Early Childhood Language Arts

Early Childhood Language Arts by Mary Renck Jalongo

This is a textbook from an Early Childhood Education class that I took a few years ago. It’s well organized and filled with a ton of facts about learning to write and read and how to encourage young children. I skimmed through to see if there was anything especially useful that I could put into practice. The idea of a Positive Talk Environment seemed the most important right now, especially since I am a bookaholic and there are tons of books around. The number one suggestion is to make books available and read read read.

A Positive Talk Environment is one that:

• invites children into extended conversations with open ended questions
• adults listen attentively to what children have to say
• spontaneous opportunities to talk are encouraged
• avoids judgmental comments either to them or within their hearing

These are all driven by the adult, a Positive Talk Environment must be worked towards consciously.