Talking with Your Baby

With this new book Alice Honig addresses a neglected area in child development - how to help low literacy parents and parents for whom English is a second language enchance the literacy and cognitive development of their children in the home environment and through daily routines. In learning to choose appropriate songs and books for children, adults will feel comfortable with storytime long before their children begin to talk. Honig and coauthor Holly E. Brophy focus on language as a fundamental family activity. Through the use of songs and stories, the authors show how rich language interaction enhances an infant's feelings of love and security and how it helps toddlers and young children learn more about objects, rules, daily experiences and people. Rather than through more formal dialogue or an educational setting, ideas on how to talk to children are anchored to activities and comfortable personal chats between caregivers and child. With its emphasis on the roles both parents play in talking with babies during daily activities - such as diapering, bath time, feedings and walks - parents should find it an easily understood and valuable resource. In addition, the book reassures caregivers that, as children begin to experiment with language power, newly acquired behaviours are perfectly natural. For example, parents for whom disciplining their child is difficult, will learn to manage a child's new-found willfulness as well as the need to experiment with behaviour, even bad behaviour. The authors have included an entire section on discipline, which further illustrates ways to communicate effectively with children to improve cooperation. The book should be of interest to those in child development and psychology and literacy education, as well as a general manual for low-literacy parents.