Reading to support receptive and expressive language growth

Studies have shown that reading to your little one, as early as you can, goes hand in hand with their development of receptive language (comprehension of language) and their expressive language (words, gestures, actions related to expressing themselves). Not only is it a sweet time to spend together, it nourishes their noggin! The cherry on top is that it can also promote early literacy skills such as print awareness, motivation to read, listening comprehension, phonological awareness, and letter recognition. Check out this very cool study regarding reading and language development for toddlers >>>http://earlyliteracylearning.org/cellreviews/cellreviews_v5_n4.pdf<<<

In the event that it can be challenging to read to your child, Youtube has a wealth of read alouds that can help support literacy and language, as well.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin-

  • Words; “brown bear”, “what do”, “at me”, “purple cat”, “white dog”, “goldfish”, and “teacher”

  • Gestures; “I don’t know” shoulder shrug for “what do you see?”, and pointing to yourself or your eyes when saying “I see a ___ look ing at me”

Five Little Monkey’s Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow-

  • Words; : “monkey”, “mama”, “bumped his head”, “doctor”, “no more”, “two”, “one” and “bed”

  • Gestures; use your fingers to countdown, a phone gesture when mom calls the doctor and using American Sign Language for “no” when the doctor says “no more monkey’s jumping on the bed”

Hickory Dickory Dock by Unknown-

  • Words; Hickory, Dickory Dock”, “mouse”, “up”, “clock”, “one”, “down”

  • Gestures; American Sign Language for “mouse”, “down” and “up”

The Three Little Pigs by James Halliwell Phillipps-

  • Words; big, bad wolf”, “knock”, “gob ble”, “hair”, “no, thank you”, “garden”

  • Gestures; holding fingers close together to indicate “little”, exaggerated breathing for “huff and puff”, and point down for when the house falls

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown-

  • Words; “balloon”, “cow”, “moon”, “bears”, “kittens”, “mittens”, “toy house”, “mouse”, “comb”, “brush”, “bowl of mush”, “hush”, “goodnight”.

  • Gestures; a yawn to show that rabbit is tired, using your hand to indicate “over” the moon, finger to lips for “hush”.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? By Bill Martin Jr-

  • Words; “polar bear”, “hear”, “hippo”, “boa”, “walrus”.

  • Gestures; “I don’t know” shoulder shrugs, cupping your hand around your ear when asking “what do you hear?”, a surprised face for “lion”, pretend slithery arms for the boa, pretend elephant trunk with arm, big arms for “hippo” and any other gestures you could think of to rep resent the animals. You could also incorporate American Sign Language for these animals.

By no means is this an exhaustive list. Let your imagination run wild! Happy reading, everyone!