First Words

My munchkin is learning to talk. I yelled down the stairs during bath time, "Baby said his first word!" and his brothers and dad came to listen.

"Ball." It was clear with nice emphasis on the b and a soft ending on the l. He was holding one in his fist at the time, red with yellow stars. He lifted it to his mouth, as he does with just about everything and made another sound. "Baby said his second word!" I yelled again. Or maybe he was just saying, "Ball, ball..." because as he placed it over his mouth again and again, it sounded like he was saying, "Bubble." Hey, we were in the bath tub, so it's not so far fetched. Either way, I'm obviously quite proud.

This is my third baby, so it's not the first time that I've nurtured and observed speech development in my home. I'm still struck by the natural progression. From those early vowel sounds to consonants, I've seen my infant sons experiment, moving their little mouths into various shapes to form words. I've seen them all stare intently at our mouths as we talk and then they'd break into laughter at their favorite sounds. We could always get our first son to laugh by saying, "Cous-cous." Our next son responded to, "Shaky, shaky." This week, Munchkin can't contain his excitement when we fake-sneeze, "Aaaah-choo!" Then there's always the delight he gets from hearing lines from a book. The giggling was contagious last night when he laughed to the rhythm of, "Dum ditty, dum ditty, dum, dum, dum," a line from a board book called Hands, Fingers, Thumb. He's learning by listening, watching, experimenting. We make it fun by giving him fun words to say.

I can't help but connect this process with an activity I've done with my English students to enhance writing instruction. I call it Writers Read, tapping into the idea that writers learn by reading.
It started years ago when I realized that overall my sixth graders were more eager to get lost in a story than they were to put words on a page. Some of the same kids whose hands pressed against their foreheads before their blank paper were the ones who stood by me in the library with book recommendations. I worked to build a bridge between their cherished stories to their own writing. How does the author let you see it, hear it, feel it? What words jump off the page? First, find a book you want to read. Next, uncover what draws you in. Talk about it with your friends and with me. Now try it yourself.

Just as a baby watches his mom form words before he speaks his own, we can invite our students to observe published authors. The key is to draw them in with writing that pleases them. A ball, a bubble, a book. Whatever we put before them, it sure helps if they like it, too.