photo from openlibrary.org

Such a great book and old enough that the children in the group had never heard it before. They loved the book and especially the rhymes: a rat in the hat, glue on his shoe, a rose on his nose, and combed his hair with a chair. I made copies of the rhyming pictures and spread them in the floor. The children found rhyming pairs and then listened to the book and later had to remember the rhymes in order (auditory sequential memory). They LOVED it! Did they learn anything? Yes. Listening to the rhymes, they heard the patterns and how when you change the n in nose to the r turns into rose. Being able to hear the sounds, know which sound you have heard, identify the sound, and then understand the word, are the precursors to reading, the necessary foundational skill.  The children didn’t see the pictures in the book and so they had to really listen and “see” the pictures in their heads. Once they heard it and understood what they heard, they could look at the picture and check if what they heard actually matched what was in the book. Four- and five-year-olds should be rhyming and playing with rhymes. Try some nursery rhymes; Little Miss Muffet (what is a tuffet anyway?), Jack be Nimble, There was an Old Lady, Hey Diddle Diddle. Memorize them, act them out- have fun- rhyming to read.

What is really happening when a child can’t follow more than a one- step direction? The difficulty may be with auditory sequential memory; difficulty holding onto the amount of information and keeping the steps in order. The consequences of this difficulty are many; learning games, following through with directions at home, and at school they child may be misdiagnosed with auditory attention problems. Luckily there are ways to work with your child to help them build their memory and to keep their information in the correct order.

1. Learn and sing words to songs

2. Cook or bake together and follow a recipe step by step

3. Do craft projects that contain directions

4. Link directions together. Make up silly directions and have the child follow 1 and then add 1.  Your child now has to follow two, then add a third.

5. Play dot to dot but give the directions orally.

For more ideas and a complete discussion about Auditory Sequential memory see my book: The Sound of Hope.

Most of all Have Fun!

“Daddy, Read for Me”

The article, ‘Daddy, Read for Me’,  describes a five-week literacy program  offered  for Rikers  prison  inmates  to bring books like  ‘The Little Engine That Could’ and ‘The Cat in the Hat’ to life by recording them for their sons and daughters they left behind.  At the end of the program, the children get to visit their fathers to hear the stories in person and receive the CD the men had recorded.

What is so powerful about hearing a parent read to you? The connection is the human connection through the voice. The parent is stimulating the child’s, attention, awareness, and imagination through listening. In the place of physically being present, the father’s voice can be the substitute.  For the father, he can feel he is offering a piece of himself, his presence in his child’s life, and he is communicating a story; a story about a train that strives  against difficult odds (The Little Engine That Could), a story of a naughty little monkey (Curious George), or a friendly big red dog (Clifford).  The child can listen over and over again providing that intimate connection with his father whenever needed.  I imagine this program offers tremendous comfort to the participating families.

For me this story reminds us that when we are present and available in our child’s life, reading together offers us comfort, fun and hope. So read, read, and read.  If we have limited time, choose books wisely, one 10 minute story brings a myriad of rewards…to parent and child.

A wonderful example of a wordless picture book is The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. This is a retelling of the Aesop’s Fable, “The Lion and the Mouse” a story of a mouse who accidentally disturbs a lion from his rest, and the lion who makes a life-changing decision to release his prey. The mouse later remembers her debt and frees the lion from a poacher’s trap.

This is a book that’s perfect for 4-5 year olds who are learning about strength, determination and hard work. A child at this age is able to see that both the lion and the mouse are strong in their own ways just as seemingly different individuals may have similar strengths. Through the use of these beautiful pictures the reader’s imagination drives the narrative.

I think you will really enjoy the following list of wordless picture books. I have indicated ages I feel would most enjoy each of the books. Have fun! I would love to hear about your experiences…

Age                              Book

2-3                        Wave by Suzy Lee

3-4                        Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie De Paloma

4-5                         Deep in the Forest by Brinton Turkle

5-6                        Tuesday by David Wiesner

6-8                        Flotsam by David Weiner

How To Read:

Along with the difficulty of knowing what to read to your children, is knowing HOW to read to your child in order to make the most of your time and to be most effective. Many parents are concerned that they do not have enough time to read every day. But it really only takes a few minutes to enjoy this special time together and to talk about the story:

Preschool                     5 – 10 minutes

Kindergarten                 10 – 15 minutes

First to third grade         20 – 30 minutes

Some children find it difficult to sit still and will get restless after a few minutes. You can build their attention span by gradually increasing the amount of time you spend reading. Again, the earlier you begin your reading ritual and make reading a habit, the more natural and easy reading time will continue to be. If your child becomes disinterested in the middle of a book, keep in mind that you don’t have to finish a story in one sitting. The quality of the time you spend together is far more important than getting to the end of the book or how many pages you turn.

Familiar routine

Try to establish a familiar routine that your child can anticipate and look forward to. It’s a good idea to read to your child at the same time each day, whether that is after breakfast, before an afternoon nap, or at bedtime. Even if you can’t stick to a regular reading time, make your reading ritual regular and do it together at some point every day.

Create a space

I encourage parents to create a space for their reading ritual. Choose a place in your home where your child will be comfortable and cozy and warm. Before reading to your child, you may want to light a candle or sit down on a blanket – anything that separates reading time from the rest of the day and lets her know something special is about to happen.

Shared focus

Invite your child to climb on your lap or sit next to you so you can establish a shared focus on the book you’ve chosen and the words and pictures inside. Make sure that the two of you are looking at the book from the same perspective and that your child can easily see the pages.

Make Comment

Ask a few simple questions or make comments about what you’ve just read and point to the pictures. These communication checks will let you know if your child is following the story.

Speak slowly

Remember to speak slowly and to pause often as you read and talk together. Children must be given a chance to make sense of the information they have just heard and to prepare themselves for more. A moment of silence between thoughts is very powerful.

Pausing

Pausing gives a child the time she needs to build mental pictures of the story and follow the flow of the narrative. It is essential that your reading ritual becomes a rewarding and pleasurable time for both of you, rather than another chore on a long list of things to do. Make sure you’re ready to do your part – take a moment to turn off the television, your cell phone, the CD player, and any other distractions so that your environment is more conducive to listening.

Reading is a magical experience that opens up a whole new world of wonder. Stories can transport us to places that exist far outside the boundaries of ordinary reality and carry us through enchanted landscapes where anything is possible. But reading provides children with so much more than a window into the imagination. Books expand their perspective of the world and allow them to experience new concepts they would not otherwise encounter. Hearing stories read aloud is one of the most powerful ways for children to develop strong listening and language skills. I can’t stress enough the importance of these listening and language skills. Reading to your child, naturally and progressively, builds these listening skills and prepares your child for academic and social success.

We’ve begun to discuss the importance of reading to your growing child. Further, we have also discussed how what you choose to read can guide your child’s learning and development. For the best results, it is vital to be reading material that is appropriate for the age of your child. By choosing and reading the ‘right’ books at the ‘right’ time, you can expand your child’s vocabulary, teach life lessons, ignite conversation and discussion, and ultimately prepare your child for success. So where do we begin?

There are so many books to choose from. Which books are the right books? Which ones teach the right lessons? Which books have the most exciting characters? Which books have heroes children can look up to and emulate? The decision of what to read with your child can be overwhelming and often leads to reading the same book over and over.

Every other week in this blog, I will be recommending a book for a certain age group and what the concept within the book illuminates. These books will have the age-appropriate vocabulary, content and subject matter. The books I recommend have been books that I’ve used with countless children, with much success. Today’s book is Tyrone the Horrible by Hans Wilhelm.

Proper age to read this book: 4-5yrs old

The overall concept of this book is friendship. As your child prepares for Kindergarten, their world is beginning to expand outside your household. They are beginning to interact with other children. They are beginning to become their own person. As this growth happens, they will come in contact with the many social situations that friendship and interacting with others brings. There are inevitable ups and downs involved. Some people they meet they will get along with easily and they will love, while others they may not like and will find difficult.

Another important concept in this book is bullying. This is a big issue in the world and in our school systems today. It’s something none of our children should have to deal with, but unfortunately will probably come across at some point in their young lives. This book, through the fun use of dinosaurs, will teach about friendship, bullying and empathy. It is important to instill empathy and compassion into our children’s hearts at a young age and it is a beautiful thing when you begin to see it grow in your child. A child who learns empathy and compassion will be much less likely to bully anyone. By experiencing the difficulties expressed by Boland, the main character in the book, your child will learn vicariously through Boland’s tough situation. They will learn why bullying, name calling, and meanness are not appropriate and how much they can hurt someone. Your child will learn a key lesson in problem solving by seeing how Boland deals with his bully, Tyrone the Horrible…who is known as ‘the world’s first bully’.

They will also learn about friendship. Who are your true friends? What do friends do for each other? What things we face together…and what things do we have to face alone?

These are some of the important topics this book will raise. Allow time for discussion while reading and afterward. Give your child time to look at the pictures and ask questions. The use of dinosaurs keeps it fun and separates it from everyday life so your child can absorb the content without it being overly personal and emotional.

Enjoy this wonderful book and the discussions it inspires. Have fun and keep reading!

Please feel free to comment with your thoughts / questions and to share how your child responds to this book and the conversations that result. See you here next week for my ‘Thursday Thoughts’. Have a beautiful week!

Reading has the power to expand and stretch the mind in new directions, allowing for the development of abstract thought and deeper understanding of life. This is so important for the growing mind and overall development of your child. Reading opens up new worlds both fictional and non-fictional. It empowers your child to learn.

Let’s look at the 3 methods of learning through reading: Reading quietly to yourself, reading out loud, and being read to. Each method is important and develops the mind in different ways. Listening while being read to is the method of reading and learning which often goes overlooked and is underutilized.

Benefits of reading to your child:

Did you know that this is the oldest form of learning, also known as the art of storytelling? Storytelling is how information has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. Story-telling in its oldest form was a way of interacting, entertaining and being entertained. It was the way people learned about life outside of their family and village. Reading to your child is an extension of story-telling. When we listen to a story it is much like being a passenger in a car, you take in the same information and experience as the driver, but you’re free to look around and daydream. With less responsibility for the action of reading the story, the mind is free to go deeper into the story, while experiencing and interacting with the characters on a more meaningful level.

Reading out loud to your child is also a way to teach them about real world situations through the expression of different characters. Your child gets the opportunity to vicariously experience important social concepts through the eyes of a character in a book. For instance, the character may experience love or hate, life or death, success or failure, joy or sorrow or simply learns an important lesson. This can help your child deal with difficult situations they are experiencing by seeing how a character in the book deals with a similar situation. Or maybe your child learns that lesson with the character before having to go through the experience themselves. It is a way to prepare children to deal with what life brings.

Through reading and discussion, you get to guide the topics of conversation.

By mindfully selecting which stories to read, you guide your child’s development and learning in a more interactive way. Reading is a way to guide a conversation, a starting point to interact with your child, and open up communication and dialog. Reading aloud gives the child and parent a time to experience things together and to discuss. Remember as a parent, you are the child’s first and most important teacher.

I’m excited about offering “Thursday Thoughts”. This will be a time and place to talk about appropriate books, stories and poems to read for varied ages and stages of development.  In addition we will talk about how reading the right books can open up important topics of conversation with your child involving life lessons. Reading with your child can be an amazing experience for the whole family, if you know how, where, when and what to read. Come join me on this journey. See you here next Thursday

Here’s a bit more about Jo: Jo Frost was catapulted to international fame when she became the star of a reality show, “Supernanny.” She won the role over hundreds of other applicants when television producers were struck by her outstanding childcare skills, her sincerity and candid style that now help her to transform families and instill positive, lasting results. She debuted in the UK in the summer of 2004 with just three episodes, and became an overnight sensation, garnering widespread popularity and acclaim. She made “Naughty Step” and “Your behavior is very naughty!” national catchphrases, and got a rave in the House of Commons on a discussion about preventing the causes of anti-social behavior.

Press release:

LOIS KAM HEYMANN SELECTED TO HEAD UP THE NEW AUDITORY PROCESSING CENTER AT THE CENTER FOR HEARING AND COMMUNICATION IN NYC
Grand Opening Celebration to include Rosie O’Donnell who authored the foreword for Heymann’s recent book

NYC/September 1, 2010 — The Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) has established an Auditory Processing Center and has selected Lois Kam Heymann, M.A. CCC-SLP to head up the new division. Heymann will appear with Rosie O’Donnell at the grand opening of the new Center on October 7th from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. Both will sign Heymann’s new book The Sound of Hope. Area parents, school teachers and administrators are encouraged to attend. For more information visit www.CHCHearing.org or contact the CHC’s Auditory Processing Center at (917) 305-7809.

Heymann is a Speech and Language Pathologist with over 30 years experience in the New York tri-state area working with children with listening, hearing and learning challenges and their parents at area school systems. She is a leading authority on Auditory Processing Disorder and recently authored the book The Sound of Hope: Recognizing, Coping with and Treating Your Child’s Auditor Processing Disorder (Random House Publishing, April, 2010). The book is a parent guide to the importance of listening skills development in children birth to 8 years old. It is a how-to book with easy to follow activities for parents to implement with their children. Actress and Rockland County resident Rosie O’Donnell wrote the foreword detailing her personal experience working with Lois after he son was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder.

As a sought after speaker, Heymann has presented hundreds of in-service workshops, seminars and conferences, sharing her knowledge and techniques with parent groups, school systems and speech therapists. For a list of upcoming speaking engagements visit www.ListenLoveLearn.com.

“We are thrilled to open the Auditory Processing Center at CHC, a new resource available for children with listening, learning and auditory challenges. Under the direction of Lois Heymann, our Auditory Processing Center will enable us to expand our work in this area and to help many more children with listening challenges succeed both academically and socially,” stated Laurie Hanin, Ph.D., CCC-A, Executive Director of the Center for Hearing and Communication.

Until June of 2010 Lois was on the faculty of the State University of New York (SUNY), where she was a professor in the Department of Communication Disorders and supervised a university-based clinic for individuals with listening and hearing challenges. In her new position, as Director of The Auditory Processing Center at CHC, she and the staff will provide comprehensive services and support to help children address the daily challenges of auditory processing disorders. The goal is to work with the child, parents, and a staff of audiologists, speech-language pathologists and counselors to provide the child with tools they can use every day to realize their full potential.

Since 1910, the CHC has been New York’s leading hearing healthcare center for infants, children and adults. With offices in New York City and Florida, CHC meets consumers’ hearing and communication needs through professional services that offer the highest level of clinical expertise and technical know-how available in the hearing healthcare field. In addition to providing a wide array of services for people with hearing loss (e.g., hearing evaluations; speech and language therapy; hearing aid evaluations, fittings and sales), CHC is uniquely skilled in the testing, evaluation and treatment of Auditory Processing Disorders.

What is an Auditory Processing Disorder?

The term Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) describes what happens when the part of a child’s brain responsible for interpreting sound does not function properly. A child hears typically, but as sound moves from the ear to the brain there is distortion and/or delay of the signal, bringing challenges to everyday hearing and listening tasks. A child hears fine, but struggles to process what he/she hears.

Signs of APD often appear at a young age, when a child’s attention span and basic language skills might not be on par with other children. A child might have difficulty paying attention in noisy environments, remembering multi-task directions and discriminating subtle differences in sounds and words—challenges that can instill frustration, social isolation, and insecurity. But these daily struggles are both common and treatable. Due to some overlap in symptoms, it is possible for a child to be misdiagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or PDD (pervasive developmental delay). A child may have one of these disorders and delays in addition to APD. However, it is important to note that APD is not an attention or communication disorder. It is characterized by difficulty channeling sound to the brain, and it is entirely out of a child’s personal control. APD affects a child’s ability to attend to sound and can negatively impact his/her communication skills.

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However, no matter what the cause, in order to effectively treat individuals with autism, we must diagnose each individual’s learning style. Are they visual learners or auditory learners? Are they over stimulated by sensory input or under stimulated? Are they attempting to communicate? How are they attempting to communicate: gesturally or verbally? These are just some of the areas we must explore to go beyond the labels of PDD (Pervasive Developmental Delay) or Asberger’s among other labels, to find a” way in” to begin intervention.

Based on over 20 years of working with individuals who have been diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum, I have learned many things, two important learnings are: 1) we must include the parents in the intervention, helping and guiding parents in ways to reach their child and 2) parents and therapists must be partners since each holds important information about the child.

Every child in every family is unique. We need to accurately diagnosis where this particular child’s strengths and weaknesses lie and allow the process to change and evolve as the child changes and grows. Making sure we set goals that are reasonable and attainable and helping all who surround and support the child, (parents therapists, teachers, aides) understand the goals, where we are going and the best ways to get there.

There is tremendous hope in the science of finding the causes of Autism, as these discoveries are illuminated let us work in a coordinated, mindful manner to assist these children to develop the skills and abilities to reach their highest potential