Reflections

What do you observe?

Answers may include:

• Mother and baby are holding the book.
• Baby is pointing at objects in the book and turning the pages.
• Mother is saying what is on the page and baby is making sounds.
• Baby is on the mother's lap. He briefly climbs off her lap, then back on.
• The home visitor is sitting at the side.
• At one point, the baby looks at the home visitor and says something, and the home visitor says, "Kangaroo."
• The home visitor is coaching the mother about the child's language development, talking about repeating words and how children learn.
• Mother asks the baby where the kangaroo is. He turns a page, and the mother says, "Zebra."
• Baby puts the book on his head and laughs.

What does the mother do to support the child's emergent literacy?

Answers may include:

• She follows his lead, letting him do what he wants with the book, such as turning pages and putting it on his head.
• She says the words he points to rather than reading the book straight through.
• She holds him on her lap so they are experiencing physical closeness.
• Mother repeats the words more than once: "Kangaroo, kangaroo; zebra, zebra."

What does the home visitor do to support the continuation of the activity? What does she do to enhance the parent-child relationship?

Answers may include:

• She uses a positive tone.
• She describes and comments on what the parent is doing specifically rather than just saying, "Good job."
• She talks to the mother and credits her for the accomplishments of her son.
• She sits nearby but lets the mother guide the reading activity.
• The home visitor coaches the mother on some things she could try to enhance her child's speech.

What is the child learning from this experience?

Answers may include:

• Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development 
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Fine motor skills (e.g., turning pages, pointing)
  • Gross motor skills (e.g., climbing up and down from Mom's lap).
• Social and Emotional Development
  • Self-esteem from his successes and acknowledgement from others
  • Taking pleasure in his own activity and sharing it with both his mother and the home visitor
• Approaches to Learning
  • Self-regulation and persistence (e.g., continuing to try to turn pages or name animals)
  • Problem-solving (e.g., figuring out what animals are on the page)
  • Attention (e.g., maintaining focus on and interest in the book)
• Language and Literacy
  • Receptive language (e.g., listening to his mother say the words in the book and the home visitor repeating the word for the picture he is pointing to)
  • Expressive language (e.g., when his mother says the words, the child tries to repeat them, making sounds throughout the clip)
  • Literacy (e.g., enjoying books, turning pages, identifying objects in the book that represent other objects (animals))
• Cognition 
  • Learning how objects in the book represent animals he may have seen previously
  • Pointing to objects (animals) and naming them

How can you enhance your home visits based on what you have observed?

Answers may include:

• Various reflections

See a home visitor demonstrating how to identify an object in the book and find the matching object on the floor. Best practice suggests the parent should read the book. Notice how the home visitor turns the book over to the mother so she can promote her child's emergent literacy.

Reflections

What do you observe?

Answers may include:

• The home visitor asks what can be found in the alphabet book and then asks if the mother can find something in the alphabet book.
• Isaiah, the boy, stirs in the bowl and then picks up a plastic carrot and pretends to eat.
• Linea, the girl, points to an object in the book.
• The mother says she sees one, and the home visitor turns the book over to the mother and asks her to turn until she finds something.
• Isaiah climbs into Mom's lap and picks up a piece of plastic melon.
• Mom asks if the children can find an eggplant.

What strategies does the home visitor use to promote emergent language and literacy development?

Answers may include:

• Home visitor engages the mother directly by asking her to interact with her child and the book.
• Home visitor provides concrete objects and visual and auditory cues for the parent and child to help develop language and literacy skills.
• Home visitor models the specific language learning skill she wants the parent to communicate with her child (e.g., "Can you find something in the book [that matches a fruit or vegetable on the floor]?")
• Home visitor establishes appropriate boundaries by encouraging the mother and child to engage in the activity together.
• Home visitor encourages the mother to recreate the experience she models with her children.
• She introduces the book and book reading.

How might the home visitor achieve similar goals with materials found in the home?

Answers may include:

• Take pictures of food and other objects found in the home and make books
• Use food or other objects found in the family's home as concrete objects to match with objects found in a book
• Cut out pictures in magazines to match objects
• Identify objects in the environment
• Read the print on cereal boxes, newspapers, and magazines
• Pretend to write during pretend play (e.g., checks in a restaurant, invoices for purchases, to-do or shopping lists)

What other developmental domains do you observe?

Answers may include:

• Social and Emotional Development
  • The child climbs in the mother's lap
  • The mother speaks to her child gently
  • One of the children smiles during the video clip
• Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development
  • They discuss vegetables and fruits
  • Isaiah grasps and stirs
  • Isaiah balances and climbs on Mom's lap
  • Linea points, using eye-hand coordination
• Approaches to Learning
  • Attention: Both children attend to the home visitor and their mother
  • Curiosity: Isaiah explores the characteristics of the plastic fruit and vegetables
  • Information gathering: Isaiah is learning about plastic fruit with his hands and mouth
• Cognition
  • Pretend play: Isaiah uses the fruit to stir in the bowl and pretends to taste the carrot
  • Connecting experiences and information: Isaiah and Linea are learning and comparing the characteristics of plastic fruit and vegetables, pictures of fruit and vegetables, and real fruits and vegetables in their experience

What other reflections do you have?

Answers may include:

• What more might you like to know about the children and family to support their development?
• What other strategies would you consider to promote language and literacy with this family?

Emergent literacy has been defined as "those behaviors shown by very young children as they begin to respond to and approximate reading and writing acts."

Braunger, J. & Lewis, J.P. (1998) Building a Knowledge base in reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association (p. 16).