Play-based ways to help your toddler or preschool child expand their language with basic spatial concepts and prepositions!

Basic Concepts are fundamental building blocks for taking language beyond labeling. Here are my favorite play-based ways to target them!

Last time I shared my favorite ways to target higher level language skills with audio stories. Another way to up the difficulty level is to keep the visuals in and take the audio out. Wordless animated videos are a great way to help kids target making inferences and predictions. Most people think of Pixar when they think of good quality short videos. Pixar does know how to craft one heck of a good wordless video! But they're also good at hiding them behind paywalls. If you're

Tips for addressing reading comprehension skills with reluctant readers by using highly engaging audio stories.

If you have a kid who knows all of their letters and sounds but can't seem to sound out their words, there's a good chance they're missing some underlying phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that refers to a number of different skills that rely on our knowledge of the sounds that make up a word, rather than the meaning. It is independent from letter-sound correspondence. Helping reluctant readers can feel like a herculean task but I am te

I've been dancing along to Laurie Berkner Band songs with toddlers for almost 15 years - when I first found a copy of this DVD in the day care where I worked. At the time I was a toddler room lead teacher in Houston, desperate to find a way to wear the kids out inside in the middle of a heat wave. It was a smashing success back then and I've been using it ever since! I have a TON of favorites, but here are my top suggestions for an awesome playlist to get the wiggles out on