Phonological awareness skills begin early in life. Infants begin to babble and play with sounds of all kinds, including speech sounds and lip-smacking. When listening to music or nursery rhymes, they will bounce or clap along with the rhythm.
Experience Baby provides 36 Shared Experience Cards each month. Within those cards there are three categories of activities: Move & Grow, Play & Explore, Connect & Commuicate. These activities include a variety of skills. See the full continuum of skills the Experience Baby Curriculum addresses.
Read about how Experience Curriculum incoporates phonological awareness skills through games, music, stories and movement across our curriculum programs.
Examples of Phonological Awareness Activies in Experience Baby
Phonological awareness is demonstrated by infants in the following ways:
LLD 3 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Benchmark 1: Babbles and vocalizes using sound, volume and inflection.
Benchmark 2: Imitates sounds and tones. Repeats the last word in familiar rhymes when prompted.
Below are three examples of activities that encourage phonological awareness for young infants, older infants and young toddlers:
The Dinosaur Chant encourages babies to vocalize using sound, volume and inflection as well as respond to familar rhymes.
While holding a young infant, move with the song’s prompts.
An older infant may clap with you while you listen to the chant. Repeat the chant and try a new movement, such as pounding on the floor with hands.
A young toddler can respond to the movements and sounds with a scarf while vocalizing some of the sounds and words.
During Jurassic Loud & Quiet, babies respond to changes in volume.
While holding a young infant, they can experience changes in volume when you you stomp and bounce when the music gets loud or tiptoe when it gets quiet.
An older infant may gently tap on a pot with a spoon and when the music beocmes loud, pound harder and faster.
A young toddler can respond by observing and copying actions while listening the the music.
During the classic Open & Shut Them babies, imitate and respond to sounds and tones while listening to the rhyme.
Young infants, are encouraged to play by touching your fist and trying to open your fingers while listening to the rhyme.
An older infant participate in the rhyme while watching you open and shut fingers along with the words.
A young toddler can develop this skill by interacting with the educator during the rhyme and moving their hands in different ways as prompted. They may repeat words in the rhyme.
These are just a few examples of Literacy & Langauge and Phonological Awareness activities included in the Experience Baby curriculum.
