Conversational Partnership involves having meaningful conversations WITH (not to or at) your child, engaging them as a partner in the effort, rather than a one-way street of requests and/or narration.
Tiers of Vocabulary:
Tier 1 words are those children are likely to be exposed to throughout their everyday experiences. These are generally simple words like dog, tree, ball, play, and talk.
Tier 2 words are more rich and complex. For example, words like curious, elated, exclaimed, and furious. When adults model these words for children, it helps build critical language knowledge.
Introduction of the TALK Strategy
Discussion: We discussed times of day that parents might engage their child(ren) as a conversational/communication partner (to include words, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, parentese, open-ended questions and touch). Examples included bedtime, mealtime, travel time, and bath time. We also brainstormed possible tiers of vocabulary associated with these times of day.
Partner Practice: Parents paired up to practice conversations using tiers of vocabulary and open-ended questions.
Videos: We watched the following to observe example exchanges and the use of parentese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdLKpxktJB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3WxwNPlbA
Homework: Engage in conversational/communication exchanges with children using the strategies in the session recap. Also, continue to work on vision board goals.