How To Provide Early Literacy Experiences for Infants and Toddlers

What is early literacy?How do we provide experiences that promote early literacy in our tiny humans?In this episode, Ayelet sits down with former birth-to-three early interventionist and parenting blogger, Kayla O’Neill of Parenting Expert To Mom, where she shares strategies to encourage learning in daily routines.Kayla and Ayelet discuss the term “early literacy,” what kinds of experiences fall under that term (and how they foster and support early development), skills involved in the development of early literacy, and some wonderful tips and resources for integrating early literacy experiences into your everyday life.QUICK ACCESS TO LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:Kayla’s website, Parenting Expert To Mom50 Simple Ways to Encourage Literacy Skills Resources from zero.three.orgLearn With Less Podcast Episode, “Think Outside The Text”Learn With Less Podcast Episode, “Libraries Are For Babies”Learn With Less Podcast Episode, “Wordless Picture Books” with Megan LingoCONNECT WITH US!Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / YouTubeKayla: Website / Facebook / Instagram / TwitterTEXT TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODEWelcome to episode 49 of the Learn With Less podcast! Today, I’m speaking with Kayla O’Neill, a former Birth To Three Early Interventionist who has worked with children with developmental delays and coached parents and caregivers on strategies to encourage their infant or toddler’s development. She has now taken that passion and put it into her writing on the website, “Parenting Expert to Mom,” where she shares strategies to encourage learning in daily routines. She’s currently a stay-at-home mom taking some time off from teaching to learn, enjoy, and raise her son, and is, at the time of this recording, also 37 weeks pregnant with her second baby! Kayla, welcome, and how are you feeling?Kayla: Good! Yeah, pregnant.Ayelet: Exactly! Good. Well, thanks for coming onto the show, and I’ve asked you to come on today to speak a bit about early literacy. First, though, I would love to just hear a bit about you. What brought you to the kind of work you’re doing today?Kayla: Yeah! Like you said, I worked in early intervention for about six years, I mainly worked with that birth to three age, so working with the babies and toddlers, doing a lot of assessments, evaluations, and home visits. A little bit in the classroom, but mostly home-based, and yeah! We really focused on daily routines, and teaching parents strategies that you can do every day that encourage development. And so, did that for six years, and we actually made a big move to Indiana for my husband’s work, and I’ve become a stay-at-home mom. I really miss connecting with families and parents and other professionals that work in early childhood, so I thought I’d start a blog and I started parentingexperttomom.com,