Baby Talk: Resources to Support the People Who Work With Infants and Toddlers
Issue No. 36, May 2014
Can a DVD Teach a Baby to Read? N-O!
DVDs and other media that claim to be able to teach babies to read don’t work, a new study shows. While we cannot say with full assurance that infants at this age cannot learn printed words, results make clear they did not learn printed words from the baby media product that was tested. There is one undeniable effect of these products—but it’s on parents, not babies.
http://www.futurity.org/can-dvd-teach-baby-read-n-o/
Free Video and Handout on Communication Development
The Pathways Awareness Foundation has released a free video that offers practical advice for family members on how to help their baby reach important speech and language milestones during the first year. Crying, Cooing, Communication: Baby’s First Year is available online, as is a companion handout with additional information.
http://pathways.org/images/random_pdfs/Speech-and-Language-Development.pdf(brochure)
Policies That Make A Difference
State policies can promote the quality and continuity of early childhood experiences and positively impact the healthy growth and development of babies and toddlers in all child care settings. These policies can not only advance basic health and safety, but also increase the likelihood that those who care for infants and toddlers have the tools to: stimulate early learning and development; identify health and developmental issues; and potentially link families to necessary supports. Better for Babies: A Study of Infant and Toddler Child Care Policies presents data from a recent state survey of child care subsidy, licensing, and quality enhancement policies. It provides a national picture of infant-toddler child care, including information on both center and home-based child care.
http://www.clasp.org/resources-and-publications/files/BetterforBabies2.pdf
Ten Simple Ways to Encourage Learning
The Ten Simple Ways to Encourage Learning booklet is a free information guide to help support families, caregivers, and children during the earliest years of learning. This booklet is designed to support the learning experienced by children from birth through age five and is available for download in English, Spanish and Tagalog. Printed copies can also be requested at the URL below.
http://earlylearning.org/resources/publications/ten-simple-ways/
Development of Infants and Toddlers Who Are Dual Language Learners
This new report highlights findings about how best to support infants and toddlers who are learning more than one language, sequentially or simultaneously.
Baby Talk is a free, one-way listserv that is distributed each month. Each issue features one or more resources, the majority of which are available to download at no cost. To join the listserv, send an email with no message to subscribe-babytalk@listserv.unc.edu. To suggest resources, please contact Camille Catlett at camille.catlett@unc.edu or (919) 966-6635.