Talk

StoryApptations! is mash-up of traditional and digital story time. It is framed around the Every Child Ready to Read initiative: Talk. Sing. Read. Write and Play. The initiative introduces literacy and language practices for children between 0-5 years old. We frame our app activities, ebooks, or storyapps with literacy and learning in mind. Here are some ways to do so at home...with apps.

Talk- The key to apps as a literacy and language tool is using apps to encourage your child to talk with you about what they are doing and thinking while you (the parent) introduce higher vocabulary.  Talk is about enhancing your child's narrative.

The popular Dr. Panda or Toca Boca apps offer an incredible array of environments and experiences that naturally allow for context-driven, context-specific vocabulary for the parent and "open ended" play for the child.  Open ended play describes the child's ability to have choice in a given situation. Usually, the characters they interact with will respond to whatever the child does and it is not limited as to where or what a child can touch, or how (in what order) the interaction takes place. A child learns on his or her terms and interest. And word associations prefaced by a child's chosen interest is perhaps a way to increase the use of the vocabulary you present. Additionally, in these open ended environments it's easy to pick a character that your child is interested in and let that become the starting point of a story. Have your child narrate what the chosen character is going through and what is happening. Best thing about apps is much like a book, the child can return to it again and again and retell stories about the characters he or she interacts with.

For example: Dr. Panda's Hospital can be used to expand on a talk about medical conditions, health, and sickness. The app makes it easy to incorporate words like "patients" (and even "patience"), ste-tho-scope, disease, doctor, pro-ce-dures, and other multisyllabic words. These more challenging words introduce more complex language sounds to a child. And the app provides a child with a visual reinforcement of the use and real-life encounter of the words. Suggestion: The adult is the doctor, and the child is the assistant and together you discuss your patient's needs and how you came to that conclusion.

Another app that provides context driven vocabulary is Smart Fish's: Frequent Flyer. This is a great app that provides a process from beginning to end of traveling by plane. There is a lot of fun detail to talk about and you can talk in terms of beginning, middle and end. Your child will get to choose what to pack, pass through security gates, strap in and take off, collect his or her baggage, even write a postcard. The detail is really amazing.

Lastly, I also recommend apps that record. An example is WeAreWheelbarrow's digitalization of Nick Bland's "The Very Cranky Bear". This is becoming the 'story app' standard. These types of apps give your child opportunities to retell their favorite page, or retell the story in their own words. Talk is story telling!

Next up: a brief summary on Sing.