisingly, it’s a tremendously important pre-reading skill. It’s also a skill that you can foster while you’re going about your busy life. Next time you’re in the car, point out traffic signs and store signs/symbols. While you’re waiting in the doctor’s office or in line at the grocery store, check out the signs and labels, pointing out what they say and what they mean. All of this will help your child see the relationship between the written and spoken word, an important skill for a pre-reader.

 

You don’t have to be home and reading a book with your child to help him develop early literacy skills. This is just one of the many things that busy parents can do to help advance and reinforce these skills while you’re on the go!

Play with a Purpose!

 

When promoting early literacy, the five practices are key—talking, reading, writing, singing, and playing. Playing is one thing that, as parents, you are constantly doing with your children. Thank goodness, too, because that interaction is incredibly important on so many levels. Even though play of any kind is beneficial, you can target certain areas of development by playing with a purpose in mind. Here are some ideas to reinforce different early literacy skills:

Phonological Awareness (hearing the smaller sounds in words): Play rhyming games with your child. Take turns thinking up words that rhyme with a chosen word. Or, play I Spy, giving clues like, “I spy something blue that rhymes with _______.”

Vocabulary: When your baby’s playing with a toy, use descriptive words to tell her what it is, how it looks, how it feels, etc. Hearing those new words will be a huge vocabulary-booster.

Print Awareness (knowing that print is everywhere and understanding that it has meaning): When you’re engaging in pretend play, make a menu for your restaurant or make labels for items in your pretend grocery store. This will help your child understand that the written words represent something else.

Letter Knowledge: Play with blocks of various color, shape, and size, and practice categorizing them. This will help your child when she starts trying to distinguish between different letters.

Narrative Skills: Act out stories together. You can even jazz it up by adding puppets or props. This is great storytelling practice for your little one.

Print Motivation (interest in/enjoyment of books and reading): Read a book using fun, silly voices. Your child will beg for more!

These activities are not only fun, but they’ll also help your little one prepare to read. So, don’t just play—play with a purpose!