Book of the Month

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
By Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle

"Predictable books make use of rhyme, repetition of words, phrases, sentences and refrains, and such patterns as cumulative structure, repeated scenes, familiar cultural sequences, interlocking structure and turn-around plots. These stories invite children to make predictions or guesses about words, phrases, sentences, events and characters that could come next in the story."
-Mary Jett Simpson

Read a book with repetitive words and phrases over and over to your child. Point to the pictures and add gestures to increase your child's understanding of the language. After being exposed to the book a number of times, your child can join in and help "read" the story by supplying the repetitive word, phrase or gesture through out the book.
Example: Pause for your child to verbalize "me" when you read the phrase "I see a red bird looking at ____".

Did you know? Food Aversions

Did you know that there are a growing number of speech-language pathologists who are trained to treat children with aversions to eating or to certain types of foods? A qualified feeding therapist should be able to tell you if your child is simply a "picky eater" or does indeed fall into the category of a "problem feeder". You can begin making mealtime a more positive experience for your child by implementing the following strategies:

• Create a relaxing environment at mealtime (turn down lights, eliminate loud noise, play soothing music)
• Use the same place for all meals
• Follow the same schedule for meals (or as close as possible)
• Involve child in preparation, serving and clean up of meal
• Allow your child to play with, touch and explore food
• Reinforce any positive interaction your child has with food
• Verbally praise and encourage your child through out mealtime
  

Reference:

Toomey, Kay A. (2002). When Children Won't Eat: The SOS Approach to Feeding