Infant/Toddler Language Development Creating a Language-Rich Environment 5 min. – welcome and have participants sign-in 15 min Homework Review  Ask several participants to share their response to one of the questions from the homework assignment. After participants have shared responses from homework assignment – trainer can add “Cultural differences influence all aspects of our childrearing practices. We want to develop the ability to recognize our own culturally influenced caregiving practices. We want to learn to see, make sense of, and work with another person’s perspective”. (Module III: Learning & Development: Lesson 10-Language in the Multicultural Child Care Setting) 10 min. – Ice Breaker – Explain that the focus for today’s session will be on providing a Language Rich environment. Ask participants – “What is meant by a language rich environment?” Trainer writes some of their responses on chart paper

Learning Objectives Participants will be able to: Discuss the importance of the early learning environment in supporting early language development. Explain how infants are born with an innate capacity to learn language, and how they play an active role in their learning. 10 minutes -- High-quality early learning environments are language rich. Caregivers have a powerful and professional responsibility to create learning environments that support language development. Adapted from Cradling Literacy: Module 4 Environments that Nurture Early Language and Literacy

Learning Objectives (continued) Participants will be able to: Reflect on the care teacher’s role in providing an environment which supports early language development. Explore ways to provide open-ended activities and play materials to stimulate language and communication. (continued)

Creating a Language-Rich Environment Adults have a huge impact on language. For example, research has shown that adults who frequently talk to infants help expand the infant’s vocabularies (Hart & Risely, 1995). It is clear that infants benefit enormously from being bathed in language. But “bathing” children in language is different from “drowning” them. 10 min. -- Ask – what might be an example of “drowning children in language”? If no one can come up with an example – you can add that when adults constantly talk and don’t give children time to process that’s one example. Or when we ask endless questions and our questions are more an interrogation rather than to help expand their thinking.

Creating a Language-Rich Environment Infants need caregivers who both talk with them and listen, giving the children a chance to communicate. (Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication). (continued) – Remember in order to be an active listener, we should practice being in the moment so that we are both physically and emotionally present when interacting with children. 5 min. -- To practice this ask them to find a partner. Decide whose #1 & whose #2. For this first part – the #1’s listen and do not talk at all -- #2s. Then explain that they will have 2 minutes to talk about whatever topic they want to talk about – Start the timer and have them start talking. Stop – now the 1s will talk and the 2s will listen – again start the timer and allow 2

Creating a Communication-Friendly Environment It’s hard for infants and toddlers to filter out background noise. Infants and care teachers should have places to read, do finger plays and sing together. The environment should have interesting and familiar things that children can talk about. 5 min. – review these points then state: “we will now watch a video clip on creating a communication friendly environment”. After the video ask them to keep these points in mind as we move to the next activity.

Let participants know this video clip is from PITC Early Messages video

Reflection Activity Reflect on the following: What are some open-ended play materials you have in your program/family child care home? What happens when you engage children in open-ended play? 3. How do small groups help to promote language development? 10 min. -- Ask participants to individually reflect and write down their responses. As they are doing this – play some classical music at a medium volume - trainer can also walk around from group to group humming loudly or talking to self. 10 min. – Large group sharing – allow several participants to share their response to one of the questions. If someone comments about the music and humming say that we will discuss it further when we are done with this activity. If no one brings it up as them to recall from the video that “Children use more complex language when they engage in open-ended play”.

Impact of Excessive Background Noise Humans can tolerate only certain amounts of noise. If stimulation becomes excessive, adults often try to deal with it by tuning it out (filtering). For infants and toddlers, the danger is that in trying to filter out excess, unwanted stimulation, they may also filter out features of the environment that promote development. 10 min. – as we can see excessive background noise has a negative impact on all areas of development. Ask them for some examples of excessive noise – you can add – being at a party; in the mall with loud music playing. Adapted from: A Guide to Cognitive Development & Learning: The Physical Environment and Its Role in Influencing the Development of Infants and Toddlers

Impact of Excessive Background Noise For example, research studies have shown that children who live in noisy conditions are less sensitive to language stimulation than are children who live in quiet surroundings. This decreased sensitivity is believed to occur because in filtering out the unwanted noise, the children are also tuning out adult speech sounds as well. (continue) Adapted from: A Guide to Cognitive Development & Learning: The Physical Environment and Its Role in Influencing the Development of Infants and Toddlers

Noise in the Environment How did it feel? Was there any point where you felt irritated or perturbed? Why? How might a child feel in an environment with constant music in the background? How does constant background noise affect people’s behavior? In what ways do you think it affects a child’s language development? What is your “take home” message from this experience? What will you do differently in your own environment as a result of this conversation? 20 min. – Now let’s talk about how you felt with the excessive noise in your environment. As you show each of the questions allow several participants to comment. You can also state that often we hear from caregiver teachers and providers “the children like the music” Note: Recall that one of the points made in the video was that caregivers should provide a calm and quiet environment. There is already enough “natural noise” in our environments, i.e., children crying, adults and children talking, air conditioner running, people cutting grass, etc.

BREAK 15 Minute Break – ask participants to please return in 15 minutes.

Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead Observe, Wait and Listen (OWL) Observe for what the child is interested in. Wait to give the child a chance to initiate or get involved. Waiting can be hard to do. Try counting to10, while looking expectant and leaning forward. Listen to what the child is trying to tell you. Once the child initiates, respond with interest and enthusiasm. Then, wait again for him to respond. 5 min. After reading the Wait statement tell participants let’s practice waiting for 10 seconds to see how it feels. Use your watch to gage 10 seconds. After 10 seconds are up – ask them how it felt. Most will state that it felt long and they felt uncomfortable – Ask: Why is that we feel uncomfortable with silence and waiting for a response? If they don’t bring it up – you can say, we live in a fast paced world, we are not used to being patient and waiting. Plus when there is silence we feel compelled to “fill” the silence. 15 min. Activity: Distribute the handout: Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead. Give them 8 minutes to individually answer the questions for the first step – O.W.L. Then ask a few participants to share their responses.   15 min – Making Prop– will need Scissors, Glue Sticks, Large tongue depressors/craft sticks Owl Mask (Print out OWL masks on card stock paper so they are sturdier). To help you remember the O.W.L process, you’re going to make an owl mask. They will have 15 minutes to make their masks. They can either use yarn to hold the masks on their face or put the mask on a tongue depressor to hold the mask to their face. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead Be face to face – Get down to the child’s physical level. Make sure you’re face to face so you can look directly into each other’s eyes. Being face to face brings you physically and emotionally closer to your child and makes your child feel that you’re really with her. Imitate – do or say what the child does and says. 5 min. -- As you review step 2 ask them to reflect on how important it is to be at the child’s eye level – where they can hear us and see us.   5 min. -- Now they will answer the questions about being Face to Face and Imitating. 5 min. -- Share responses to these two questions with a partner. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead 4. Interpret – with mobile infants and younger toddlers, messages are sometimes unclear. Interpret children’s messages by matching words to what they seem to be telling you through actions, sounds, gestures, or word attempts. 5 min. – mobile infants and young toddlers communicate is through gestures, sounds and short utterances. 10 min -- On their handout for Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead ask them to answer the question about Interpreting child’s messages. Allow 5 min for individual reflection. Then ask for several participants to share. 5 min. -- Show video clip from Early Messages - Strategy 2 Engage in Nonverbal Communication   As they watch video ask them to look at examples of the four steps we’ve discussed so far. After video briefly discuss the video. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead 5. Comment – Make comments when children initiate. This shows them you are interested and that you received their messages. At the same time, your comments give children information they can learn from. For infants at earlier stages, use short, simple comments. Also draw children’s attention to new or important words by emphasizing and repeating words as you speak. 5 min. – we’ve seen examples of this in several of the videos we’ve seen throughout this training. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Commenting When commenting: Respond immediately – or you may lose your opportunity. Reflect what the child is interested in – or you may lose the child. 5 min. – review these points about commenting – these strategies help us to expand children’s language. Ask – how would you respond to a child that says “I’ve got a hole in my pants.” – get a few responses – then you can share “Yes, I can see that hole. Maybe mommy can fix it.” This shows child you’re interested. Knowing when to ask a question is important, however we have to be careful that we are not always asking “testing” questions (What are you doing? Is this a ___; What color/shape/etc. is this) or giving instructions on how to do something – that turns children off. 10 min. -- On their handout for Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead ask them to answer the question about Commenting. Allow 5 min. for individual reflecting and then ask several participants to share. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Commenting Respond with warmth and enthusiasm – and you will build the child’s confidence and desire to interact. Wait to see if the child will respond to what you have said. Some children need time to think before responding. (continued) Ask – how would you respond to a child that says “I’ve got a hole in my pants.” – get a few responses – then you can share “Yes, I can see that hole. Maybe mommy can fix it.” This shows child you’re interested. Knowing when to ask a question is important, however we have to be careful that we are not always asking “testing” questions (What are you doing? Is this a ___; What color/shape/etc. is this) or giving instructions on how to do something – that turns children off. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead Join in and play – when children are playing, the best way to follow their lead is to join in, especially if you act like a kid yourself! 10 min. -- On their handout for Six Steps to Follow the Child’s Lead ask them to answer the question about Join In and Play. Allow 5 min. for individual reflecting and then ask several participants to share. Adapted from : Teacher Talk Series: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings, The Hanen Program

Summary Care teachers provide an environment where children can hear language and be responded to in a respectful way, and in which caregiver teachers are playful and join in the play. In language rich environments, care teachers provide opportunities where children can practice using both verbal and non-verbal language in different social contexts. Care teachers provide spaces that encourage interactions among peers to help young children develop language and social skills. 5 min. -- Caregiver teachers want to ensure that they are providing language rich environments which help to promote and support early language development. You want to use the six step process to help you in being more responsive to infants/toddlers communication. 5 min. – review homework assignment. 5 min. – read the book “Too Much Noise” - by Ann McGovern or another children’s book about noise.