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Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday August 25th – Parentese Hi everyone! Welcome back to Early Literacy Tip Tuesdays. Last week we discussed the Five Practices, five ways that children learn literacy skills before they are actually able to read and write. This week, I want to go more in depth with the first practice: talking, more specifically “Parentese” or baby talk. Have you ever, or noticed someone else, talking to a baby in an exaggerated voice, in the third person, or using generally silly words? That is Parentese! Parentese, whether we mean to do it or not, is designed to grab baby’s attention and engage them in “conversation”. Babies can’t speak back with real words, but engaging in Parentese and teaching your baby how to pay attention to someone in a discussion is crucial for their communication and Early Literacy skills. Here are some exercises to try to help develop your child’s Early Literacy skill of Talking. 1. Use both Parentese and normal speech to engage your baby. Switch back and forth between the two to keep your baby interested. Watch to see what they are looking at when you speak to them. Are they watching your mouth when you speak dramatically, or your eyes when you are smiling? Try to engage them with different parts of your face. This will help them learn facial cues and general facial awareness. 2. Have a “conversation”. Respond to your baby’s babbles with questions or understanding. When you speak to your baby and take a break to let them respond, even if they have been babbling the whole time, you start to teach them how conversation is held. This back and forth is instrumental to social and storytelling skills later. And 3. Narrate everything to help build a bigger vocabulary. Talk about what you are doing, “Time for socks! I am putting socks on your feet so they will not get cold!” Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 and things around you, “We are at the grocery store and mommy is buying yellow bananas, and purple grapes, and pink peaches…” By doing these simple things with your baby you are teaching them how to communicate. Communication is different for each age and child because each child has different abilities. Babies communicate in cries and sounds before they are able to use words. As babies grow into toddlers they increase their vocabulary and begin to communicate using partial sentences and questions. Watching your baby go from no words to some words to partial sentences is a great way to see early literacy skills developing. These communication and comprehension skills will be used when your child is socializing with other children or people and becoming their own person. Next week, we’ll continue talking about communication with pre-verbal children in the form of Baby Sign Language! We’ll cover some simple tips for teaching Baby Sign Language and then learn some basic signs. If you want to learn more about Parentese or how the practice of Talking is important for children before they can speak, take a look at the articles linked in this post! See you all next week! Articles for more information:  https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/301-tips-on-learning-to-talk  http://www.readtoyourbaby.com/read_parentese.html  https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1504-let-s-talk-about-it-5-ways-to-build- babies-language-and-communication-skills-from-birth  https://www.readbrightly.com/baby-books-first-words/