Keyword: Language Development
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Communication and Oral Language Development in Infants and Toddlers
This resource list provides a collection of resources on how infants and toddlers develop communication and oral language.
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Communication and Oral Language in the Preschool Years
This resource list provides a collection of resources on how preschool-aged children develop communication and oral language.
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Learning Literacy Through Songs and Music
This resource list provides a collection of resources on how young children learn literacy through songs and music.
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Too Much Tech: Screen Time and Families
This podcast features Dr. Emma Mercier, associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mercier shares guidance and tips for families of young children in using technology at home.
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Helping Young Children Get Ready to Read
Even very young children are learning to listen to words in order to gain speech and language skills. While this is happening, they are exploring print in books and throughout their environment in order to make connections between print and spoken words. This tool kit will provide information on print awareness, oral language, phonological awareness,…
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The Power of Open-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions and phrases allow children to provide a full and meaningful answer that conveys their thoughts and feelings.
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Maybe We Can Make a Road!
In this video, two children are playing at a sensory table filled with gravel, miniature road signs, and toy cars. The teacher introduces two unique words, terrain and yield, to the children as she plays side by side with them.
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Resources to Help Serve Dual Language Learners (DLLs)
Across Illinois, early childhood programs serve a very culturally and linguistically diverse group of children and families.
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Sing Pío, Pío, Pío
A strong foundation for early literacy learning is created when caregivers and children read together, starting in infancy. Every time a caregiver reads, sings, and talks with a young child, they are building the child’s vocabulary and language skills.
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What Can You Tell Me Baby?
Language development begins very early as children listen to the voices of their caregivers and the sounds and rhythms of the language being spoken around them. Very young infants even try to participate in communication by looking at their caregivers and making sounds.
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Choose Good Books That Accurately Reflect Cultures and Home Languages
When teachers and child care directors are seeking new books to add to classroom libraries, it’s important to think intentionally about the children and families who will be reading those books.
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Strategies for Developmentally Appropriate “Show and Tell” in Early Childhood Classrooms
The key to Show and Tell is to make it developmentally appropriate for the children who are participating to encourage optimal engagement and learning.
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Language and Literacy in Inclusive Early Childhood Programs
In this interview, we speak with Elise Prosser, a speech language pathologist from the Urbana Early Childhood School in Urbana, IL. Ms. Prosser received her bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing science and master’s degree in speech language pathology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has been working in the schools as a…
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Language Development, Communication, and Literacy
This Early Learning Moment provides an overview of the Language Development, Communication, and Literacy domain of the Illinois Early Learning Guidelines for Children Birth to Age 3. This section of the guidelines describes how infants and toddlers learn to understand and communicate about the world with other people. This section also describes how children develop…
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Get Ready to Read
Set your young child up for reading and writing by building knowledge, skills, and habits that create a strong foundation for future literacy.
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Retelling “Caps for Sale”
Children gain great comprehension and communication skills when they have the opportunity for rich discussion during read-aloud times. Stories read aloud also can provide opportunities for children to use their memory skills and retell stories with their peers and teachers.
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Maintaining Home Language Is a Great Gift
Young children are like sponges and take in a lot of information from their environment and process it to learn new things.
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Learn by Listening to Language: Build Phonemic Awareness Skills
When we think about young children learning to read, we might imagine children learning letter names, sight words, and exploring picture books. To become skillful readers and writers, children also need opportunities to build oral or spoken language skills in addition to these important opportunities to engage with printed words.
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Speech Development and Delays
This list contains a variety of resources associated with speech development and delays.
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Encouraging Literacy Development in Infants and Toddlers
This list contains a variety of resources which can be helpful to teachers, parents, and caregivers in order to encourage literacy development in infants and toddlers.
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Welcoming Latino Children and Families to Preschool Programs
This list contains a variety of resources associated with welcoming Latino children and families to preschool programs.
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Parallel Talk: A Simple Way to Provide English Vocabulary
Children’s families are a strong source of support for promoting the home language in classrooms and other caregiving settings.
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The Worm Project
Kim Burd and Laura De LucaJ. L. Hensey Elementary SchoolWashington, IL District #50 The Worm Project took place in morning and afternoon sessions of two self-contained ECE classrooms in the J. L. Hensey Elementary School in Washington, Illinois, a community of about 15,000 near Peoria. Head teachers in the classrooms were Mrs. Kim Burd and…
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How Do People Celebrate Birthdays?
Lisa Lee and Pam MorbitzerIllinois State University Child Care CenterNormal, Illinois The How Do People Celebrate Birthdays Project took place in a multiage classroom at the Illinois State University Child Care Center in Normal, IL. The center offers full- and part-time care for children ages 3 to 5. The ISU Child Care Center has three…
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You Made It
This video takes place in the gross motor room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. This room is used for gross-motor activities by all classrooms in the center during inclement weather. Max (21 months) is trying to get up the climber, and the teacher helps him get to the top.
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Two Trains
Sadie (26 months) pulls two trains across the carpet and sits down on the teacher’s lap. Sadie and the teacher are talking about the two trains while Daniel watches. Daniel reaches down to take the handle of one of the trains, to which Sadie objects. The teacher then asks Sadie to give one of her…
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Tea Party
Through a progression of short clips taken over a span of 30 minutes, this video focuses on Hudson (at 30 months, the oldest in the class) gathering items, stuffed animals, and dolls; arranging them on a couch; and (briefly) enjoying his tea party with his stuffed animals.
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Roll Them Up
This interaction shows the teacher trying to decipher what Jayden is trying to do and what he wants.
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Ready? Boing!
This interaction shows how the teacher appropriately engages the children by asking Spencer to participate and redirecting Mason when he takes the bear.
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Pretty Up High
This clip shows the caregiver engaging in a nice interaction with Devan and expressing interest in what he is doing.
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Press Here
Jayden (20 months), Mason (21 months), Spencer (20 months), and the teacher, Sui Ping, are sitting on the floor engaged with an activity box. Sui Ping is demonstrating for Mason how to make the small bear “jump” off the toy by pushing a button. The other two boys are also trying to play with the…
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Pea Pod Rockers
Max (21 months) and Kenyon (27 months) are near the pea pod rockers, attempting to climb onto them. The teacher steps in to assist Max in climbing onto the rocker. She offers guidance to him and is close to him as he tries to climb onto the rocker.
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Over Here
This interaction shows young children working together to build a block tower and the teacher providing them with support, both in completing the task and to minimize frustration or conflicts.
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The Duck
This clip demonstrates a young toddler’s ability to connect a picture on a toy with a word and a sign she had been taught.
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Blue or Purple
This is a nice example of the caregiver reading the cues of the child and assisting them through an interaction that had the potential for conflict.
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All Done
This video takes place in a toddler room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. Daniel (25 months) and Mia (23 months) are standing at the Lego table. A teacher is helping Mia ask Daniel to share the blanket he is using when he is done. The teacher provides her with words to use,…
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Roll, Evie, Roll!
Rolling from back to tummy is an important milestone for a baby. Being able to complete a roll is a challenge for a little one. It takes muscle coordination and perseverance. A baby who can roll over without help has gained a new skill—and greater independence.
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Going Camping
Three-year-old Ellie and her mother are playing with familiar toy family figures, a dollhouse, furniture, and a camper. By listening carefully to what Ellie says as they play, her mother discovers things that she can help Ellie understand in areas such as counting, good manners, and nutrition.
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Dual Language Use During Choice Time
This video shows 5-year-old Imelda interacting in English with an adult visitor and singing in Spanish during choice time in her half-day bilingual classroom.
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Helping DLLs Learn in Two Languages During Early Childhood
Teachers and caregivers of young DLLs can support the development of both English and the home language through intentionally connecting with children’s families.
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What’s in the Box
Many young children are not accustomed to forming questions, so the teacher has developed a guessing game in which children use questions to help them guess what is in the box.
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“She Goes First”: Cooperative “Housekeeping” Play
In the clip, Victoria (age 5), Micaela (age 5.7), and Mandi (age 5.8) are engaged in what is sometimes called “housekeeping play.” Speaking in Spanish, they put some of their ideas about family life into action as they pretend to wash dishes, prepare food, and eat together.
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One Morning in the Block Area
Many preschool programs make block play an option during choice time. In this video, three children play in the block area in a prekindergarten classroom.
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One Morning at the Construction Table
When children build something, they often address physics problems related to keeping the structure together.
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Air and Tires
A mixed-age group of children in a preschool class at a rural community college studied the cars in the automotive lab where mechanics are trained.
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Talk Together
Everyday conversations are opportunities to help your child learn new words.
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Talk, Listen, and Learn
Young children are developing their ability to express themselves through language. You can help your child build vocabulary and conversation skills by talking together.
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Learning by Listening to Language
These games will help your child begin to demonstrate an understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
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Discover Letters and Words
You are helping your child develop early reading skills as you talk to your child about the words you see all around you.
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Summer Language Learning in Community Settings
As the weather warms up, DLLs, their families, and caregivers have many opportunities to spend time together out in the community.