Reading with Infants and Toddlers | S.16 Ep.2

Reading with the youngest children focuses on talking, listening, and building a strong foundation in language—often referred to as “language nutrition.”

Transcript

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Welcome to the Science of Parenting Podcast, where we connect you with research-based information that fits your family. We'll talk about the realities of being a parent and how research can help guide our parenting decisions. I'm Mackenzie DeJong-Schelling, podcast co-host and a parenting educator. Hi everyone. I am Connie Beecher, an associate professor in the School of Education. And my expertise is language and literacy development. And I'm also a family wellbeing specialist. We are so excited to have Connie back with us for this second episode. And we want to welcome you back to this season. We are talking all about literacy with my personal favorite literacy expert. Last week we introduced the foundations of early literacy. This week, we're going to dive deeper into specific ages, starting with our our little babies, the infants and toddlers. I know that always the babies. Your favorite. Yeah. Okay, not supposed to have favorites, but her favorite. I love babies. So, I want to start this conversation with something that I have a question about. I've heard you say something with us in our conversations and with some of your students, Connie, and you talk about this thing called language nutrition. And in a previous season, we worked with Dr. Lindy Buckingham-Schutt, and she shared with us about nutrition. Well, what you're talking about is something different, right? So it's language nutrition, and I'm wondering if you would share more about what that is all about. I know you have a definition, which we always love to start with. So what is it? What is language nutrition? Yeah. So, a more official definition would be the use of language that is sufficiently rich in engagement, quality, quantity, and contexts that nourishes a child neurologically, socially and linguistically. But what that means is, so in the same way we talk about how nutrition is essential for healthy physical development, lots of language is really a key for children's healthy cognitive development. So in a sense, we are providing nutrition enrichment to and to grow brains. Yeah. And then so it's the growing brains. Can you tell us a little bit about like, vocabulary development with that? Yeah, so when we talk about enriching language, we're talking about lots and lots of talking and back and forth. And we'll get into some specifics about that. Right. Vocabulary development, hearing a lot, a big variety of words is something that is linked to school success. So when children enter school and, we talked a little bit about school readiness, right, last time. When children entered school, the more words they know, the easier it is for them to learn new words. So we want to be thinking about building that vocabulary with lots and lots of language. Right. And so like, there's food groups and nutrition, there's different elements and different groups of ways that we talk about language, nutrition. And there's quite a few of these elements. We wanted to break those down for you. So these are our language nutrition groups or elements. The first one is greetings, so what are greetings? Greetings is really just what it is. Where you are saying hello, right, to your baby in the morning, when they get up from a nap, after you’ve been gone, And I will say, like, these categories help us understand, not only like how parents actually are talking to children, but as you’re thinking about, you know how you’re talking to children, it helps you think about different ways that you’re doing that. So, you notice that children often do say like, hi, that's one of their first words because we say that a lot to them. Hi. Hi. Hi. Yeah. So those “hello. Hood morning.”“Hi, cutie.”“Oh, hi.” Something simple to start with. The next one is narrating actions. So this is something that, often, parents will say,“I don't know what to talk about.”“You want me to talk to my baby?”“They're not exactly,“you know, saying words yet, right?” What are they?“They don't know a lot of stuff, yet.” Right. But, yeah. Something you can do is always just be narrating. So just out loud, the things that you are doing. So you can imagine now you're changing and you just say,“oh, it's time to change you.”“Oh, no, your shirt got dirty with breakfast.”“Let's take this off.”“First I'm going to unsnap these snaps.”“One, two snaps.”“And then I'm going to pull your we're going to pull it over your head.”“Here comes to your left are. Here comes your right arm.” You just honestly are just saying everything that you're doing. Yeah.“We're going to put on the blue shirt and next we're going to put back your pants on.” Yeah. Just narrating everything going on. Another element is giving direct attention. So in this, one of the things that adults, you know, we think we talk all day long, right. And the thing that's important about babies is that, if you are talking to somebody over here, right, or if you're talking to a sibling or you're talking to another adult, that language isn't necessarily going to be enriching your child. It's not part of their language nutrition because it's not directed at them. So one part to think about is directing attention to that child. And then the other thing is, the other part that we can think about direct attention is, showing them things. So pointing, pointing, showing them something to look at together that you're looking at. Love that. Yeah. You know, we can talk around kids so often. You know, I'm talking to this adult, but making sure that you're talking directly to them, and not just around them. Next one is telling stories. Do you have any storytellers in your family, Connie? Well, I would say that my brothers tell a tall tale. Yeah, that counts. Does that count? Yes, but you know, we all have that person at our family that can tell a family story, right? My husband's dad, for example, has been going to the state fair since he was a boy. And he'd in his 80s. And so he tells the best stories about going to the fair every year. And he talks about what it was like when he was a kid. And he still loves to go. Yeah. So, you know, family stories. So, yeah, that person might not be there. They might not know that family member, but just, you know, talking about people in your life or important events. Yeah, and it's not that you're just telling the adults those stories. You can start with the infants and toddlers, absolutely. Asking questions. You're asking babies questions? Asking toddlers questions? Yes. So here's the This is sort of interesting. I think it's fascinating. One of the language research studies showed that when you ask a baby a question, and then you pause as if you are waiting for their answer, and now they're going to do something right. When you're talking to a baby like they'll move, you know, they'll make a noise, they'll drool, whatever. And then you react as if they answered your question. So you can say like,“oh my gosh, what do you think?”“It's going to rain today?” And you wait, right, for them to do something, and then you say, “oh okay.”“Yeah, maybe. You're right.”“I did see some clouds.” And that kind of language interaction really gets their brains fired up. Wow. I love that. It seems like. What? What do you mean, ask questions? But it makes so much sense when you explain it. So the next one is soothe. Yes, so soothing. Often with babies, right, the way that they can communicate things is by crying. So we're doing a lot of soothing. And those are just like those little, like, even just sounds that you're making like,“oh, it's okay.” Yeah. You're making little soothing sounds. And I would put this along with singing, which is the other category too. The last one. Singing and soothing sometimes, you know, when babies are really upset, singing can be a kind of a good thing to help calm them down and also helps you, you know, as the adult. It helps you also not get too upset, but any of those kinds of, you know, sounds and singing that you make when it just happens, right. When children are going to be upset. Yeah, and I am a big proponent of singing. I mean, I grew up in the fairly musical household. I did all of the all the music things, but I know that the science behind music and the power of music is so strong, too. But I won't go on about that. But singing is such an easy thing, and your baby's not going to judge if you're tune or not, so it's okay. I know, listen, your baby loves the sound of your voice. Yeah. They love it. So it doesn’t matter what you're singing voice is like. Absolutely. So those are the elements of language nutrition. And as we think about maybe a good example of kind of these elements, I know I was we were planning this episode, you brought up an experiment, a research study that was done. That is a great illustration of why these elements are so important. And this is called the Still-Face Experiment. I know some people may have heard of this, maybe never had. So, Connie, would you be willing to explain to us what the Still-Face Experiment is? Yeah. So, the Still-Face Experiment. It is a fairly famous study that was, you know, done a while ago. But basically, the researchers brought a mother and her child into a lab, and they have cameras set up. Right? And they're recording everything that's happening. And so they first they direct the mother just to interact with the child in the way that she normally does. And so they're talking, they're pointing at things in the room. You know, they're just doing their language nutrition like back and forth stuff. Right. Normal things. And then the researchers tell them on to not respond to the child and to make her face still. So if you're watching us, you know, imagine my face is just still. And so right away, the baby notices the difference and starts to try to get the mother's attention back. So now the baby is doing all of these things that the mother used to do, like pointing at things and leaning forward and babbling like trying to say, you know, trying to get the mother's attention. And the researchers have ask her not to respond. So now the child is starting to get upset. I mean, even she even slumps in her chair, and she starts to cry. And it's a very, it's a very distressed cry. Yeah. You know, so it's really, it's really heartbreaking, actually, that your mom is sitting there just keeping her face still. So finally, the researchers let her respond, and then she goes to soothing, you know.“Oh, here I am.”“It's okay. I'm right here.” And then the child, you know, gets back to normal, like, stops crying. So it really shows the power of how distressing it is for children when their adult, their people in their lives, aren't responding to them. Yes. It's such a great illustration of those concepts of interaction and that language nutrition. Absolutely. And it does break your heart a little bit to see that. But it's a good study. And it wasn't for very long, but long enough. It was really just a couple of seconds like, yeah, you know. Yeah. If, you know, for those of us that are soft hearted, it feels like longer, you know, a long time. It feels likes a long time. It is a really good explanation or demonstration of those concepts. So now I'm going to turn us into a little bit of a different direction, and it still does relate to language nutrition, but it is not only the idea of things that we can do to build language nutrition but how maybe we use them. I know it's a natural instinct. You already heard me do this. Where I was talking to babies, you know, babies. All cutesy.“Hi, baby. How we doing?” Right? That high pitch, so on. And, I've heard you use a word to actually describe that language, and I think you've called it parentese. Right? Right. Would you tell us about what parentese is? So parentese, it's so fun to learn about this, because it's actually something that we see across all cultures. So when adults are interacting with children, and actually it's men and women do this, we automatically change our language into this way of talking that you demonstrated. So we pitch our voices higher, we draw out the vowel sounds, we basically exaggerate the sounds. And we do that to partially to get attention, just to get the child's attention. And then it also helps the child start to differentiate between the sounds of language. So by us making this sound high pitched and exaggerating them, it's easier now for the child to start to hear the differences between the sounds that we're saying. And so we're doing that high pitch like,“oh my gosh.”“How are you today?” Right where we're exaggerating those vowels, and we're making our voice go up. What's funny is that men do this, too. So it used to be called motherese, because the researchers thought that only mothers did it, but when fathers are the being caregiver, they do it as well. I think in the show notes you’ll see we've got a link to a really fun video if you have time to see an example of the father doing that. Yeah. And like you just said, it's not just mothers, right? It's who else can help us build that brain halfway through parentese. It's really any adult that's interacting with the child. So grandparents, aunts, uncles, even older children that are in the house that are interacting with the baby, and you know, not to say that you always have to talk like that. Right. And honestly, you probably don't even have to think about it, because you know, it is something that we sort of naturally do. I will say, though, this is one of the things that now I don't say very often what not to do, but we don't want to do baby talk, and by baby talk, I mean where you are like substituting like W sounds for L's like,“oh, who's the wittle baby?”“Who’s that wittle,”“who's that wittle wittle?” You don't want to mispronounce words. We're exaggerating the words like,“oh my gosh, what a little cutey.” We're exaggerating. We're making them go up and down. All the elements are still there. You're just. But we're not pronouncing them incorrectly. Right. Yeah. So it is different. Parentese is different than baby talk. And that's one thing to keep in mind as we do talk to the little babies. That’s baby talk. Yeah. Guilty. I just did it. But it's really it's all about how we are interacting with that baby, right? It's it's about that back and forth that we're having. We don't necessarily think about babies and infants and, well, maybe with toddlers, the back and forth, but really, there is a back and forth, and in technical terms, we call it serve and return. So, what is that serve and return piece? Yes. So the serve and return, you know, it's, comes from, like, tennis. You can imagine, they were sort of describing it as something like a tennis match. So, the serve is the initial, the person who initially speaks, and then the return is that other conversation partner is going to say something. And, what's really fascinating about this is, because of technological advances, we have more research on language, like what kinds of language really support children's development. And, of course, we're going to say a lot, y'all are you're probably going to get tired of us saying it because we're going to say it a lot. Like lots and lots of talking is good. So we're going to, you know, but the thing that really drives is the back and forth. And the thing about that that's powerful is I say something and wait for you to respond. And then I'm going to base on what I say next, based on what you do. Right. So, in research language, we call that contingency. And it just means that what I say is dependent on what you say or do. And so we're just we're just wired. Our brains are wired to learn this way. And so this is actually to why small children, infants, can't learn from screens. You know, they can't learn from TV because there's no back and forth. Ah-ha, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. So let me say a little bit more about the screen thing, because I think it is something that a lot of people don't realize. Dr. Patricia Cole at the University of Washington does a lot of really great work around this. And what she does is she brings people into the lab, and she has a baby in front of a television screen where the person on the screen is speaking Japanese. And so when we're working with babies, we often use novel, like, we use novel sounds or novel languages to see if they're paying attention. So child did not pay attention at all. Right. Then they bring in a person to the room, like, actually the same person who was on the screen. They brought her into the room, and now she's starting to speak Japanese to the child. And now the child is paying attention, and they're looking. And so it's just sometimes people think, and I'm not saying like, oh, never have Sesame Street on or things like that. I'm just saying that that's not for young children who are in this language development phase. They really need a person now and then as a conversation partner. That's an amazing demonstration of that. And I guess I, you know, I've always known that. But as you explain that, I'm like, it just makes so much sense. And, like, I love that picture of it. So, all right, so the next question that I have for you before we get into our research and reality section, or our reality section, we've talked about that language development. So my question is, since this is a literacy season, should we be reading books to our kids as infants and toddlers? Yeah, I was just wondering if you were going to ask me, like, hey, we haven't said anything about [literacy] Because we have been talking about talking. But so remember though, all this talking that we're doing is supporting their later literacy because we're getting vocabulary and we're getting all these sounds of language. So that that part is. And so, yes, let me show you a couple of books. You might hear some noise here because one of these books is crinkly. So when you're reading, I would say, you know, start with reading with infants right away. Some people think they should wait until you have a child who can sit up on your lap. You don't have to wait for that. Board books are designed for babies. They're sturdy, so babies want to chew on them. And that's good. Infants like high-contrast books. So that's why you see these black-and-white kind of books. Books that have objects with just a label. You know, where there's one, an object, like a car, and it says car, you know, and again, these are all based on experiments that people have done, showing kids showing babies different kinds of books to see what they like, and that's what they like. And then also these books that are soft, that are crinkly. Those of you're listening can hear that that is not your headphones, cause it's the that's one of those soft books, you know, so it gets their attention. And the other thing is, so you can be saying these words and you can just be talking about the picture. You're not necessarily worried at this point about telling the story from beginning to end. Let the child direct it. If they want to flip the book to the back, let them flip it over. If they want to look, you know, turn it the other way, let them do that. You don't have to get through the whole book. It's just like the practice It’s the talking. You don't have to read the book back to front, front to back. You can read it back to front if you want. You can. But just getting the, yeah, that familiarity with books and the physical of it all. So, there's our book section of the infant toddler literacy. We’re going to bring it in. Yes. All right. So, let's jump into our reality section. And if you've been a long time listener, you know that we like to give you those strategies. We've kind of sprinkled them in throughout, but we wanted to give you a practical strategy to take with you from here. These are things that are similar to what we've talked about, but I think that this puts it in a really nice box with the bow more or less of how to remember, and this guy or this tool is from Talk with Me, Baby, and it is T.I.P.S. So, each of those letters it's an acronym. Each of those letters represents something that you can use in infancy. And in toddlerhood for literacy. So the first T the T is talk, talking with your baby, paying attention, looking at those social and verbal communications. Like I said, we've kind of talked through a lot of this, but T is talk. Yeah, you're going to get tired of us talking about talking. Right? And that's okay. You're literally listening to us talk. So you're going to listen to us talk about talking. The I in T.I.P.S. is interactions. Using interactions that will help grow your baby's brain. I like this in this example, because it feeds right into, as we were talking about language nutrition, it says, “feed your baby words.” The second one says“be a sportscaster and narrating what you do all day long.” So the interactions. I think that really really emphasizes also the serving return, right? It's not just about talking but interacting. Yes. Yes. P is for practice. No, it's not going to just be something that happens. You know, you do it one time. You're going to keep doing it. Unless you are sportscaster, and that is what you do. For your job. Sure. That’s true. But yes it feels awkward, I think, for new parents. But you know, I promise you'll get better with practice. Absolutely. And I tell this too, it's not necessarily this age, but at preschool. Preschool, usually preschool teachers or that age range. That it might feel awkward at first, but if you just keep doing it, it'll feel more normal. And talking everywhere you go, it doesn't have to happen just at home if you're out and about, if you're in the car narrating what's going on, I'm just practicing as you're out and about. And then the last one is singing. Singing, reading and telling stories again, kind of reiterating what we talked about before, but in that nice little T.I.P.S. package. So T.I.P.S. Talk, Interactions, Practice and Sing. All right. Before we get to the next section, is there anything you want to reiterate before we bring Hailey in? No, I think, you know, it really is just the remember being present, talking to your child, and then remember to pause, allow them to respond. Yes. Right, as is if they answered and keep doing that back and forth and then singing, again. The other thing I'll say about singing is you notice like baby songs have a lot of rhyming. So again, with that, what we're doing is actually exaggerating sounds so that that child can now start to make sense of all those sounds as they're learning language. Yeah. All right. So it is time, Hailey, we will bring Hailey in with us. So that brings us to our Stop. Breathe. Talk. section, reminding ourselves to stop with a breath and talk about something, whatever it is that Hailey has to bring to us. It is based on our flagship parenting strategy of stopping taking that breath and talking with intention. So. Hi, Hailey. Hi. Hey, everybody. I'm Hailey Walker, and I am a member of the Science of Parenting team and a parenting educator as well. And I'm also a mom. I'm a mom to two in a blended family, and I have one on the way in a few months. So lots going on here. And we are so excited to have you. So, do you have a question for us? Of course, I have a question. Okay. Several questions. I love all this information that you have shared about parentese and the back and forth between me and my kiddos. Sometimes, you know, my experience hasn't always been that pleasant. It might be my children crying or screaming or upset when I'm trying to do those things. So, I guess my question is, should I be doing things differently, or am I doing something wrong? No. I just want to affirm there is lots of crying that happens with with infants and toddlers, because they don't have language skills and they're developing their language skills. Right. They can't tell us really what they want with words. So they do have to use crying for that. And honestly, it's designed to get your attention so that you take care of their needs. And so I know it can feel really frustrating. I had a, My youngest have colic, so I definitely went through lots and lots of crying. So some of the things I think that help are, one, I use singing, to get through some of those things. Singing is soothing for the child, but also for me, like it helps me to not be, you know, ramping up my emotional, you know, trying to keep keep calm, you know, taking breaks and having, like, trade-off partners, and then knowing when do you need to go to the doctor or when do you need to call someone? And that is, generally up to each individual. I would say, you know, as parents, you generally know when something's wrong, right? And so definitely getting that support, and finding that and try not to do it all by yourself. Absolutely. I love the thought of singing because it is not only soothe the kids but also me. Like, it just feels a little relaxing to sing my stressors. Rather than just say them. Yeah, I know that sometimes when I don't even know which of my nieces and nephews, but when they'd be upset, we would hold them and bounce them, like face out. And even if I didn't know what to sing, I would start singing. Like, “we're looking at a tree.”“We're looking ground,” like, you know, that it's it's that that singing that might just be the thing that does the trick. But yeah, yeah, it's rhythmic. You know, it's saying things that rhyme. It's just, it's just soothing. Yeah. And also, parents don't worry about how your voice sounds when you're singing, right? You know, so if, if, if I didn't say before, let me say it again. Let me say it here. Your child loves the sound of your voice. You know, it's their favorite thing. So whatever you sing, they're going to, you know, they're going to appreciate. And you know, you can definitely learn some kid’s songs or remember the ones that you sang or like, sing songs that, you know, like in a kid way, like Mackenzie says, just be singing about what you're doing. You know, all of those things. I love that. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, Hailey, for popping in with us. And that about brings us to our end, just as a reminder of our conversation today. Language interaction is preparing our kids to be successful with literacy. I know we kind of joked that, oh, all we're talking about is language, but it prepares us to be successful with literacy. Being able to read is directly related to the strong connections that we have with the sounds and words and that they make strong connections. And it's built through good language nutrition from the very beginning. So that is that is it for us today all about those infants and toddlers. So, we want to thank you for joining us today on the Science of Parenting Podcast. If you are a regular listener, don't forget that you can watch on video. Or if you're like, oh, I want to, I want the reference for that. Find us on YouTube or on Facebook for the video versions of our podcast. Come along as we tackle the ups and downs, ins and outs, and the research and reality all around The Science of Parenting. The Science of Parenting is a research-based education program hosted by Mackenzie DeJong-Schelling, produced and edited by Brock Beirman, with contributions from Barbara Dunn-Swanson, Dr. Connie Beecher, Hailey Walker, and Morgan Newell. Send in questions and comments to parenting@iastate.edu and connect with us on Facebook. This program is brought to you by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.