The evidence is in and it is compelling! We can help prepare children for reading success during the preschool years. This first in our series of BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® webinars will share the research on which this professional development program is based and proven. It will also focus on the important role of oral language development to reading and spelling achievement. Participants will learn why phonology, vocabulary, syntax and pragmatics are all important to young children’s getting ready to enter kindergarten eager to learn. Listening, speaking, reading and writing will be shared as interrelated activities that all have language at the base.

1. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Webinar Series
March 29, April 23, May 3, and May 17, 2012
View the prerecorded
Research & Language Development webinar
at
www.getreadytoread.org

2. Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
President, Stern Center for Language and Learning
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology
University of Vermont College of Medicine
bpodhajski@sterncenter.org
Brenda Buzzell, M.Ed.
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Instructor and Program Coordinator
bbuzzell@sterncenter.org

3. Shared Book Reading
emphasizing Vocabulary
Speech to Print
Phonological Connection
Awareness including Alphabet Knowledge
A research-based and research-proven
professional learning program
for early care and education providers

4. Effective Instruction for Preschool Children
Builds skills
within developmentally
appropriate fun-filled
Engaging activities

5. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

6. Meets National Child Development
Associate (CDA) credential for
Physical and Intellectual Development
Counts towards
NAEYC and NAFCC
accreditations
Aligns with the Head Start Child Development and
Early Learning Framework
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® certificate for 12 hours
of Professional Learning is available for $50.

7. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Supporting Early Childhood Education through Professional Development
Free & Online
For
 Early care and education providers
 Parents
Videos  Teaching Examples  Interactive Format
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org
Developed by Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D., Nancy Clements, M.A., CCC-SLP,
Brenda Buzzell, M.Ed., and Marilyn Varrichio, M.Ed.

8. Welcome to
EARLY LITERACY RESEARCH
and
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
WEBINAR 1
March 29, 2012
1:00 EST
Thanks to generous grant support.

9. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Research-based

10. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
What do we know about early literacy research?
A majority of reading problems can be
prevented in preschool and the early grades
(National Research Council, 1998)
There is a 90% chance that a poor reader
at the end of first grade will be a poor reader
at the end of fourth grade (Juel, 1988)
Of low-income fourth graders, 68% cannot read
at the proficient level (National Assessment Educational
Progress, 2000)
47% of children enter kindergarten not ready to learn
(Zill and West, 2001)

11. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Research-proven
(Podhajski, B., & Nathan, J.)
2005

12. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Year 3
Preliteracy Skills Screening Test (PLSS)
Pre/Post Test Results: Average %
(p <.05)
n = 13 n = 88
Children whose providers participated in BUILDING BLOCKS
made significantly greater early literacy gains than children whose
providers had not taken BUILDING BLOCKS.
(Podhajski & Nathan, ECEJ, 2005)

13. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Year 3
Preliteracy Skills Screening Test (PLSS)
Pre/Post Test Results: Average %
(p = 1.0) Not significant (p = < .001) Significant
More children in the lowest 20th percentile—our at-risk children—
rose from below to above an at-risk level
when their providers participated in BUILDING BLOCKS.
(Podhajski & Nathan, ECEJ, 2005)

15.
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

16. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

17. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
All are Forms of Language
Listening Speaking
Reading Writing

18. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Phonology - Sounds
Vocabulary - Words, relationships,
and concepts
Morphology - Meaningful
word parts
Syntax - The rules for
making sentences
Pragmatics - Language use based
on context and situation (discourse
and conversation)

19. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

21. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

22. SOURCE: Meaningful Differences by Hart and Risley
32 Million Word Difference!
http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah-ch1-pg3.htm

23. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

25. VOCABULARY FACTOIDS
• In 1st and 2nd grade, children need to learn 800+ words
per year, about 2 per day
• Children need to learn 2,000 to 3,000 new words each
year from 3rd grade onward, about 6–8 per day.
• Research has shown that most typically developing
children need to encounter a word about 12 times
before they know it well enough to improve their
comprehension.
• 4th, 5th, and 6th graders encounter about 10,000 words
they have never seen before in print during a year’s worth
of reading. Biemiller; Nagy & Anderson

26. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

27. Morphology
Meaningful Word Parts
Words and word parts that change or “morph”
the meanings of words.
flower flowers
skate skating skated
happy happier happiest

28. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

29. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

30. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
SYNTAX
The rules for making sentences
1 year old: cookie
2 year old: want cookie
3 year old: I want a
chocolate chip cookie.

31. Facilitating Language Development
Modeling Demonstration
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

32. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

33. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
PRAGMATICS is language in use.
It refers to how we use language in different
environments (contexts) and social situations.

34. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
PRAGMATICS
Language use based on context and situation
(discourse and conversation)
Exchanges
between
speakers
– Reciprocal
– Meaningful

35. Nonverbal Communication
-facial expression
-tone of voice:
“Mom”
-body language
-gestures: finger pointing come here

36. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Language includes:
Listening Speaking Reading Writing
Important elements of language are:
Phonology
Vocabulary
Morphology
Syntax
Pragmatics
Scaffolding helps support children advance from what they know to
what they need to learn.

37. Thank you for joining us!
View the prerecorded
Research & Language Development webinar
at
www.getreadytoread.org
Please visit
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org