What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond Baby Talk: From Speaking to Spelling: A Guide to Language and Literacy Development for Parents and Caregivers
Guide your child to effective communication with this fully updated handbook.
Language is about so much more than just words, and healthy communication is the foundation of your child’s ability to succeed emotionally, socially, and academically. The first eight years of life are a critical period of language and literacy development, and as a parent, you are your child’s primary role model as he or she begins to acquire speaking, reading, and writing skills. And yet, you may be uncertain of what constitutes typical language progress and of what activities and practices will enhance your child’s learning experiences the most. Fully revised and updated for our modern times, Beyond Baby Talk is here to guide you through the easiest and most engaging ways to instill strong communication skills in your child, and to provide fun for you both along the way.
Inside, you’ll find all of the essential steps and checkpoints to help you gauge your child’s progress, as well as easy methods
• Evaluate and monitor your child’s spoken language development
• Enhance your child’s literacy skills for improved spelling, reading, and writing abilities
• Understand and navigate environmental influences on language development such as television, texting, and cultural slang
• Recognize the signs of language and literacy progress problems—and know when to seek professional help
In collaboration with and copyrighted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) www.asha.org/BeyondBabyTalk
Language is about so much more than just words, and healthy communication is the foundation of your child’s ability to succeed emotionally, socially, and academically. The first eight years of life are a critical period of language and literacy development, and as a parent, you are your child’s primary role model as he or she begins to acquire speaking, reading, and writing skills. And yet, you may be uncertain of what constitutes typical language progress and of what activities and practices will enhance your child’s learning experiences the most. Fully revised and updated for our modern times, Beyond Baby Talk is here to guide you through the easiest and most engaging ways to instill strong communication skills in your child, and to provide fun for you both along the way.
Inside, you’ll find all of the essential steps and checkpoints to help you gauge your child’s progress, as well as easy methods
• Evaluate and monitor your child’s spoken language development
• Enhance your child’s literacy skills for improved spelling, reading, and writing abilities
• Understand and navigate environmental influences on language development such as television, texting, and cultural slang
• Recognize the signs of language and literacy progress problems—and know when to seek professional help
In collaboration with and copyrighted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) www.asha.org/BeyondBabyTalk
- GenresParentingNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 22, 2014
The content of this book is mediocre. The first four chapters are useful for establishing benchmarks for your child. The rest of the book suffers from being either common sense, uninteresting, or outdated. Of course the last problem isn't the authors' fault since the book was published in 2001, but discussions of VHS tapes certainly feel dated. The entire section on media needs a revision, not only because technology has changed so much, but because the authors do not even discuss how music may influence speech development.
Content issues aside, the main weakness in the book is the style. At times the authors are trying too hard to be funny. At other times the style is condescending, as though they were writing to sixth graders. This is especially true of the chapter on child care. The book is also poorly edited. Every chapter has at least one glaring, distracting error. For example, "During the second and third years of life, many toddlers are developing an understand that words like..." Of course you can easily tell they meant to write "understanding," but errors such as this detract from the flow of the book and ultimately from the book's credibility.
Overall, I would recommend parents look elsewhere for a book on language development.
Content issues aside, the main weakness in the book is the style. At times the authors are trying too hard to be funny. At other times the style is condescending, as though they were writing to sixth graders. This is especially true of the chapter on child care. The book is also poorly edited. Every chapter has at least one glaring, distracting error. For example, "During the second and third years of life, many toddlers are developing an understand that words like..." Of course you can easily tell they meant to write "understanding," but errors such as this detract from the flow of the book and ultimately from the book's credibility.
Overall, I would recommend parents look elsewhere for a book on language development.
December 5, 2020
The first eight years of a person's life are critical to their language and literacy development. Authors Kenn Apel and Julie Masterson offer advice on how we can aid in that development in their book, "Beyond Baby Talk: From Speaking to Spelling: A Guide to Language and Literacy Development for Parents and Caregivers." It also provides background into why specific strategies are successful and what parents should not worry them. Grandpa Dave found it very interesting.
Here are some of my key takeaways:
- Kindergarten children tell stories with actual plots.
- Rhyming is an important building block for reading.
- Children who can divide words into individual sounds tend to be better readers and spellers.
- Many parents talk differently to girls versus boys.
- Younger children actually learn valuable language skills when they are around their older siblings.
- During the first few years of life, differences between boys and girls may be apparent when their word meanings are examined. For example, research has shown that girls are more likely to begin using emotional words like love like sad, and happy before boys. Obviously, boys are not considered to be delayed in their use of these words, and ultimately they do use them; however, there may be a time delay between when girls begin using these words and boys first say them.
- Mothers of two-year-olds tend to ask more open-ended questions of their daughters, use more child-directed speech, and produce longer and more complex sentences is than they do with their sons. They also just talk more to girls than they do to boys. When mothers are talking to their two-year-old sons, they use language more to direct their sons than they do with their daughters. They also may be less articulate than when they are with their daughters.
Here are some of my key takeaways:
- Kindergarten children tell stories with actual plots.
- Rhyming is an important building block for reading.
- Children who can divide words into individual sounds tend to be better readers and spellers.
- Many parents talk differently to girls versus boys.
- Younger children actually learn valuable language skills when they are around their older siblings.
- During the first few years of life, differences between boys and girls may be apparent when their word meanings are examined. For example, research has shown that girls are more likely to begin using emotional words like love like sad, and happy before boys. Obviously, boys are not considered to be delayed in their use of these words, and ultimately they do use them; however, there may be a time delay between when girls begin using these words and boys first say them.
- Mothers of two-year-olds tend to ask more open-ended questions of their daughters, use more child-directed speech, and produce longer and more complex sentences is than they do with their sons. They also just talk more to girls than they do to boys. When mothers are talking to their two-year-old sons, they use language more to direct their sons than they do with their daughters. They also may be less articulate than when they are with their daughters.
November 27, 2021
I am afraid I didn’t learn really anything from this book. It’s a long series of kicking in open doors for as far as I could tell. Maybe the only exception is that CDS (talking to your infant in an altered, “baby voice” style) apparently is not bad (I thought it was). Besides that, all things that are common sense, no actual scientific references, and too many times, “it doesn’t matter.”
September 7, 2018
Informative, but not amazingly so.
May 18, 2020
Good source of information for parents and caregivers to help them become the best advocates for their kids in regards to language development and interventions if needed.
January 10, 2015
Not a bad book. A lot of the info was common sense, in my opinion - and the authors were a little too thorough in their explanations at times. The way they presented info was redundant most of the time, which I know is best to retain what you're learning - but that made it a little boring. I liked the chapter about the effects of media on language development - probably the most interesting part of the book. Overall, it's a good resource.
September 15, 2009
I learned some interesting tidbits about infant language development from this book, but I wish it had gone into more detail. It is really an overview of the topic, but since linguistics is an interest of mine, I want more detail. I chose this book for its layperson language, but it turned out to be a bit too simplified for me. I want to know more, but I don't want to have to read a dissertation!
September 6, 2008
This book provides a lot of good, basic information on language development, and I would recommend it for new parents. I found that much of the information was redundant from my many classes in speech pathology. Even more than that, I actually retained some information so parts of the book were a little bit boring to me. But like I said, good information is provided, overall.
August 1, 2012
This is a great book for parents who want to know just a little bit more about language development. Very reader friendly, down to earth, with doable suggestions when they are given. I would love an updated version!
October 28, 2013
A little to simplified for an SLP, but a good resource for those unfamiliar with speech and language development.
March 30, 2010
Very helpful book on language development-- great present from language expert and good bud Kath.
November 23, 2010
American Speech - Language - Hearing Association
Note: Easy read and great resource for parents!
Note: Easy read and great resource for parents!
May 13, 2013
Truly awesome! Loved the chapter on the influence of media! I wish it had incorporated more info. on actives to do with your child to increase language development!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews