Take Home Preschool Language Development

Teach parents to effectively stimulate their child's speech and language development in goal-driven activites and in everyday interactions. These fun activities use everyday materials and delineate specific interaction techniques so parents learn to:
• establish eye contact
• follow the child's lead
• provide choices for the child
• take turns with the child
• imitate the child
• label and describe the environment
• ask open-ended questions
• share books together
• expand on what the child says

The units of the book progress in developmental order. Each activity contains a purpose statement, a list of required materials, instructions, ideas about how to vary the activity to make it more challenging, and interaction guidelines for parents. The units are:
• Early Communication Activities are for the preverbal child or the child who speaks in one-word utterances. Activities such as "up" games, block play, mirror play, water play, photo album, and playground trip develop a desire to communicate, establish turn-taking routines, and reinforce emerging vocabulary.
• Later Communication Activities are for the child who is beginning to combine words into sentences. Activities like Finger Painting, Hide and Seek, Dog Play, and Nature Walk help the child connect ideas, explore abstract concepts, and use more advanced sentence structures.
• Book Activities springboard from popular children's books and rhymes such as Old Macdonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Brown Bear, Three Little Kittens, and more. Children develop phonemic and phonologic awareness, vocabulary, sequencing, and early literacy.

These extra helps save you time and add flexibility and interest to the activities:
• illustrations of manual signs
• reproducible vocabulary cards
• activity log
• home program form
• parent letter