Vehicles & Machines Storytime

Reading

Machines Go to Work in the City by William Low

A Train Goes Clickety-Clack by Jonathan London

Singing

Chuggin’

One little blue train,

chuggin' down the track,

chuggin' down the track,

chuggin' down the track.

One little blue train,

chuggin' down the track,

chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga,

choo choo!

Verses: Count up (2 trains, 3 trains, etc.) and change the color (red trains, green trains, etc.)

(This is a song that I made up! If you use it, please link back to me, thanks!)

Extension Activity (a feature in the recap email to parents & caregivers)

“Children's early language exposure impacts their later linguistic skills, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement.”

Romeo, R.R., Leonard, J.A., Robinson, S.T., West, M.R., Mackey, A.P., Rowe, M.L. & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2018). Beyond the 30-Million-Word Gap: Children’s Conversational Exposure Is Associated with Language-Related Brain Function. Psychological Science.

Today I'd like to encourage you to take an interest-driven approach to helping your child with their speech & language development. Vehicles and machines provide a great foundation to build your child's vocabulary upon. If vehicles and machines aren't part of your child's interests, try adapting these suggestions to something that is! Children learn language and speech better when we relate it to topics that they are interested in.

There are many books out there that introduce new types of vehicles and may even feature a glossary of all the names and parts of these machines (like the book we read, Machines Go to Work in the City). What a wonderful opportunity for your child to work on their vocabulary!

Taking this a step further, talking about machine actions allow for new ways to introduce verbs and spatial words. A lot of books about vehicles and machines provide opportunities for children to say onomatopoeias, like "vroom" or "beep beep!" which can be easier to say for children struggling with speech development.

The speech-language pathologists over at Wee Talkers point out:

Researchers found that, yes…. TALKING is important, BUT it’s not just about the number of words children hear. ⁣Researchers found that the children need to hear words within motivating, back-and forth-conversations. ⁣Responsive, positive interactions with young children are key! ⁣

⁣You can think of it like a game of tennis. Back & forth. Back & forth. You take a turn & your child takes a turn!⁣

Don't underestimate the power of conversing with your child, whether it be while they're playing with vehicles, or watching them out the window, or in the car. These are powerful opportunities to help your child develop their language and speech. Here are some ways to start back-and-forth conversations with your child, through modeling:

• Steer away from asking too many questions.
  Wee Talkers speech-language pathologists also point out, "For kids who are just starting to talk or aren’t talking much yet, questions can be hard to answer and respond to. Some questions can even make kids feel like they’re on the spot which adds pressure. Using comments more often than questions can help make sure that learning to talk never feels like a test."
  
  

• Talk about what your child is seeing, hearing, and experiencing.
  "Wow! that car is moving so fast!" or "That truck is backing up. I hear it beeping. It is moving slowly and carefully."
  
  

• Talk about your child's past and future experiences with vehicles.
  This helps your child learn what to expect and compare it to what they already know.
  "Tomorrow the garbage truck comes. We have to set the garbage out. When the garbage truck comes it is loud!"
  
  

• Pretend to be vehicles and play with toy vehicles with your child.
  The Construction Vehicle Song is great for this!
  "The excavator scoops up dirt like this!" (scooping motion with hand)
  "I'm going to try driving this (toy) car over this bumpy carpet. I wonder how it will feel."
  
  

• Describe the characteristics of vehicles.
  "That firetruck is red, and its siren makes a loud sound!"
  "This toy steamroller has a large smooth wheel."
  
  

• Make vehicle sounds.
  Encourage your child to imitate you!