Let language bloom.
Boosting language through play
A class for 0-18 month olds and their grown-ups
What happens in class?
Part 1 : Sounds
This part is all about showing the little ones how to experiment with their breath, voice-box and mouth, working towards ease in pronunciation. We play around with a consonant sound, blending it with vowels and bouncing it around until we are ready to build a word with it.
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Silliness rating : extremely silly
Part 2 : Words
Next, we focus on teaching vocabulary. With a mixture of group and parent-to-child activities we teach the concept and meaning of two functional words, and then we play together whilst modelling them in different contexts.
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Silliness rating : medium
Part 3 : Stories
Finally we read a storybook that is accompanied by sensory experiences such as snow, flowers or leaves. Grown-ups can sit back and relax now. This part of the class is about enjoying language being performed, and beginning to appreciate how stories are structured.
Silliness rating : mild
Extra info...
In each session of the 6-week schedule, we also work on:
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Emotional literacy - the ability to identify and label emotions. ​​
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Introduction to phonics - We see a letter-shape and sing about its name, and what it "says". Matching sounds to letter-shapes is the very beginning of reading skills.
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Natural textures - We play with a different texture each week which might be flowers, soil, leaves or sand.
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We use at least one sensory regulation strategy in each session. My favourite part is giving everyone a full 3 minutes relaxing to gentle music whilst we slow the babies' heart-rates down before the story. ​​
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The activities in class flow from stimulating to regulating and back again with the aim of supporting the little-ones' concentration. We try to strip away distractions and carefully transition from one task to another.
