The last time I worked with Joey he was fairly quiet, and not as engaged as he usually is. He had just worked hard during his in home occupational therapy, and he just seemed tired. I was wondering if he was with me when he scanned the room and then gave me a disapproving look.
“What’s up?” I asked. “What book do you want to read? What will Fat Cat Sit on? or What is Chasing Duck?” (I’m on a Jan Thomas kick since Joey told me he loved funny, silly books. You don’t get sillier or funnier than Jan Thomas.)
Joey looked past both books I was holding up and again scanned the area of the room behind me, obviously looking for something.
He turned back to his device. “Where a a which on?” he asked, then once again looking past me. [Read more…]
Halloween is long over, so you can file this post away from next year. My own children love the book, Room on the Broom, but when I read it with my “Is this for Joey?” eyes I realized just what a great book it is.
I had the opportunity to present research on using engaging reading aloud to promote language and symbolic play at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Early Childhood Conference this October. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with other educators and hear about the current research in the field, particularly in the area of storybook reading. 
“Love. Love. Love,” Joey said to me after we read the book 
When I arrived at Joey’s house on Friday afternoon he was in a great mood. He was giggling and excited to read, and his personality shone throughout our whole session. We were reading The Gruffalo, which is about a mouse and an imaginary yet real scary monster. As we read about the scary Gruffalo with his terrible teeth in his terrible jaws, I tried to use it as an opportunity to model using body part words like teeth, tongue, knee, leg, back, etc. 
