Baby Talk: Resources to Support the People Who Work With Infants and Toddlers
Issue No. 44, January 2015
Talk, Read, Sing: Seven Ways to Build Early Math Literacy
Research tells us that exposing children to math early improves their success in school. Talking to young children about numbers helps their brains develop, and may improve their confidence with math later on. Here are some ideas to help educators and families to spark a child’s math interest through talking, reading and singing!
http://m.toosmall.org/blog/talk-read-sing-seven-ways-for-parents-to-build-early-math-literacy
Building A Child’s Vocabulary
This short article from Reading Rockets offers four easy ways to support vocabulary development and is available in English and Spanish.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-your-childs-vocabulary
Are Babies Born With Some Math Skills?
If a 6-month-old can distinguish between 20 dots and 10 dots, she’s more likely to be good at math in preschool. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that part of our proficiency at addition and subtraction may simply be something we’re born with. Researchers have long wondered where our math skills come from. Are they innate, or should we credit studying and good teachers—or some combination of the two? Find out more in the following article.
http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2013/10/babies-are-born-some-math-skills
Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Early Care and Education – Standards
It is critical that the growing number of children attending early care and education programs have the opportunity to learn in healthy, safe environments with caring, professional caregivers/teachers. A 2014 resource, Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Early Care and Education, (http://nrckids.org/default/
assets/File/Products/Infant%20and%20Toddler/Caring%20for%20Infants%20and%20Toddlers%20Final.pdf) provides a collection of 232 nationally recognized health and safety standards applicable to infants and toddlers in early care and education settings. These standards are a subset of Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, (http://cfoc.nrckids.org/). They are the result of a joint collaborative project of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, and National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education.
Why This Toy?
This column from NAEYC for Families offers guidance on the value of toys and what to think about before selecting a toy for a child.
http://families.naeyc.org/learning-and-development/child-development/why-toy (column)
http://families.naeyc.org/ (NAEYC for Families)
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.