Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication [Video]. SUPPORTING MATERIAL: Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Language Development and Communication; Trainer's Manual Module III: Learning and Development
The Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers, WestEd, Center for Child and Family Studies, California Department of Ed., Child Development Division
Summary for Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication [Video]
This 28-minute closed-captioned videotape opens with an overview of language development and communication during infancy. Starting at birth, infants actively build connections between sounds, gestures, and meaning. As infants grow, their biologically built-in potential to learn language unfolds. The video underscores that this development is rooted in the child's family and culture. Through rich examples of infant-caregiver communication and infants' early language, it illustrates ten strategies caregivers can use to enhance communication and language development. These strategies include being responsive when infants initiate communication, engaging in nonverbal communication, using child-directed language, helping children expand language, supporting bilingual development, attending to individual development and needs, engaging infants with books and stories, being playful with language, and creating a communication-friendly environment.
Summary for Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Language Development and Communication
One of several guides developed by the California Department of Education for caregivers in centers and family child care homes, this guide offers information based on current theory, research, and practice that will support the language development and communication of infants and toddlers and their families. Each of the five sections focuses on either a particular developmental period or on the impact of culture on early language development and communication. Taken as a whole, the sections underscore the importance of providing flexible
and individualized caregiving based on the child's developmental level and the family's linguistic and cultural heritage. Following an introduction and statement of the series' philosophy, the first three sections discuss the developmental capabilities of the young, mobile, and older infant. Sections four and five discuss the impact of bilingualism and culture on the early development of infant language and communication. All five sections describe appropriate practices; provide questions for caregivers to ask themselves; and list references and resources.
Summary for Trainer's Manual: Module III: Learning and Development:
This trainer's manual covers module III of the Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers (PITC), a four-module video training course for providers of family and center day care. The manual is intended to be used by module instructors and includes an overview of the PITC and instructions for using the manual and its accompanying videos. The module contains 13 lessons, designed to be covered in one- to two-hour sessions. The first section, "Cognitive Development and Learning," contains lessons on (1) Learning Schemes and Cause and Effect, (2) Tools and Object Permanence, (3) Space and Imitation, (4) Facilitating Learning: The Role of the Caregiver, (5) Caregiver Responsiveness, (6) Setting the Stage for Learning: The Environment, (7) The Ages of Infancy: Young Infants, (8) The Ages of Infancy: Mobile Infants, and (9) The Ages of Infancy: Older Infants. The second section, "Language Development and Communication," contains lessons: (10) Language in the Multicultural Child Care Setting, (11)
Language Development in Young Infants, (12) Language Development in Mobile Infants, and (13) Language Development in Older Infants. An outline of the two accompanying videos for this module, and pricing and ordering information for all four PITC modules, are also included.
The Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers, WestEd, Center for Child and Family Studies, California Department of Ed., Child Development Division. Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication [Video]. SUPPORTING MATERIAL: Infant/Toddler Caregiving: A Guide to Language Development and Communication; Trainer's Manual Module III: Learning and Development (1998). California Department of Education: Sacramento, CA.
Sponsoring Agency: The California Department of Education and various foundations
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material, Videotape
(Contact the California Department of Education for current price information. PITC videos are available in Spanish, English and Cantonese; accompanying video magazine in English and Spanish; Trainer's Manual Handouts and Transparencies in English and Spanish. Guides English
only at the present time.
)
California Department of Education
CDE Press, Sales Unit
P.O. Box 271
Sacramento, CA
95812
Phone: (800) 995-4099
Fax: (916) 323-0823
Email: jblack@cde.ca.gov
URL: http://www.pitc.org/
Languages Available: Chinese, English, Spanish
Intended User Audience:
The Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers was developed primarily for professional providers working in family child care homes and centers serving children zero-to-three years old. Beginners and individuals with advanced level of experience will find these materials useful. These materials were developed for a universal population. These materials may be used in a variety of settings including inservice training and college settings. These materials were initially developed for use in the state of California. However, they are being used throughout the United States and its territories.
Product Development:
These materials were developed through funding received from the California Department of Education and various private foundations. For more information regarding funding sources, please contact WestEd. The staff of the California Department of Education and WestEd collaboratively developed these materials with the help of practitioners, administrators, and nationally-recognized experts from the field of early education with a focus on children ages zero-to-three years. In addition, film experts assisted in the development of the videos. A California-based professional translator did the Spanish translation of the trainer's manual handouts and transparencies. An early childhood professional and translator did the Chinese (Cantonese) translation of the materials.
Product Evaluation:
The developers of these materials are in the process of evaluating the project and the module training institutes. Based on anecdotal reports from users (e.g., practitioners, trainers, and experts), these materials have been highly rated and are well received. The program has also been awarded a Golden Apple award from the National Educational Film Festival.
Product Dissemination:
As of 1998, over 150,000 copies of these materials have been distributed and sold in the United States (including its territories), Australia, Israel, Italy, Korea, Mexico, and New Zealand.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is a bilingual speech-language pathologist, who for ten
years has worked with diverse populations in the southwest,
particularly Native American, Mexican-American and European American
families. In the last four years, she has assisted in the
administration of state and federal programs to provide direct
services, training, and technical assistance to service providers
state-wide on behalf of young children with developmental
disabilities. She is very interested in developing and promoting
service delivery, materials, and training that are culturally and
linguistically appropriate for Native American children with special
needs and their families.
Audience:
The material was developed for parents, educators, students and caregivers. The video, Early Messages: Facilitating Language Development and Communication, is accompanied by a booklet referred to as a magazine. The authors report that the video is narrated in English, Spanish and Cantonese.
The material is appropriate for participants and implementers who have an introductory experience level. In addition to potential groups for whom this material was developed, the material could be useful to faculty/trainers, service delivery personnel, and paraprofessionals. The video is appropriate for mixed cultural/ethnic groups. The video is also available in two other languages, Cantonese and Spanish. The material would be appropriate for any discipline dealing with infants and toddlers such as early childhood education, early intervention, early childhood special education, and speech-language pathology.
Strengths of the Material:
The purpose of the material is clear and the presentation of the information is easy to follow, both in the magazine and the video. The format, i.e., the use of video and print, is appropriate for the intended users. Contact information, such as address, phone number, cost, and a website, is available for those wishing to access the video and the magazine. The video and the magazine are both easy to comprehend. The video represents a wide variety of groups, i.e., a mixture of males and females, races (African American, Hispanic, Asian, and European American), and languages (Spanish, English and Cantonese). The video represents contemporary dress, so there are no stereotypical images of the cultural groups.
The material covers important information related to its primary focus, which is providing techniques for enhancing language development in very young children, including responsiveness to children's messages, "bathing" children in language, and supporting home language and cultural communication styles.
To the extent that value is placed on the home language in a childcare setting and there is recognition of cultural influences on communication, a certain degree of awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity is promoted. The material promotes the importance of honoring the child's first language by having caregivers speak the child's home language to the child and providing opportunities for the child to hear and use her family's language to ensure continuity at home. Several experts convey valuable insight into why the home language should be valued and how bilingual development can be supported for infants and toddlers. The video also points out that the second language should not be "taught," but rather the child should be exposed to the second language through natural interactions.
The video shows scenes of the development of communication and language in infants and toddlers. The role caregivers play in fostering infants' verbal and nonverbal communication is illustrated. Examples of early communication shown include turn-taking, self-talk, parallel talk, simplified speech and gestures, and imitation of the child's signals. Techniques for enhancing language development are suitable for interdisciplinary teams. The material encourages participation and instruction from culturally and linguistically diverse childcare providers and volunteers.
The material includes some content on children who do not appear to be making progress. Input from the child's parents regarding communication at home is obtained and developmental milestones are checked. Some key milestones and warning signs are listed at the end of the video booklet, which provides some content regarding when to refer for speech-language concerns. The caregiver is instructed to work with the parents to arrange appropriate professional assessment and support for the child. Although there is no information on designing communication and intervention plans in collaboration with the child's family, that is not the intent of this material.
Limitations of the Material:
Beyond the examples provided, the material does not consistently address systems-level change or assist individuals in addressing the program's or organization's values, procedures and policies regarding cultural and linguistic diversity. The intent, however, is not to address the system, but rather provide strategies that would enhance communication development. The material does not cover family-professional co-instruction or how families could be included in a childcare setting. The material includes some content pertaining to typical communication patterns and development, but it does not address these patterns in culturally and linguistically diverse populations -- for example, the children who speak Cantonese and Spanish. Content pertaining to communication impairment and how it is assessed is not included, but the material does include some information on when to refer for communication concerns.
Adaptations:
This review does not have an adaptations section.
Generalizability:
The material would work in culturally and linguistically diverse settings, such as child care programs, early intervention programs, and university programs. The content pertaining to strategies for enhancing communication, developmental information, and warning signs is general enough that users could add to it or adapt it for specific groups for both preservice and inservice training.
Recommendations:
Recommend. The video is brief and general enough that it could supplement training on communication development, as well as communication disorders, to demonstrate typical development and strategies to enhance language development for infants and toddlers.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has a bachelor's and master's degree in communication
disorders from New Mexico State University. She has served
preschool and kindergarten children with a wide range of speech and
language disorders. These children are Hispanic, Native American,
and European American in origin. She has been instrumental in
bringing into the classrooms a number of community people who are
multicultural. She has worked closely with families in home-based
programs. In consideration of proper school placement, she has
tested bilingual children for language dominance.
Audience:
This video and accompanying booklet were developed for parents, teachers, educators, students and caregivers to provide specific techniques for enhancing language development in infants and toddlers. Ten strategies to enhance language development and communication are demonstrated and discussed in detail. The video shows scenes of communication and language of the infant and toddler and the role the caregiver plays in fostering that development.
Strengths of the Material:
The purpose and presentation of this material are very clear. The format is interesting and attractive and follows in a very sequential, understandable manner. The video and booklet begin by describing basic, well-founded beliefs about language development between the ages of birth to 3 years. Specific reference is made to communication being rooted in family and culture. The point is also made that adults play a fundamental role in the process of language learning of children of every culture. The following ten specific strategies for language building are presented: 1) being responsive when children initiate communication; 2) engaging in nonverbal communication; 3) using child-directed language; 4) using self and parallel talk; 5) helping children expand language; 6) supporting bilingual development; 7) attending to individual development and needs; 8) engaging infants with books and stories; 9) being playful with language; and 10) creating a communication-friendly environment.
Throughout the presentation of each of the specific strategies, wonderful visuals of multicultural caregivers and children demonstrate the targeted strategy. The section on bilingual development is particularly impressive. Important information based on current research regarding children learning two languages, and the specific strategies caregivers can use to enhance both languages, was modeled and discussed.
Limitations of the Material:
None.
Adaptations:
This material is very impressive. The only adaptation would be an expansion of the developmental milestones and warning signs. The authors have done such a nice job presenting a wonderful example of strategies for language building but very little attention to the child who, for whatever reason, is not responding to these strategies.
Generalizability:
This video and booklet would be a terrific asset to the training of parents, students in training programs, educators and caregivers in a variety of settings across many cultural groups and linguistically diverse populations.
Recommendations:
Highly recommended. This material would be a great asset to training programs, childcare providers in a variety of settings, parents and educators. The information and the graphics are very current. The authors have done a particularly nice job of presenting information specific to the linguistically and culturally diverse population.
Producer's Response:
Not available at this time.
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