Talking with Toddlers

I did an interview with freelance writer Heather Larson, which resulted in a piece in Parent Map:

It starts earlier than you might think: Babies first begin learning language by listening to their mother’s voice while still in the womb.

“That’s why when a baby is born, she prefers to hear her mother’s language and her mother’s voice,” says Rick McKinnon, Ph.D., an early learning specialist in Olympia.

Reading, singing, telling stories and talking to your unborn baby give her a head start on talking, says McKinnon. By continuing to do so after birth, you’re not only encouraging her speech development, you’re developing a social connection and putting that child in a good position for acquiring literacy. Learning to read is directly related to a child’s verbal and auditory abilities, McKinnon says. “If a child has developed basic language skills by kindergarten, then when that child learns to read, the process will go smoothly.” Not only that, but when a child is able to talk, it can cut down on the frustration both babies and parents experience. If a tot can’t communicate with you, they may act out.

Nice work, Heather!

I've been working with a family on the issue of how to integrate thier autistic child into more activities and games that they like to play. So, we talked about how to adapt games so that she can better participate. There are a lot of games in the house that she seems to be interested in, and it would be great if she could play them in some way with her brother and/or adults.

One of the things that it is important to remember when adapting a game is that we have to let go of our own expectations about what we think the game is about. Remember: your child has no concept of the game, or most of the kinds of rules that most games assume. Thus, there is both a danger and an opportunity. First the danger: that our assumptions about the rules of the game will limit it so much that she won't be able to tolerate it. The opportunity: since your child has no preconceptions about the game, it is possible to restructure it quickly so that she can participate more fully (e.g., for a longer period of time). The longer she is able to play a game, the more social interaction she is experiencing, and the more that social awareness is strengthened. So, don't think of the game as a game, as much as a means to an end, which is exposing your child to the world of sharing, taking turns, noticing what others are doing, enjoying different ways of interacting.

I made a list of heuristics that might help when you're improvising a new way to play a game:

1. Forget the rules that are supposed to go with the game. Just look at the game as a set of objects that you could do anything with.

2. Listen to your child. She will often point or say something that will give you a clue about what she is interested in with any particular game. For example, today I brought down a puzzle that required matching pictures with words. I only selected the pictures because I thought she wouldn't be interested in the words. As I was setting up an activity (I think I was going to see if she would put the pictures in different categories), she said "Where's the words?" So, I stopped, and changed the game to a matching game between words and pictures (modified for her skill level).

3. Simplify the game. In order to simplify a game, you can:

• reduce the number of pieces,
• reduce the number of choices,
• isolate a specific part of the game (leave certain pieces out)
• use pieces or parts of other games.

4. Some games lend themselves to activities that are different than the original intention (e.g., Hullabaloo). The images in that game can be categorized according to different dimensions:

• animals
• food
• toys
• things that go
• people
• clothes
etc...

5. Make each turn very simple and easy to complete.

6. Give reinforcement for any positive participation.

7. Other activities that can be adapted into any game:

• counting
• naming
• matching
• building
• requesting
• rejecting
etc...

8. Use your imagination.

Try some version of this. Works every time.

Good Stories, Good Math

By Julie J. Rehmeyer

Spinning a good yarn may seem to have little to do with mathematics, but a new study suggests otherwise. Preschoolers who tell stories that include many different perspectives do better in math two years later than those who stick to one simple perspective. The researchers believe that the study may highlight a deep connection between mathematical ability and narrative skills.

Daniela O'Neill and her colleagues at the University of Waterloo in Ontario gave 3- and 4-year-olds the picture book Frog Goes to Dinner by Mercer Mayer. The wordless book shows a frog hopping around a restaurant, causing mayhem. The researchers asked the kids to tell the story to a puppet who'd never seen the book and measured the sophistication of each child's story. They also gave the children a test of general verbal ability. Two years later, they gave the children a test of academic achievement in a variety of areas.

Preschoolers who can tell stories from multiple perspectives often develop strong mathematical skills, according to research.

The scientists found that narrative ability in preschool was a good predictor of a child's later performance in mathematics. Simple measures, such as sentence length and diversity of vocabulary, had little relevance, however. The most important factor had to do with a child's ability to switch perspectives in the stories. For example, one child told the story as if the frog were the only character in the story, while another discussed the internal states of secondary characters, with comments such as, "The waiter was mad when the frog jumped in the soup."

University of Washington study: Block play helps toddler talk

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- A study reports that playing with toy blocks may help toddlers talk.

The study involving 175 one- and two-year-old children was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and Children's Hospital.

They found that playing with blocks may be an effective way to promote language development.

The lead researcher, Dimitri Christakis, says playing together is the best way for parents to promote young children's development. Playing with blocks may have helped language development by replacing time spent watching TV.

The study was reported in the journal "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine."

From uwnews.org:

Despite marketing claims, parents who want to give their infants a boost in learning language probably should limit the amount of time they expose their children to DVDs and videos such as "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby."

Rather than helping babies, the over-use of such productions actually may slow down infants eight to 16 months of age when it comes to acquiring vocabulary, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute.

The scientists found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. Baby DVDs and videos had no positive or negative effect on the vocabularies on toddlers 17 to 24 months of age. The study was published today in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"The most important fact to come from this study is there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos and there is some suggestion of harm," said Frederick Zimmerman, lead author of the study and a UW associate professor of health services. "The bottom line is the more a child watches baby DVDs and videos the bigger the effect. The amount of viewing does matter."