I came across a beautiful book this week.
It is perfect for sharing with toddlers for fun or with the intention of language facilitation.
Things to love:
- The graphics! They are simple yet appealing. They are not crowded and the background is plain. If you are working on nouns this book is great because the target noun is front and centre and there are no other graphics competing for the reader’s attention. When you exclaim “bird” there is no grass or sun or tree or ball for a young learner to process – there is just a bird.
- The structure. Although textless the book has a noun ——> verb + noun or noun + verb + noun structure. Perfect for little one developing expressive language. When I read this page I read doggy followed by cuddle doggy. The verb + noun structure is a common type of early two word utterance for toddlers to produce. When I model it for a child who is currently using single word utterances I am providing a model which is accessible to them as it’s just one step beyond what they can do unassisted.
- The content. I can’t think of a toddler I’ve met who wasn’t interested in animals. Featured in this books is a dog, rabbit, bird, chicken, duck, guinea pig and cat. The verbs depicted are familiar to young children too. There is cuddle, pat, hold, look at, sleep and feed.
- Capacity for verbal routines. I learnt about verbal routines from Laura Mize – Paediatric Speech Language Pathologist (if you listen to her podcast – yup I did that in the accent). A verbal routine can be any word or phrase that you can attach to a play or motor sequence. For example saying 1- 2- 3 before hitting the button on a noise maker, or saying Shhhhh sleep each time a doll is put down to sleep.
In this case you’re attaching the verbal routine to the picture in the book rather than actual play. That doesn’t matter though – the routine is still being strengthened and will carry over to play and eventually language. Whenever my daughter cuddles me I say ahhh cuddle and nuzzle into her. This is a verbal routine. When I read her the above page I said ahhh cuddle and did the nuzzle action and she picked up the book and cuddled it. Haha so cute. Doing this sort of thing strengthens a child’s internal representation and understanding of words. I think of verbal routines as a progression from play sounds which are often a precursor to spontaneous speech. They are true words that the child has had repeated exposure to in a particular context. Here’s Laura’s blog post of play sounds. She writes about late talkers but I find pretty much everything she says applicable to the deaf/hard of hearing toddlers and preschoolers I work with http://teachmetotalk.com/2014/02/10/lets-make-some-noise-eliciting-play-sounds-in-toddlers/.
Helen Oxenbury’s Friends is part of a series, guess what I’ve just ordered for my little one’s birthday…
Read and Review 