Reviews

If there’s a single deep down guiding assumption about everything we do in society, its the idea of progress.  That things get better. That we make continual improvement, and each generation advances on the efforts of the last.In parenting  and  educating children, we often feel we are more modern and advanced than those old fashioned people and methods of the past.  So pervasive is this idea of “going forwards” that when those quite frequent instances occur where change is not for the better, it takes a brave soul to speak up.In the simplest language, and based in direct life experience as a teacher of the very young, Sandra Jean Smith sounds an alarm bell about a deterioration that is so central to our lives that it needs to be written on the sky.  We are raising kids who are verbally dumb.  Who seem to lack the most rudimentary knowledge of how to use language – how to speak in whole sentences, how to even open a book and proceed through it.

Its shocking to realize that in the kindergartens of the western world, the least able and least verbal generation for centuries are struggling to communicate, and as a result are having diminished life chances.  Its not every child, but its a significant group, present in every classroom.Have you ever listened to the language of Shakespeare?  Or read a few pages of a Dickens novel?  They demonstrate, to us,  highly advanced use of language – yet both were pop media of their day.  Shakespeare’s audiences were the apprentice boys of London, the street people, who today would be clubbing and hanging out in bars.  Dickens books were published in weekly instalments and read aloud by fathers at the dinner table to their children, who anxiously and eagerly followed the adventures of Oliver Twist or Nicholas Nickleby.  Their verbal ability, their articulateness, and therefore their capacity to reflect on and construct their own lives was vasty greater than those of children today.

We’ve gone backwards, or to use a phrase so much part of today’s jargon – we’ve dumbed ourselves down.  And we’ve dumbed our children down.In a brief simple book Smith addresses how to fix this.  Her title says it allTeach Baby to Talk… and Make Reading Fun.   Its subtitle is “The importance of speech and language in learning to read”.This isn’t rocket science – every education student learns about this in colleges and universities across the planet.  But they don’t always register its importance, or the fact that its not happening as it should.Smith sets out the problem, as she observes it in Australian kindergartens and schools.
She sets out the causes – rushed parenthood, less conversation, poor quality childcare where kids have little interaction with staff, being left alone with screens rather than people, over stimulation that makes input chaotic, and of course the simple absence of being read to.  She provides ample research evidence to support these claims. And she tells heart rending stories of the condition of these children when they arrive in school.But her strongest suite is in providing remedies, from chapter five onwards the book is a parent’s guide to enlivening and enriching their baby or toddler, just as generations of parents once did, with their own language.  Music, movement, reading, talking, going places.  The ordinary ingredients of happy early years.  Not an Einstein DVD in sight.  Any parent could use this part of the book and know their littlie was coming alive to language – the most  important tool we have in living our lives.

     

There’s nothing like reading a special someone’s creation and then discovering that you can see yourself in so many aspects of this fascinating Book
“Teach Baby to Talk…. And Make Reading Fun.”

As a proud Grandmother I have the privilege of having a major impact on the learning and growing years of my currently four gorgeous grand boys….

Sandra Jean has given me some inspirational ideas to apply to those days when you need to mix “work – play – pleasure and creativity” into the one melting pot along with these adorable and highly spirited grandbabies.

If I can tempt you with golden treasures that I have extracted from this excellent book:

• Reading, growing, learning and communication go hand in hand !
• Interaction with our children encourages them to learn to speak, read and develop a hunger for learning
• Revisiting the “OOMPA-LOOMPA’s warning (From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory –by Roald Dahl – 1964!!!! An absolute gem on page 13 it is a MUST read …..
• Beware of overstimulation – under communication – and ZERO affection !

If for no other reason you purchased this exceptional book for the “Recommended Reading List” …… you won’t be disappointed in your investment.

Sandra Jean has a gift for putting into simple terms “what our children need to learn, read and grow.” I give it 5 stars !!!!

Download it to your IPAD or IPHONE !
Available on I-tunes !!!!

April 5 2013

Loren Ireland – Mother and teacher

Teach Baby to Talk… and Make Reading Fun is an easy to read, common sense approach to helping your child’s language development and hence preparing them to become ready readers

It combines personal experiences from the author as well as research into children’s learning development.

This book effectively uses the most current research to make connections with practical advice on how parents can assist their child’s language development.

It offers tips to parents on how they can encourage their child’s language development right from birth such as speaking to your child in everyday language and using proper sentence structure rather than so called ‘baby talk’.

This is just one of many practical examples of how this book can be helpful parents and their children.

Teach Baby to Talk … and Make Reading Fun: The Importance of Speech and Language in Learning to Read by Sandra Jean Smith (Goodreads Author) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions

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