[Title slide appears with the following text: “For Families with Deaf & Hard of Hearing Children Strategies to Build Language and Literacy During Play Time (State of Minnesota logo) Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing”]
[Leala Holcomb appears and begins to sign.]
>> Leala: Hello! Now we will show you different ways how you can encourage language and literacy all day. The first example we will share will be about playtime. You will see a video of a mother and her child playing. There are many language and literacy strategies that you can incorporate into playtime. First, watch the video. Then the two of us will watch it again, together. I will explain and expand on the individual strategy being used.
[Leala is replaced by a video clip. In the video, a parent and a child are sitting on the floor, engaged in play with a toy horse. They sign to each other.]
>> Parent (waving to get child’s attention): You’re playing with a horse! Yes?
[Child smiles and nods, continues to play with horse while watching the parent]
>> Parent: What animal is that? (points to the toy horse)
>> Child (sing-song): Horse, horsey, horse!
>> Parent: Yes! What color is it? (Holds up the toy horse)
>> Child: Brown…. and white!
>> Parent: Brown and white, that’s right! Did you know horses can be different colors? They don’t always have to be brown - they can be black, white, gray… what does the horse look like?
>> Child (holding the toy horse): Four!
>> Parent: Four legs? Yes - let’s count them (takes the toy horse) one, two, three, four. Four legs!
>> Child (takes toy horse back and examines it, counting off the legs): One, two, three, four. Two legs by two legs.
>> Parent: Two by two legs to help them walk. Like this. (demonstrates how a horse walks with two by two legs).
>> Child (copying): Two legs by two legs, horse walks! Four legs!
>> Parent: Yes, a horse has four legs, two by two to help them walk! Now - look at its ears (points to horse ears).
>> Child: Ear.
>> Parent: See how they have a hairy mane on the back of their head?
>> Child: Mane of hair.
>> Parent: And here’s their snout.
>> Child (copying): Snout! What’s the color?
>> Parent: Brown.
>> Child: The color is brown!
>> Parent: What do you call it?
>> Child (fingerspelling): H...O….
>> Child and Parent (together): R...S...E.
>> Parent: Yes! Horse. Are you ready to sing?
>> Child: Sing!
>> Parent and Child: H-O-R-S-E. Horse, horse, horse! H-O-R-S-E! Horse, horse, horse!
>> Parent: Yeah!
>> Child (describing the horse): Hair all over the body… a tail on its bottom… floppy ears... gray…
>> Parent: Yes! Give me a high-five! (they high-five).
[Video clip is replaced by Leala with a text block at her side. Text:
“Language and Literacy Strategies:
>> Leala (continued): Did you see how the mother encouraged language and literacy? Which strategies did the mother use? She used five different strategies, and we will discuss them all.
[Photo appears next to Leala. Photo is a snapshot of the parent and child interacting over the toy horse. Text below photo: “Get and maintain attention”.]
>> Leala (continued): One of the strategies she used was getting the child’s attention. She waved her hand to alert the child into looking up. The mother also pointed towards the toy horse and used the sign for ‘horse’, and waited for the child to look at the toy and back up at her, before continuing to sign.
[Leala is replaced by a brief replay of the scene of the parent using the strategy to get and maintain the child's attention by pointing to the horse.]
>> Parent (waving to get child’s attention): You’re playing with a horse! Yes?
[Child smiles and nods, continues to play with horse while watching the parent]
>> Parent: What animal is that? (points to the toy horse)
>> Child (sing-song): Horse, horsey, horse!
[Video clip ends, and Leala returns on screen. Another photo insert appears next to Leala, with the same parent and child. Text below photo: “Ask open-ended questions.”]
>> Leala (continued): The next strategy the mother used was to ask open-ended questions. This means the questions asked do not have ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as the possible answers. This leads to an opportunity for a deeper answer with room for expansion and further explanation.
[Leala is replaced by a video clip replay of the parent and child. The mother asks the child questions about the toy horse.]
>> Parent: Yes! What color is it? (Holds up the toy horse).
>> Child: Brown…. and white!
>> Parent: Brown and white, that’s right!
[Video clip ends, and Leala returns on-screen. Another photo insert appears next to Leala, with the same parent and child. Text below photo: “Expand on language”.]
>> Leala (continued): What is the next strategy we saw being used? The mother expanded on the child’s language output. As the child answers, the mother acknowledges it and asks more questions upon the answer given. This leads to more language expansion and more information acquired, with both leads to a deeper discussion.
[Leala is replaced by a video clip replay with the same parent and child. They are expanding on their discussion of what the toy horse looks like.]
>> Parent: Did you know horses can be different colors? They don’t always have to be brown - they can be black, white, gray…
[Video clip ends, and Leala returns on-screen. Another photo insert appears next to Leala with the same parent and child. Text underneath photo: “Chaining”.]
>> Leala (continued): The next strategy that the mother used is chaining - that is, she showed the child that the thing has meaning. How? She pointed, then connected to a sign, and then connected the sign to fingerspelling. We saw the mother point towards the horse, sign ‘horse’ and fingerspell H-O-R-S-E. Then she signed ‘horse’ again.
[Leala is replaced by a video clip replay with the same parent and child. The mother is using the chaining strategy with the toy horse. The child holds the toy horse.]
>> Parent: What do you call it?
>> Child (fingerspelling): H...O….
>> Child and Parent (together): R...S...E.
>> Parent: Yes! Horse.
[Video clip ends, and Leala returns on-screen. Another photo insert appears next to Leala with the same parent and child. Text underneath photo: “ASL rhyme and rhythm”.]
>>Leala (continued): Then we saw the mother use the next strategy, by singing using fingerspelling and signing with rhythm to motivate the child into engaging.
[Leala is replaced by a video clip replay with the same parent and child. They are singing together using signs and fingerspelling.]
>> Parent: Are you ready to sing?
>> Child: Sing!
>> Parent and Child: H-O-R-S-E. Horse, horse, horse! H-O-R-S-E! Horse, horse, horse!
>> Parent: Yeah!
[Video clip ends, and Leala returns on-screen and continues to sign.]
>> Leala (continued): Did you know that you can play around with the signs to create rhyme and rhythm? How? By using handshapes, or using the same sign in different ways. Here’s an example of how you can do this.
[Leala is replaced by a cartoon drawing of a deer and a shark standing next to each other. Other animals pop up, including a horse, rabbit, rooster, and donkey. Then they disappear and are replaced by Leala signing. Text above Leala: “Animals, animals.” The animals listed pop up next to her.]
>> Leala (sing-song): Animals, animals.
[Text above Leala: “Personality”]
>> Leala: Their, their.
[Animals disappear, and text pop up: “Funny - funny”.]
>> Leala: Funny, funny.
[A cartoon horse pops up next to Leala. Text above Leala: “horse”.]
>> Leala: Horse, horse.
[The horse is replaced by a cartoon bunny holding a carrot. Text above Leala: “Cute - cute.”]
>> Leala: Cute - cute.
[Text above Leala: “rabbit”.]
>> Leala: Rabbit- rabbit.
[The rabbit is replaced by a cartoon rooster. Text above Leala: “Elegant-elegant”. Leala uses the rooster handshape on the chest for ‘elegant’.]
>> Leala: Elegant-elegant
[Text above Leala: “rooster”.]
>> Leala: Rooster-rooster.
[The rooster is replaced by a cartoon shark. Text above Leala: “Blunt-blunt”.]
>> Leala: Blunt-blunt.
[Text above Leala: “shark”.]
>> Leala: Shark-shark.
[The shark is replaced by a cartoon deer. Text above Leala: Shy-shy.]
>> Leala: Shy-shy.
[Text above Leala: “deer”.]
>> Leala: Deer-deer.
[The deer is replaced by a donkey. Text above Leala: “Stinky-stinky”.]
>> Leala: Stinky-stinky.
[Text above Leala: “donkey”.]
>> Leala: Donkey-donkey.
[The donkey is replaced by all animals listed popping up. Text above Leala: “Animals-animals”.]
>> Leala: Animals-animals.
[Text changes to “personality”]
>> Leala: Their-their. (smiles).
[Video ends, and Leala returns on-screen and continues to sign.]
>> Leala (continued): That was fun, right? You and your child can copy, sing, and sign along together! Want more ASL rhyme & rhythm? Go ahead and check out online.
[Slide with text:
“View more sign language rhyme and rhythm at: handsland.com.”]
[Leala returns onscreen and continues to sign. Text block next to her:
>> Leala (continued): You can use those strategies over and over again all day along through different activities. Get and maintain the child’s attention. Ask questions that lead to a discussion. Show that the item has meaning, and connect to the sign and spell out the word. Those different strategies can be used in any way all day along.
[End credits:
“Created by
Debbie Golos, PhD
Associate Professor & Coordinator of the Deaf Education Teacher Preparation Program
University of Minnesota
Leala Holcomb, PhD
Early Childhood Education Specialist
Brynn Roemen, MEd
Instructor in the Department of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
Damon Timm
Video Production
Featuring
Leala Holcomb
Narrator
Haruna Matsumoto
Parent
Oceana Matsumoto
Child
Special thanks to Peter’s Pictures and Hands Land for permission to incorporate their material into this series and to Stanley Matsumoto and Aaron Waheed for additional filming.”]
[End credits:
(State of Minnesota logo)
“This webinar series was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $360,725 with zero percentage financed with non-governmental sources. The content are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.
“Produced by the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing.”]
