I am reading, Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart, and over the next several newsletters, I will share some of her ideas from her writing.
Chapter 6 focuses on the importance of having daily conversations with your child. The author suggests the following to try:
"Fun, social interactions (aka play!) start in infancy and have positive impacts for both parent and child. A study of naturally occurring baby games, like peekaboo-where a parent and child share attention, gazes, facial expressions, touches, gestures, and vocalizations-showed that they were associated with a boost in the release of the feel-good hormone oxytocin.
In your child's early years, it's great to have a few go-to games in your toolkit for times when you need a conversational pick-me-up. Boost your talk and playfulness anytime, anywhere by keeping some language-rich games in your metaphorical back pocket.
I SPY ages incredibly well--with variations for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers--works in a variety of settings, and requires no assembly.
The game uses the phrase "I spy with my little eye something _______" to set up a hunt for an object of your choice. Start by choosing an object-say, a blue dictionary on the kitchen counter--and then give hints: I spy with my little eye something blue. The child looks around and (hopefully!) responds by saying they see a blue book or perhaps simply pointing. Then your child takes a turn to give you hints to find the objects they choose, giving them a wonderful chance to flex their expressive vocabulary muscles.
As your child grows, you can adapt the game to pose new challenges. With the youngest children, you might use it to draw attention to colors or shapes. Later you can amp it up to direct your child toward certain letters or rhyming words, as in "I spy something that rhymes with car. Yes, the peanut butter jar!"
The possibilities are endless, but here are a few to get you started:
• Shapes: I spy something that's square.
• Colors: / spy something red.
• Letters: / spy the letter T.
• Letter sounds: I spy the letter that says /s/.
• Rhyming: I spy something that rhymes with stair.
• Onsets and rimes: I spy something that starts with the /k/ sound.
• Ending sounds: I spy something that ends with the /if sound."
-Adapted from, Reading for Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart
