1. Ready to Read : Helping your child develop a love for reading.

2. Congratulations! Your child's journey to becoming a reader begins in the womb. Parents and Guardians are the best role models for a child's education! Today you have taken a big step towards helping your child be their best!

3. What happens before school matters! What preschoolers know before they enter school is strongly related to how easily they learn to read in first grade. 3 Predictors of reading achievement: Knowing the names of letters in the alphabet. Knowledge about print (front and back of books, how to turn pages). Awareness of sounds in words (phonemes).

4. Learning to read is closely tied to learning to talk and listen. 1. Your baby can communicate with you before they can talk!  2. The “give and take” between you and your baby helps your baby’s brain grow strong and healthy. 3. Answer with excitement when your baby makes a gesture or a sound!

5. Start reading as early as birth and in your FIRST language. WHY?  Babies answer to the tone and beat of your voice.  Reading is one way to form a healthy and loving relationship.  Children raised in bilingual homes have cognitive advantages.  Neuropath ways  Double vocabularies, solving logic problems, handle multi-tasking more efficiently.

6.  Compared 6-month babies from bilingual and monolingual homes.  At 6-months, both groups of babies could distinguish sounds in two different languages; however,  By 10-12 months, the babies in the monolingual homes lost the ability to distinguish the sounds in a 2 nd language;  Bilingual home babies continued to sharpen their skills. How listening shapes the baby brain.

7. T Tell my child what I notice or wonder A Ask my child what he/she notices or wonders. L Listen to my child’s ideas and questions. K Keep the conversation going. There is always time to T.A.L.K! Julie Russ Harris, Harvard Graduate School of Education

8.  Tell your child stories about him or herself, or you as a child.  Make sure your child can easily reach his or her letters and books.  Make reading a family activity. Give books as gifts. Make books!  Make sure your child sees YOU read! Toddlers

9.  Teach your child rhymes and word games.  Make story telling and reading a nap and bedtime ritual.  Give your child chalk, crayons, paints, markers, colored pencils and paper.  Use your public library often-and with the whole family. Preschooler

10.  Watch for ways for your child is getting ready to write.  Write letters and notes to your kindergartner.  Keep talking with -and listening to- your child as often as you can.  Play dominoes, card and board games with your child.  Build a relationship with your child’s teacher. Kindergartners

11. Talk about what you are doing, thinking, and seeing. (At the grocery store, running errands…) Use joint book reading as a time to talk and learn about the world. Picture books and books in your native language are perfect! Encourage the act of writing (or drawing) as a way to communicate, remember, and celebrate ideas and moments. (Family stories, creating books, shopping lists…) Ways to T.A.L.K. in a busy life!

12. Thank you! For information about ESOL, GED, or Family Literacy Classes contact: Worcester Adult Learning Center Worcester Public Schools 24 Chatham Street Worcester, MA (508)799-3090 www.walcadistance.com You ARE a Role Model!