funding for this program was provided by... woman: can the art on this child's face tell you what is going on in his life? i'm a cat, and you're a dog. creativity is more than crayons, paint, and paste. how does a fish sound? creativity is the freest form of self-expression,

and the creative process is more important than the finished product. and the father said, "it's dinnertime!" there is nothing more satisfying and fulfilling for children than to be able to express themselves openly, fully, freely. come inside the house! come inside the house! girl: ok, papa. hello. i'm joanne hendrick, author of the whole child and your guide to this video series. over the years, we've learned that the experiences children have during their first years of life

can do so much to advance the development of their creativity. we'll observe children in a number of different centers-- head start, family day-care homes, university schools, and private child-care centers. the question is, what can we do as caregivers to help foster and reinforce young children's natural abilities to think and express themselves creatively? here, kitty. this is your spot. when our children create something of their own out of their own feelings and experiences, something wonderful happens. tell me about this that you built. this is my house. only one person can go in. only one person can go in? only two people because my cat and me. hendrick: and more and more, we're discovering that the ability to be creative not only can reflect, but also do much to nurture the emotional health in our children. girl: meow! meow! oh, your cat came back.

ok, kitty. time to play. hendrick: this program has 3 goals: to understand the value and importance of play in fostering creativity, and to offer you some practical teaching methods and ideas which can help you support, extend, and enhance your children's development of creativity and of play. whenever we make something out of nothing, we are being creative. whenever we make something new out of something old or something whole out of other parts or fragments of something else, then that's being creative, too. "look," a painter once said in a broadway musical. "i made a hat," where there was no hat. that kind of pride and feeling of accomplishment is the essence of the creative process, and it doesn't take a lot of fancy toys, tools, or equipment to enjoy it. all children need to be truly creative

is the freedom to give it their all, to commit themselves completely to the effort and make whatever activity they are doing their own. it's not our project. it's theirs. why do you think this is so important? it's not always easy, but it's so important to remember that in art or any other creative activity, what's important is the process of self-expression, not how good or bad we think the work is. creative experiences can help children both express and cope with their feelings. boy: i got the pieces. creativity also fosters mental growth in children by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas and new ways of thinking and problem solving. do you need this?

no. i need that white hammer. white hammer? here. i got one. boy: i got one. give me my money. $2.50. hendrick: the teacher is there to help, but during this creative experience, the child is in the driver's seat. we can do it on our knees, too. you can do it on your nose, and you can do it on your chin, and you can do it on your cheeks. and here, too. on your leg? look at mine. hendrick: creative activities help acknowledge and celebrate the uniqueness and diversity of each of our children, as well as offer excellent opportunities to individualize and personalize our teaching and to focus on each child. i'm going to put mine right here. you're going to paint on your leg, too? hendrick: notice how in this classroom,

materials and activities that depend on open-ended answers allow each child to be herself, to express her own unique and individual ideas, and how the teacher is responding individually, one-on-one, to each of the children's efforts. and i see red, and i see black, and i see blue. on your leg? roar! roar! hendrick: but it takes more than access to art materials and activities for self-expression to take place. creativity is more than that. to truly reap all the benefits of the creative process, our children also need plenty of opportunities for creative play and thinking, too. i'm a cat, and you're a dog. oh, a dog. how does a dog sound? woof! woof! great job. how does a fish sound? good job! that's how a fish sounds.

hendrick: but where do we start? how do we even begin tapping into our children's creativity and help them fulfill their need for self-expression? we can start by providing activities that are based on the children's interests and ideas. this part is the player. woman: you didn't paint no stars and no hands? no. hendrick: this means learning how to listen intently to what our children are saying during group time and during play. you were playing with me? girl: yeah. i was teasing you. hendrick: it may even be helpful to tape-record and transcribe the children's conversations, as well as take notes, and then review them with your co-teachers. i made a picture for you. that's you. you made a picture for me? yeah. hendrick: we can offer children a wide range of creative materials and experiences. being creative is more than drawing or painting pictures or playing with play-doh.

there's also photography... music... field trips... working with wire, clay, paper, wood, water, or shadows, just to name a few ideas. girl: give me another color. ok. callille, could you pass the red to jamie? callille, could you pass the red down to jamie? i think it's going to turn into something else. you think it will turn into something else? what do you think? oh! hendrick: we can provide children with lots of time to explore materials and pursue their ideas. this includes time to think about how to plan, design, construct, experiment, and revise project ideas. and don't forget to build in time to talk these ideas over with other people-- both teachers and children. can you see a rainbow, too, jordan? the lights are rainbows. the lights turn into rainbows. that's right. you made a rainbow using your prism.

you try it. ok. i'll try it. hendrick: you'll be surprised how many new ideas and approaches can come from these discussions. i do see a rainbow. it's very pretty. in and out of the classroom, we should look for ways to provide multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and other community experiences for our children. woman: and you know what? we're going to have a very special visit today from linda from in the butterfly room. did you know that linda is chinese? she's going to come over. she's going to cook with us today. yeah. we need to put it on the foil. hendrick: we've learned that the more variety of experiences children have in their lives, the wider the range is of creative expression. the more personal experiences our children have with people and situations outside of their own environment, the more material our children can draw on to incorporate in their play. and the father said, "it's dinnertime!

it's dinnertime! it's dinnertime!" hendrick: our challenge is to try not to be afraid or intimidated by the variety and diversity of artistic expression in our classroom. come inside the house! ok, papa. come inside the house! hendrick: remember, creativity in the classroom is a child's way of expressing his or her own feelings and thoughts about the world, not yours. it breaks my heart to see classroom displays of so-called children's art that all look identical. when i see such cookie-cutter results, i can't help but wonder whose thoughts and ideas are being expressed-- ours or theirs? clone activities-- activities where everybody makes the same thing, the teachers cut out all the patterns,

and everybody has to put the eyes here and put the eyes there-- that's dominating. you're telling them what to do. the best thing to do is to put the materials out and let them go for it. they will create their own play, their own structures, their own artwork. they will create themselves. even though we may intellectually understand and appreciate the benefits of encouraging children's creative expression, why do you think some of us may still have a hard time in this area? there are lots of reasons. maybe we don't feel creative ourselves. creativity can be a sloppy business. maybe we don't feel comfortable with the mess and the materials. or maybe because we're teachers and not professional artists, we're intimidated by the creative process. these concerns are understandable, but not to worry. although the creative journey can be messy, unpredictable, and many times beyond our control, there's so much we can do

to make the trip less bumpy. well, you can draw a picture of anything that you'd like to see, and then after you're done, you can tell me what it is, and i'll write it down. hendrick: we can let the child tell us what he or she is creating, rather than guessing. can you guess why this technique works so well with children? it's happened to all of us-- how many times have we risked hurting a child's feelings or offending a child simply because we guessed wrong and didn't share the child's vision of the work? the other trap we sometimes catch ourselves in is when we attempt to judge, evaluate, or compare our children's different creative expressions. why do you think this can do more harm than good? well, one thing i have learned is not to say, "oh, look at da. i like the da." i don't give a label. i've learned not to give a label to children's drawings. instead, i ask them, "tell me about your picture," or i might describe the colors--

"oh, i like the bright yellow that you used" or whatever-- but allowing them to tell me what it is because it may not be anything close to what i think it may be. boy: spiders. hendrick: there are so many ways we can help nurture the creative process. notice how this teacher isn't interfering with the creative process. she isn't telling the children what or what not to draw. spider. a purple spider? oh, ok. hendrick: why do you think this technique is so effective with children? a little assistance and direction can be helpful, but we must also be careful not to interfere with our children's creative explorations. forcing the children to copy what we want them to do defeats the whole purpose of self-expression. a copy is not an original. encouraging children to make their own choices is important.

what else can you do or not do to help foster creativity in your classroom? woman: do you have to make the hole bigger or smaller to make your finger fit? hendrick: why do you think children should be permitted frequent opportunities and lots of time to experience and explore expressive materials? why is that important? why do you think we should put so much emphasis on the process of creativity and not on the finished product? why is this so important? another big one. woman: you made lots of big ones. wow. remember, creativity is a journey, not a destination, and what our children learn and discover about themselves along the way is the point, not whether they arrive. we can show our support for the creative process by appreciating and offering support for our children's efforts. independence and control are important components in the creative process. why do you think this is especially true

when working with children with disabilities or special needs? one of the most important types of creative activity for young children, which many of us often overlook, is creative play. boy: yay! creative play is expressed mainly in two ways: one--when children use familiar materials in a new or unusual way and two--when children engage in role-playing and imaginative play. imaginative play-- remember when we used to call it pretending? notice how the teacher in this classroom has taken herself out of the activity and is content to teach by sitting back and watching what her children come up with on their own. nothing reinforces the creative spirit and nourishes a child's soul more than providing large blocks of time

to engage in spontaneous, self-directed play throughout the day. yes, you can. oh! there. but be prepared to respond to those parents and others who may believe play is a waste of time and that children would be better off really learning something or doing something more productive. play is the serious business of young children, and the opportunity to play freely is vital to their healthy development, yet many of us misunderstand and underestimate the value of play in the lives of our children, forgetting that... play helps the child's physical development; play fosters mental development; play enhances social development; play helps children express, relieve, and cope with their feelings; play helps develop each child's unique perspective and individual style of creative expression. play especially provides an excellent opportunity

for integrating and including children with disabilities in your program. woman: you're not going to go? play is so important in sustaining the creative spirit that i want to explore each one of these points a little further. even as early as infancy, play fosters physical development. on a very simple level, it promotes the development of sensory exploration and motor skills. through play and the repetition of basic physical skills, children perfect their abilities and become competent at increasingly difficult physical tasks. play fosters mental development and new ways of thinking and problem solving. blocks are often underused in children's programs, and sometimes there aren't enough blocks to support children's play sufficiently. here we see how a simple item like little wooden cubes can stimulate a child's imagination. through their block play,

children are confronted with many mental challenges having to do with measurement, equality, balance, shape, spatial relationships, and physical properties. boy: hey, look. look at this. one of the strongest benefits of play is the way it enhances social development, and once again, playful social interactions begin practically from the moment of birth. dramatic play helps children experiment with and understand social roles. it also gives them countless opportunities for acquiring social skills as they play with others. through dramatic play, children gradually learn to take each other's needs into account and appreciate different values and perspectives. therapists have long understood the emotional benefit of play. through play, children are able to express and cope with their feelings. play also helps relieve stress and pressure for children.

they can just be themselves. there's no need to live up to adult standards during play. play offers children an opportunity to achieve mastery of their environment. when children play, they're in command. they make the choices. they control the experience through their imaginations, and they exercise their powers of choice and decision-making as the play progresses. i'm going to pour some coffee. i want to pour some coffee. let me pour some coffee. shh! shh! hendrick: play helps develop each child's unique perspective and individual style of creative expression. play, which arises from within, expresses the child's personal, unique responses to the environment. play is a self-expressive activity that draws on the child's powers of imagination. play is open-ended, free-form, and children have the freedom to try out new ideas,

as well as build on and experiment with the old. going to my house. play especially provides an excellent opportunity for integrating and including children with disabilities in your program. oh, i think i hear the siren on zack's fire truck. the opportunities play provides for control and independence are important issues for any child but are especially important for these youngsters. thank you, monica. hendrick: let's review what we've learned about fostering creativity in our children. so far in this program, we've looked at the importance of creativity in the lives of our children, and we've examined the many ways creative play is important in the lives of children. now that we know how important play is, what are some of the ways we can encourage it in our classrooms? you've got to have it bigger, ok? as caregivers, we must be careful to avoid dominating the play ourselves.

play should be the result of the children's ideas and not directed by the adult. through play, we should try to foster children's abilities to express themselves. we should also try to help children base play on their own inspirations, not ours. our goal is to stimulate play, not control it, and to encourage children's satisfaction in playing with each other or by themselves. notice how this teacher is stimulating and extending the play by asking questions. what kind of soup is this? macaroni soup. i gave him my macaroni soup. hendrick: why is this important? what else do you think you could do to stimulate and extend play in your classroom? pay attention to play. plan for it. encourage it. learn how to extend children's play through our comments and questions. stimulate creative ideas by encouraging children to come up with new and unusual uses of equipment. we should try to remain open to new and original ideas

and encourage children to come up with more than one solution or answer. be careful about overrestricting equipment. and now let's eat. you're a very hungry girl today, aren't you? woman: what will you do, vernon? kitty! hendrick: and make sure to have play materials quickly available when children want them. learning something creative, i think specifically, it goes back to your room environment and setting things up, and i try to get areas next to each other that lend themselves to each other, to the interaction, and specifically the block area and the housekeeping, dramatic-play area because they both lend themselves so well to each other, and day in and day out, i see things happening in there that are really very creative.

we should provide children with a good range and balance of equipment, and we should try to keep equipment exciting by changing it frequently or changing its location. let's review what we've learned about fostering creativity in our children. we know that creativity is important because it helps our children express and cope with their feelings. creative experiences help children's mental development and problem-solving skills. creativity helps children experience and celebrate their own diversity, uniqueness, and individuality. and we've learned how essential and important play is in fostering creative development. there is much we can do to foster children's creativity. for example, we can provide children with activities that are based on children's own ideas and personal interests. we can offer children a wide range of creative materials, equipment, and experiences,

and we can allow children lots of time to pursue their ideas and explore materials. we've also learned several teaching techniques and methods which can be used to help provide support and extend and enhance our children's development of creativity and play. permit frequent opportunities and lots of time to experience and explore expressive materials. emphasize the creative process, not the product. think of creativity as a journey, not a destination. it isn't always easy, but we must practice interfering as little as possible. forcing children to copy what we want them to make defeats the whole purpose of self-expression. show encouragement by appreciating and offering support for your children's efforts. let the children tell you what they are creating. if you guess wrong, children might be hurt or offended that you don't share their vision of the work. and let's be careful not to judge, evaluate,

or compare our children's creative expressions. at this age, what's important is the process of self-expression, not how good or bad we think the work is. play and the effective use of creative self-expressive materials provide the backbone of the young child's day. creative play and self-expressive activities provide a number of important benefits for the developing child. those of us who care for young children should keep in mind the many advantages of encouraging play and self-expression, not the least of which is that they provide endless opportunities to experience joy and delight, not only for the children, but for ourselves, as well. i'm joanne hendrick. i hope you'll join us next time on the whole child. narrator: every child needs to let others know what he is thinking. learning language is a remarkable process. it starts long before a toddler speaks his first word. how can parents and other caregivers help?

"let's talk about it." next time on the whole child. funding for this program was provided by...

funding for this program was provided by... hendrick: communication skills are so important to a growing child. teacher: yeah. can you say hi in hungarian? oh, you're gonna say hi, wave your hand hi. hendrick: there's more and more evidence suggesting that having a good command of language goes hand-in-hand

with the ability to imagine and to think up new ideas. teacher: what do you think would happen if you had pigs in your room? girl: i would kick them out. you would kick them out? hello. i'm joanne hendrick, author of the whole child and your guide to this video series. in this program, we're going to look at not only traditional ways we can help our children learn language, but we'll also explore some interesting new ideas about laying foundations for later success in reading and writing. it's an area of study we call emergent literacy, and i think you'll find it fascinating and helpful.

as always in this series, we'll observe children in a number of different programs-- head start, family day care homes, university schools, and private child care centers. and we'll listen to their teachers as they describe some of the methods they use to enhance children's language and literacy development. teacher: no way. hendrick: the task of learning all the intricacies of language can be a daunting one, and it doesn't always go smoothly for our children or for us. [boy "counting"] 5. teacher: so, there are about 5? hendrick: as caregivers, we place such an important role in helping our children learn to be fluent, to communicate with others, and eventually, to read and write. teacher: use your words, adrian. tell lee, "those are my beans." beans. my beans. beans. woman, voice-over: i think it's a really wonderful way to help children express what they know

in terms of experiences. if they go to the grocery store, then if we set up a grocery store for dramatic play, it helps them role play. and i think it helps them to become aware more-- as they're able to act it out-- of what they've experienced. they were aware of it but not really that cognizant. but when they get into the role play themselves, then they have a greater picture of that experience. and it helps their language, i think it helps their interactions with other children. you have to learn how to negotiate, you have to, um, verbally as well as in your actions. and you have to be a creative person in that sense if you're going to be able to work with others and communicate with others. and i think it's just a valuable experience for them.

hendrick: how can we help the children in our care develop their ability to talk, think, and express their ideas to the fullest? and not only that, how do we encourage them to listen to other people? teacher: is that a train track? the pigs are playing with his toys. would you be upset if some pigs came in your room and were playing with your toys? do you think they would break them? what do you think would happen if you had pigs in your room? i would kick them out. you would kick them out? hendrick: we have 4 simple goals in this program: to understand and appreciate the relationship of speech and language to the thought process; to learn new ways we can help foster the development of language and thought in our children; to understand and appreciate the value of language differences among the children in our care; to learn how to foster emergent literacy skills as foundations for reading and writing. teacher: i need to look at your food. teacher: how does that taste?

[smacking lips] it sure sounds good. hendrick: language is so much more than the memorization of grammatic rules or learning the abc's. teacher: you would like more? girl: orange! orange, you're right, that's what it is. it's an orange. orange. more orange. more orange? do we have more orange? how about a cracker? cracker! cracker, ok. cracker. how about a cracker? one... hendrick: real language is also the give-and-take interaction that occurs when people actually try to reach out and communicate with each other to let others in on what we're thinking, what we're feeling, and what's on our minds. teacher: what is it? what do you see? what do you see? what do you see? [laughing] what do you see? listen at you, listen at you...

you're giggling. you're giggling! evelyn... hendrick: did you notice the way this caregiver used very high pitch and then varied the range of pitch from high to low? she also spoke slowly, distinctly, and she repeated words and phrases. this is so important because sometimes we forget that just because babies don't use formal language, that doesn't mean they don't understand exactly what we're saying. by using a special form of language, adults help babies learn that there is a sense of mutual trust and interest, that taking conversational turns is important, and that by pausing and paying attention to the other person, we can respond to what they're saying. teacher: hi! he has not eaten this morning. he was a good little boy... hendrick: don't underestimate their comprehension. children understand a lot of what's said long before they can reply in words.

talking about babies right in front of them and assuming they don't understand conveys a sense of disrespect to them. you wouldn't treat adults or older children that way, and we shouldn't do it to our infants, either. teacher: hi, cutie. hiya! we're constantly singing and talking and showing and exploring. that's a big word that we use in our room, is exploring. they are such little explorers, they're learning how to do so much. and, you know, a lot of people say that babies aren't talking, but they are. i mean, you can just see it every day. their singing, their cues, when they smile at you. i mean, to me, that is talking, that is their way of showing me that they're happy-- or even when they cry, obviously, they need something, and we'll change the situation to see what they need. boy: you know what? i'm gonna go to the zoo and i'm gonna see all the animals. you're gonna go to the zoo and see all the animals? what's your favorite animal at the zoo? at the zoo.

can i come? what will we see there? you'll see lots of stuff in there. lots of stuff? like what kind of stuff? can't look. can't look? ha ha! hendrick: i think the most vital thing to stress about language development is the value of conducting a true conversation with children. this means listening with sincere interest, responding in a way that will enhance and continue conversation, and allowing children time to formulate their ideas and answers. waiting for replies is one of the most important things we can do to encourage language growth. in other words, we need to slow down and take time to really listen to what our children have to say. teacher: his father said, "i'm afraid it won't come up." girl: he's watering it. do you think he's going to water it? let's see. hendrick: take a look at this classroom.

what's the first thing you see the teacher doing to help move the learning process along? teacher: do you think it's gonna come up? [children talking] leah, you said yes. why do you think yes it will come up? girl: because he pulled the weeds and watered. maybe the carrot said, "maybe those people don't know i'm going to come up." hendrick: how do you think this is helping her children learn to communicate not only with her, but with other children in the group? once again, one of the best things we can do for our children is to listen to them. and i mean really listen. i've seen a lot of teachers, especially those who are new and nervous, spend so much time talking-- or worse yet, answering their own questions-- that the children can hardly get a word in edgewise. let's look for opportunities to give our children something real to talk about. it's so easy for a child's attention to wander when we expect them to talk about something abstract or vague or something they've never experienced in real life.

children's talk should be based on solid, real, lived-through experiences. teacher: well, cocoons, what are you doing over here? child: this lives in the pond. are you at the pond now? yes, we're working on the pond. you're building a pond? yeah. what kind of things live at your pond? [children talking] hendrick: for example, asking children to discuss ways they could get water to the sandbox extends their problem-solving abilities while keeping the subject both real and relevant to them. what's more, they can make it even more real by trying out their ideas to see if they actually work. enhancing a child's language development doesn't mean that we have to be continually asking questions or even talking. we can encourage children to ask questions of each other

and engage in interesting conversations among themselves. boy: no, you go to church first, then you go to chuck e cheese. i'm not going to chuck e cheese, only to church. girl: where did you get that thing? teacher: can you tell us about it? see, i ran 4 miles. 4 miles? that is really far. so there was a lot of water in case we got thirsty. oh, good. so they had water. did you get to stop every once in a while? yeah, and get some water. but there were sprinklers every time and we got to ran through them. whoa! and then i--every time when we got water, i splashed it on me. i bet that felt really good. hendrick: encourage conversation and dialogue between teachers and children. there's so much more to language development than learning to name colors or objects on demand. the skills involved in discussion and conversation are vital, too,

and we should give our children opportunities to practice these skills as well. ask open-ended questions-- questions that require more than a yes or no answer. teacher: what did you get a trophy for? boy: i got it from bowling. bowling. the bowling party. hendrick: questions where the teacher doesn't already know the answer. teacher: how do you know you can get a gold medal from ice skating? hendrick: answering open-ended questions presents excellent opportunities for children to generate speech and develop language, because they're engaged in dialogue and sharing ideas rather than simply responding yes or no to a question. all: ♪ creepin' crawler ♪ right up to your chin, chin, chin ♪ ♪ open wide your little mouth ♪ but do not let them in, in, in ♪ [singing in spanish] ♪ give one great big clap

[singing in spanish] ♪ place them on your lap, lap, lap ♪ hendrick: a few words about bilingualism: there's no finer way to honor a child's ethnic or cultural background than by welcoming and encouraging her to use her native language or dialect at school. of course, sometimes this is easier said than done. in the real world, we're often torn in two directions on this question. on the one hand, we want to make the child feel welcome and facilitate the child's learning as best we can by using language she can understand. on the other hand, it is also true that the united states is an english-speaking country, and to get along in our society, children must be able to speak english and speak it well. but speaking english doesn't mean you have to give up speaking the other language. in today's world, speaking more than one language is an asset, and bilingual people are in demand and command good salaries,

so it makes good sense to preserve this skill. boy: go to store. teacher: oh, you're telling me about the money that you might put in a little, teeny hole to get something special at the grocery store. yeah. yeah. some food. some food. and some... i don't know english. and that's english. you're talking in english. you know how to talk in hungarian, don't you? yeah. yeah. can you say hi in hungarian? oh, you're going to say hi, wave your and hi. that says hi in hungarian or in english. even when we are not multilingual and don't speak the child's language, we can at least learn a few essential words and phrases, including and most especially the correct pronunciation of the child's and family's names. teacher: can you say imoja? children: imoja. uh-huh. "and i help light the colorful kwanza candles."

do you remember when we talked about hanukkah? hendrick: the whole point of speaking and communicating with one another is to share, to bring us closer together, to open up and include others in our world, and vice versa. teacher: can you say kwanza? all: kwanza. can you say swahili? all: swahili. swahili is an african language, and those are african words. teacher: ok, ms. anwati, are you ready? take over, let's go. one, two, three...go. ♪ kumbaya hendrick: the most important thing for children to learn about school is that it's a place where they feel warm and comfortable, a place they want to come back to. including songs and stories in the child's native language, using multiethnic pictures, and observing cultural customs not only honors the family by using the language and customs of the home at school, it also does much to foster the children's language and communication skills.

♪ kumbaya boy: hey, that's charlie's. teacher: where's charlie? this is charlie. who's charlie? that is. who's that? that's charlie. is that you? uh-huh. oh, it is? wow. find your eyes. are they the same eyes? yep. wow. it looks like this is a big kid. it looks like that's a big kid? you are a big kid. hendrick: but speaking is only one form of communicating. reading and writing are also an essential part of the language process, and the preschool years play a vital role in laying the sound foundation of skills on which future literacy is built. perhaps now is a good time to talk in more detail about the need and value of a new area of preschool learning we call emergent literacy. emergent literacy means that in order to learn the arts of reading and writing,

young children must first acquire many foundation concepts and strategies that will help literacy emerge. this foundation is just as important as the final strategies needed for actual reading and writing later on. man: friends, what does our chart say up here? girl: helping hands. helping hands, and these are our jobs. what's our first job that we have this morning? children: leader! the leader. i need to pick a leader this morning. let's see whose turn it is this morning. boy: me. this friend right here. who is this? look at this name. it starts with an m-a-r-y. who is that? girl: m-a-r-y! mary's our leader today. what does sherrod start with, friends? children: "s!" "s." sherrody, will you do the calendar for us today? all right, what's our next job? girl: fish feeder! fish feeder, right. girl: yemisi! how do you know that's yemisi's name? because it starts with a "y." because yemisi starts with a "y." girl: and an "m!"

teacher: can you read it to me? read it to me. hendrick: an emergent literacy program means setting up the environment and activities to inspire an appreciation for words, story telling, and communication in all their forms. but while reading lots of wonderful books to our children is essential, there's much more to literacy besides books. man: shall we read it? let's read it. "when i grow up, my job will be "to go to school and to drink and eat. "i will sell money if i pay money. "if you go to the store, if you buy food. "i can play on the big swing if i pay money. "if you don't, you'll have to go to jail. it's at central park. we can eat on a picnic." all right. anything else? hendrick: we can also convey to our children how satisfying and useful the written word is throughout the entire day. we can do this by writing down children's stories at group time, taking their dictation as they paint, helping children dictate and decorate letters to each other or to their parents,

or adding written materials such as signs, phone books, and menus to their pretend play. teacher: are you ready for to write down what you see? what did you see? a purple... girl: cat! a purple cat? ok. it's going to say "kimmy..." boy: i'm going to play with chalk. teacher: ok, there's some chalk on the bottom. boy: i'm going to write my mom. teacher: you're going to write your mom? i'll write mom's name, and you can draw a picture for her. m-o-m. boy: that's mine. that's your mom. hendrick: they key point of emergent literacy learning isn't only that it's so interactive, but that it's so participatory. the children guide and help direct what they want to say, deciding with the teacher what's important to them, and what they want to talk about and describe. the message we want to communicate to the children

is that learning isn't unpleasant work. it can have richly satisfying rewards. and it's an individualized, internal process, not something that can simply be imposed or directed from the outside. that's why it's so important to provide our children with plenty of opportunities for experimentation with reading and writing. drawing, scribbling... pretending to read or repeating nursery rhymes without pressure from anyone to do it right or correctly. teacher: "life is but a dream." can you sing that again? ♪ row, row, row your boat ♪ ♪ gently down the stream ♪ ♪ merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ♪ ♪ life is but a dream yay! one of the most important things we can do to assist our children in their emerging literacy skills is to advise and encourage parents and family members to regularly read out loud to their children. center time is important, but the home is where so much of the real and lasting learning tes place.

teacher: "went up to their bedrooms. papa bear looked in his bed--" and it's gonna sound good if you all help me in your great big papa bear voices-- let me hear you say, "someone has been sleeping in my bed." hendrick: let's review some of the key ideas we've discussed in this program. we've learned how we can foster children's language development by really listening to them and waiting for their replies. we can provide meaningful and real experiences for them to talk about. we can encourage conversation by using open-ended questions, as well as having children talk to each other, not just to their teachers. we can honor and encourage the expression of each child's native language and culture while teaching standard english at the same time. [singing in spanish] teacher: very good. give yourselves a hand. ok, hello song. get your hello hands ready. martine? hello hands ready?

♪ hello, hello, hello, how are you? ♪ ♪ i'm fine, i'm fine, i hope that you are, too ♪ [same song in spanish] hendrick: and of course, we've talked about how we can encourage the development of emergent literacy in our children by... creating a classroom rich with printed words and materials; sharing the joy of reading; by using drawing, painting, and dictation to help give voice to our children's stories and experiences; and most importantly, we can encourage parents and family members to share the pleasure of reading out loud to their children every day. teacher: he likes to play in the block area, and zack is the... girl: square.

square friend. what friend is this? tiara. this is tiara, tiara fuller. and where does tiara like to play? the quiet area. you're right. she's hearing a story in the quiet area just like you like to do. and tiara is the...what? what friend? duck. she is the duck friend. hendrick: these suggestions for encouraging children's language are especially important when working with children who have special needs. sometimes i even show them. i put my hands, put their hands on my neck and i say, "feel that. that's a voice. that's sound," you know, "that's talking." and i have their little hand up there. and if you do it to yourself, you can feel the motion. and they begin to--i had one kid, at first he was so scared, and i kept saying, "see, i'm talking to you, i want you to talk back to me." i was trying to get him to say apple. and the vibration from up here, he could feel it, and every y--he would not say it for a long time-- he just let me put my hand, his hand up here...apple.

every day, we review it and finally-- and i was so shocked, but consistency of effort-- he came out, he put his hand up here to his neck, and he said "apple." great! yes! yes! that was my expression, you know, and my aide, and after that he started using his voice, and i also emphasized to him, i said, "you talked! you said apple. you talked. yes!" you know, like that, and he was like, "apple!" all day long. all day long. teacher: ...lasagna. zack, turn around so your friends can see. what did you pull out? know what that is? scarf. a scarf. where do you wear a scarf? when it's cold. you wear it when it's cold. hendrick: children with language delays and children who are hearing-impaired

should be particularly included in group activities that stimulate and encourage verbal expression. the more experiences children with special needs have, where they engage in exchanges of ideas with their peers, the more their language will be enhanced. our challenge is to make learning how to speak and communicate a personal and not a cookie-cutter experience. this means whenever possible, allowing each child in our care to develop their speech and language skills at their pace with the understanding that professional intervention may be necessary if certain developmental milestones are not reached. in the universe of the whole child, there are as many ways to learn as there are children to teach. i'm joanne hendrick. see you next time on the whole child. announcer: for young children, learning is a joy. each day brings new discoveries and opportunities. we can make the most of this enthusiasm with everyday materials and experiences. how to develop our children's growing minds,

next time on the whole child. captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. funding for this program was provided by...

welcome to another session of beliefs and believers. i'm dr. john simmons, and we're cont