PIC Family Voices Podcast Episode 12:  Lets Talk Literacy in Early Childhood Education!

Joanne Grobecker (00:35.419)

Hi everyone, today we’re talking with Kris Reilly. Kris is an early childhood educator with deep expertise in literacy development and language-based learning disabilities. She holds an MED in early childhood education, a doctorate in educational leadership focused on phonological processing and educator training, and advanced certifications in dyslexia studies and as a reading writing specialist. 

Joanne Grobecker (01:04.209)

Throughout her career as a preschool coordinator, special education case manager, and adjunct professor, Kris has supported students from preschool through university, specializing in teaching foundational literacy skills. Currently she serves as a reading writing specialist in a Southern New Hampshire School District and tutors secondary students in academic writing. Kris is certified in numerous evidence-based literacy approaches including Wilson, Orton-Gillingham, and Letters, and holds multiple teaching certifications across general and special education. Welcome, Kris. Thanks for being with us today. 

Kris Reilly (01:46.585)

Thank you so much for having me. 

Joanne Grobecker (01:49.561)

So we have some introductory questions to get to know you. Can you tell us a little about your background and what drew you to early childhood language and literacy? 

Kris Reilly (01:59.801)

To be honest, I think I spent the weekend with my mom. So she’ll tell you that I was always that child was had her nose in a book, especially when chores were necessary. You would always find me in the back room under, you know, under a, under a bed, under a table, you know, sitting sideways in a chair reading. Um, so I was always one those children who was always reading. And then as an adult, I was interested in writing. So I became a technical writer for software engineer, software engineering and quality assurance. 

Kris Reilly (02:28.245)

And then when I decided to go back to school for education, I just had to do early childhood education focusing pretty much on literacy. The pre-literacy skills, the writing skills, how to become a reader and writer, you know, when you were two, three, four years old, that was just exciting and watching children do that. That was kind of my thing. Like I just loved watching them do it and was like, well, how do people learn to read? How do people get involved in literacy? Like how do they… 

Kris Reilly (02:56.781)

How do we think? And it was more neurologically, how do we process language? How do we learn language? It was very exciting. So I just had to do it. 

Joanne Grobecker (03:05.627)

And your students are so lucky to have you. Was there a moment, maybe a childhood experience that sparked your passion for helping young children develop these skills? 

Kris Reilly (03:15.769)

I think it probably, like I said, came from the fact that I was always had an affinity for it as a child. At school, at our own school, we talk about the SRA readers where as a student back in the 70s and 80s and 90s, you used to be able to go find the color and you’d get to basically get a little book and read the book and answer the questions. And your goal was to get through as many books as possible. 

Kris Reilly (03:39.785)

Very few districts have those kinds of things anymore. And definitely not science of reading, evidence-based, those kinds of things, but it was just something that I needed to do and love to do. And then as an educator, what I found is that I would find students who no matter what we were teaching or how we were teaching, it was still a struggle. So being a puzzle solver, also being sort of that technical writer, being that software engineering kind of mathematical brain, I needed to solve the problem. Like why? 

Kris Reilly (04:09.495)

Why is it hard for someone that I’ve been working with for eight weeks not picking it up? What can I do differently? Or what don’t I understand so that I can reach them? And so that sort of started the journey of the next degree, the next research, the next degree, so I could solve it. 

Joanne Grobecker (04:29.335)

That’s excellent. Yeah, it sounds like your background just made you perfect for this. When we talk about language and literacy, especially for babies and toddlers, what does that really mean? 

Kris Reilly (04:40.429)

The neat part about language is language is innate as opposed to reading is not a natural process. actually need to go on to our neurological system and put on and reuse a part of our brain that is meant for a different purpose. But for children, for us as human beings, language is a natural process. And there’s that receptor piece where we’re listening to language and we’re understanding words. And there’s that expressive language where we have you know, children starting to like imitate and coo and make sounds and then say words and then put words together to phrases and sentences. And so that’s that expressive language piece. And all of that is part of literacy. I don’t know that people always understand that literacy is oral language. mean, it starts language is sort of like the foundation. That’s the base. And it’s pretty exciting. And it starts with that babbling and cooing to single words, to phrases and sentences. 

Kris Reilly (05:36.375)

Then the next piece is vocabulary. Vocabulary is critical. The more research that’s happening is they’re talking about building that vocabulary. It’s kind of an unconstrained skill. The deeper your vocabulary, the broader your vocabulary, the further you can go. And it’s very, very important as a young child, but it becomes even increasingly more important in upper elementary through adulthood, through, you know, basically through adulthood, college years, those kinds of things. So building that vocabulary through hearing stories, engaging in reciprocal turn taking conversations. That is a critical skill. And then, like I said, the oral language of what is the prosody? How do you listen to the rhythm of our speech? Where do you hear those stops, those pauses, the intonation of how higher voice, how lower voice goes? All of those things are pretty critical for young children to hear and learn. 

Kris Reilly (06:34.381)

That’s why speech language pathologists in early childhood are so critical. They’re just such critical people in that they have these deep skills. Then you get into emergent literacy and you’re talking about what they call phonological sensitivity and phonological awareness. And that’s understanding that these strings of language that you’re hearing right now are separated into like words. 

Kris Reilly (06:58.241)

And then words are separated into sounds and all of those things and then you can actually manipulate them. That’s when you’re talking about phonemic awareness. You can manipulate them and you can basically say bat and change that initial sound, that buh, to a kuh and you go from bat to cat. So that’s phonological awareness. But it starts with, phonemic awareness, I apologize. That’s phonemic awareness, but it starts with that phonological sensitivity, the rhyming, the alliteration. How many words do you hear in like this sentence? How many syllables in the word? 

Kris Reilly (07:28.075)

That kind of thing. And that’s really important for children to start to distinguish, especially in early childhood, preschool. Right now, I happen to be teaching four year olds and we’re doing a lot of that. We get very excited when we’re teaching words with three syllables or just this past week, we worked on the word decoration and that was just mind blowing because we could hold on to two, but four was pushed to the envelope. 

Joanne Grobecker (07:50.767)

Yeah, that’s a big word for four-year-olds. 

Kris Reilly (07:52.953)

It was a very big word for a four year old, but they were like, we want a challenge. And we’re like, OK. Other thing is, know, book handling skills, kind of like, you know, do you understand what a book is? Do you understand that, you know, those pictures can tell a story, those words, those symbols on a page, those are words and they actually convey meaning. Do you understand that, you know, that for. 

Joanne Grobecker (07:58.38)

Aww. 

Kris Rielly (08:16.173)

In English, basically we use that left to right, top to bottom orientation, but in other cultures it’s different. there’s the book handling skills and then there’s even the pre-writing skills of holding a big crayon, holding chalk, know, basically using those daubers to dab on, you know, anything, you know, going outside and, you know, drawing on the sidewalk kind of thing. So all of those early writing skills come in to do it. And then, the interactions and experiences. So those language rich environment, just like the conversations we’re having, having those with children. And then it fosters that positive interaction and that warmth and caring and that embracing of connectivity between like an adult and a caregiver. So that is super wonderful. And then truly it’s also exposure to books. So basically reading aloud to the babies and toddlers from an early age. 

Kris Reilly (09:10.775)

Basically, you’re fostering that love of literacy and language the whole time through. again, happens, honestly, it actually happens in utero, which is pretty exciting. Dr. Gab from Harvard University, she and a colleague, Ted Tureski, have been working on when does the divergence happen, because I happened to be a dyslexia specialist kind of thing. But Ted Tureski and Nadine Gab have been exploring in that. 

Kris Reilly (09:38.424)

The differences in how our brains experience language. We used to think it happened like in preschool, threes and fours, and now they’re finding that it even can happen as early as 18 months old. That’s one of the newest research that’s coming out. it’s like, okay, so it just means to us, to all of the parents and caregivers and early childhood educators that… 

Joanne Grobecker (09:49.222)

That’s fascinating. 

Kris Reilly (10:00.973)

We need to start early, like right away. When they’re in utero, start singing and playing word games and talking to them. Like we probably all do anyway, but it’s like, so. 

Joanne Grobecker (10:13.489)

And so when parents hear that sometimes they think, I should be my kid’s teacher at home. But something that a term that we hear sometimes is serve and return. Can you explain what that looks like in everyday moments with a baby or young child? 

Kris Reilly (10:21.677)

Mm-hmm. 

Kris Reilly (10:25.945)

All right, Serve and Return is a pretty exciting thing. it sort of made sort of, I think it was like national news, like two or three years ago, you would see like on Instagram and other things, these pictures of these these gentlemen, literally talking to their children, talking to their babies, and the child would be just like, you know, babbling away. And the adult would be like, I cannot believe you said that. Wow. Explain that to me. So and it’s really exciting. So Serve and Return is just, I was going to say tennis, but if you don’t play tennis, think pickleball. Basically that responsive back and forth, that exchange, that reciprocal turn taking, that again, speech, language, pathologists love, parents and children love because you know, you’re like, did you hear me? Could you respond? It’s that give and take, that back and forth between an adult and a child. The neat part about it is it’s your cool thing about language and maybe this is. 

Kris Reilly (11:23.437)

The nerd in me, but the big is that you’re shaping your brain architecture. You’re always working on that neurological pathways. It’s so, so cool. So what you’re doing is you’re making that interaction back and forth, back and forth, and you’re creating all of those social emotional skills. So you’re talking about turn taking, you’re talking about joint attention, like someone’s gonna actually look towards you and expect some kind of thing back. So you’re working all that social engagement. So you’re talking about discourse and social pragmatics. So exciting. 

Kris Reilly (11:52.921)

And you’re basically creating the foundation, level of playing field for building further vocabulary skills, further language development in the future. You’re basically starting to the base for those high level cognitive abilities, which is how cool. 

Joanne Grobecker (12:09.201)

Yeah, that’s so exciting. And so back and forth with your baby, even if they’re just cooing and response or babbling, just responding back and forth to them is really what sets that foundation. Why is this back and forth conversation, even with the baby who can’t talk yet, so important for building vocabulary and later reading skills? 

Kris Reilly (12:39.971)

So what you were just talking about, basically you’re creating that environment so that children one are learning to like expect something back. basically you’re developing these amazing habits and these amazing skills to create this engagement. It’s pretty exciting. So you’re also doing that positive influence that’s happening. So children are gonna be expecting that like there’s something coming back and they’re like, so if I… 

Kris Reilly (13:09.625)

I don’t know if I point and babble to something and point and I carry girl girl. Oh, I mean, eventually goes. Oh, they mean this. You know, I mean, for example, I have a new a new family member and she’s calling bunnies because we have so many bunnies in our neighborhood. She’s pointing the bunnies and she’s calling the bananies. She means a banana. No, she’s actually meaning the bunny rabbits. And but that is her word for bunny rabbit. But people are misunderstanding, but at the same point, she’s waiting for a response and people are responding back. They’re like, oh, yes, those are bunny rabbits or those are rabbits. And then, you know, if she points to fruit, this is a banana, that kind of thing. But she’s looking for that feedback, which is wonderful because if there’s the absence of that serve and return interaction, it’s going to deprive that brain of that positive stimulation. And then what the research has been finding is that if it happens enough, your basically body’s Texas stress response kind of floods your system. So it can have a negative impact. I mean, that’s excessive, but for people to understand that there’s so many reasons that someone might want to engage in that consistent server return kind of thing. And it just, produces those positive hormones in your body anyway, but it also produces that positive like, I get something back. 

Kris Reilly (14:35.457)

When I put forth these sounds or these words or these phrases. It’s providing that healthy development environment for children. 

Joanne Grobecker (14:44.229)

Yeah, and that’s something simple that parents can do at home that they don’t even realize they’re teaching their child. 

Kris Reilly (14:49.697)

Absolutely. Absolutely. That’s what’s so cool. 

Joanne Grobecker (14:53.093)

Now it’s summer, I know we’re all back to school shopping and getting our kids ready. What are some of the language and literacy skills children need to be ready for kindergarten? Not just knowing the alphabet, but things that might surprise families. 

Kris Reilly (15:06.585)

All right, well, the exciting part for children, know, like think, you know, four and five year olds, basically, can they put together like a puzzle? This is kind of an academic thing. I’m going to actually tell you what, like, I looked up sort of what kindergarten teachers are looking for and having some with a bunch of four year olds. Can they play cooperatively or even show that they’re interested in peers? Like, that’s a really important thing to say. Can they share to a certain extent? 

Joanne Grobecker (15:21.19)

Yeah. 

Kris Reilly (15:35.117)

Are they enthusiastic towards learning anything new? Do they want to explore something? Do they have any eagerness? Do they like to ask questions? What kind of risk taking are they? Are they willing to try something new? And if they’re not willing to try something new, how do you encourage them to try something new? And it doesn’t have to be huge. It could be like, do you like cats or dogs? Can they respond to just a question? That kind of thing. Can they persevere if things get tricky? 

Kris Reilly (16:04.889)

Things are hard, things are challenging. Those are sort of important things. Can they communicate their needs? know, I’m thirsty, I need to use the restroom, my shoes untied, those kinds of things. Can they sit and listen to a story? You know, it doesn’t have to be a long story, but are they comfortable sitting and listening to a story? So there’s a lot of students just don’t have the experience of sitting and listening to a storybook. 

Kris Reilly (16:32.673)

So would be great if they had that. And then how independent are they? Can they separate from parents and caregivers? And as an early childhood educator, we understand it’s really, really hard. It’s very, very hard. But over time, can they do it? if it happened, know, preschool happens three days in a row or four days a row. By that fourth or fifth day, they like, mom, dad, nana, nanny, someone will be coming back for me after. 

Kris Reilly (17:00.939)

These three hours or these four hours, know, and setting that like, believe I will go play with my friends, I will do some things. And then I’ll still when I come back out, somebody will there for me, do they understand that there’s that object permanence and it’s it’s okay to separate and then come back to feel.

Joanne Grobecker (17:16.529)

Yeah, and that was something I had one that had a little bit of trouble separating at preschool. And the phrase the teacher told me use was, mommy always comes back, mommy always comes back. Because after, and that first time, I think was harder on me than it was on her. But by the second and third time when she realizes, oh, she really does always come back, that I think that’s so important for kids to understand. And so these skills, being able to take risks too, academic risk, social risk, being able to sit and listen to a story and have some independence, let their needs be known. Why is it so important to start supporting these skills before a child turns five and starts kindergarten? 

Kris Reilly (17:59.225)

Well, I looked up statistics because I wanted to see, basically, according to 2021, because I was looking for more recent statistics, but so far not exactly available, about 30 % of students, kindergarten students, were ready for kindergarten. Everybody else was not ready for kindergarten. So what happens is if they’re not learning that somewhere else, the place to teach it will have to be kindergarten. that’s, kindergarten teachers do, to a certain extent, expect there’s going to be a component, a group of students who won’t be ready. Everything is new. So that will happen. That’s where it will happen. It will happen in kindergarten. Thing is, what happens is everything becomes really challenging, really hard. everything is, so you’re gonna be learning your social-emotional development, your motor skills, how to eventually hold a pencil or a crayon, how to look after yourself, how to use the restroom, how to… come back and how to fasten your clothing, how to open your lunch box or your little juice box. All of those things are learning events. So you’re going to be learning all of those. In addition to, you’re going to understand like the alphabetic principle, understanding that these crazy symbols that are both uppercase and lowercase, what? And then you remember, and then they are associated with sounds. Okay, so A looks like this. but it looks like that. 

Kris Reilly (19:22.957)

Don’t throw in the typeface thing because that throws people too. And then it all represents the A sound and the A sound. And then you’re going to make me actually start to blend them together to create words. So there’s so much to learn. That’s probably why I’m so excited about it. It’s like early literacy and early childhood. You’re learning so much so quickly. So it’s wonderful if there’s sort of like some base level foundation when students come in so they’re not overwhelmed by all of that information. 

Kris Reilly (19:52.441)

Because it can be overwhelming. can be tricky. I was even looking up today about red-shirting kindergartners because I guess it used to be like four to six percent of, and it used to be mostly young boys is what it was. And I have to admit, I have a son who is older now, but went to readiness too. And I didn’t know what readiness was when I moved to New Hampshire and I was ready. So technically he did kindergarten twice or he did kindergarten and then kindergarten plus through readiness. 

Joanne Grobecker (20:05.937)

Yeah. 

Kris Reilly (20:22.369)

And it worked for him. I know the research says, no, by the time they’re third graded, it all evens out. But it was just, he really didn’t have those foundational skills. He had academic skills, but he sat underneath tables facing away from anyone when they spoke with him. So was like, so clearly as a parent, I should have worked more on those. But yeah, he needed that practice. 

Joanne Grobecker (20:49.553)

Yeah, and a lot of kids do. And I think it’s so interesting that really education has changed, but also a lot of families’ home lives have changed. Someone was discussing how this year’s incoming kindergartners were the COVID babies that were born in 2020, now that it’s 2025. And I have a lot of friends with young kids that are saying, you know, there’s been a lot of parents working from home and the play groups, the daycare situations, everything looked really different those first few years of toddler development. So if you have an older kid, it wasn’t necessarily the same sitting at the library story time and going to people’s houses and going to playgrounds. There’s a lot more social distancing, a lot more kids at home, a lot less play dates and big group situations. So they were talking about how school might might look a little different with this new generation of students. What do you think about that? 

Kris Reilly (21:49.037)

Now, are, I’m very excited. was reading just recently in the past week, the same thing that this is, you know, this is the year where we get our students who were born during COVID. Cause we had seen over the past several years, the students who were home during like the COVID shutdown, the pandemic shutdown, and they, there was just that, that turn taking the social, again, I’m going to shout out to the speech language pathologist. Basically how to communicate with peers and with others. 

Kris Reilly (22:17.059)

How to code switch between when you talk to an adult, when you talk to your peer, understanding discourse, this give and take, this serve and return. All of that was definitely impacted for all students, not just for students with language challenges, just for everybody, because it was just, it was different. We had a different experience. So it will be very interesting to see this group of children coming in, what their experiences are. Because, you know, realistically, 

Kris Reilly (22:44.631)

The entire globe experienced a pandemic. So that was a trauma. kind of finding how we all navigate through that trauma is going to be very interesting. And then the nice part is schools have lots of supports, which is wonderful. So there’ll be support. 

Joanne Grobecker (23:00.881)

That’s excellent for those kids that need it. And I think for all kids, schools really changed and there’s a lot more support with social, emotional, and behavioral needs that they’re able to really support kids and families. So for families that may not have their child, and I know daycare wait lists are so long right now, and some people are working from home, so their kids are home. If families don’t have their children in a daycare or preschool setting and are at home with them. What are some simple ways that families can build strong language and literacy skills during everyday routines like folding their laundry, grocery shopping, sitting at the drive-through? 

Kris Reilly (23:42.487)

Honestly, we’ll start with like basic talk. Just keep talking. But talk in interesting ways and that start with when they’re really young, you can use what they call like child directed language or sort of I was researching about when we all talk to babies, our voices, our intonation changes, and it turns out that it happens globally. Like doesn’t matter what language you use that we all we change the register. 

Kris Reilly (24:11.521)

In the pitch of our tone, it turns like the letter I. Everyone tends to go higher for some reason, and people are like, yep, that seems to be a global thing, and babies really attune to that. Over time, though, use real language. Talk about a vehicle, a car. Don’t have to use baby talk, that kind of thing, so just have conversations. And then, because it’s a conversation, ask a question, ask lots of questions. 

Kris Reilly (24:40.793)

Pause, wait for the answer and respond. So have those narrative discussions. If you are going to the grocery store, talk about what you’re gonna do while we’re driving to the grocery store. What do you think we should buy? Why do we think we should buy that? How should I, I tend to be a short person, so I’d be like, how am gonna reach that on that shelf? Should I buy this green can of beans or this yellow can of beans? Like, bring in, you, we call them W-H-U-S, like, you know, what, where, when, why, then how. Ask all of those questions and wait for the response. Opportunities to play with other peers if they can. That’s great. When you read a book with them, read, ask a question, wait for the response. Read silly stories, fairy tales, fables. I’m just thinking of like, I was just reading because we’re working on the shh. 

Kris Reilly (25:38.649)

Sound was reading Sheep in a Jeep. So was reading Nancy Shaw’s books in Sheep in a Jeep or we’ve been reading a lot of Froggy Goes Swimming or Froggy Gets Dressed and the repetition of froggy and then what? The children absolutely have the call and response. It reminds me of cheerleaders where they have the callbacks. It’s the same thing. It’s the call and response and children get used to that predictability but they’re also highly engaged. So that really works. 

Kris Reilly (26:07.947)

Again, sound games driving down the road. I hear the sound or I’m saying the sound, cat. Can you think of a word that rhymes with cat? You know, those kinds of things. So there doesn’t have to be direct teaching because just by being out and about with your child, you are teaching. Just by them living their life, you are teaching. 

Joanne Grobecker (26:28.273)

That’s good to know because I feel like sometimes people want you to sit down and teach your child and we’re all so busy with work from home and all the kids and their activities and maybe too much screen time that I feel like I don’t have a big chunk of time to sit down and teach my child things but just having these small moments to interact and when you talk about the froggy books, my daughter loved the Froggy Bakes a Cake book. 

Joanne Grobecker (26:53.263)

And we used to always say they would like be mixing it. We’d say, what do you think’s gonna happen with the WH questions? And they put in the, what do you think’s gonna happen? She’d always say, bake the cake, bake the cake. And then she remembered and she goes, have a party. And it’s, yeah, it’s making those big connections. Not like what’s immediately gonna happen next, but what’s gonna happen next in the story. And so I know sometimes parents worry. 

Joanne Grobecker (27:19.483)

We’re not doing enough because we don’t have time to sit down and really teach and be a teacher. What would you say to them? 

Kris Reilly (27:26.265)

To be honest with you, my short answer is you are a teacher. Just by being a parent and being a caregiver, you are a teacher. So everything you’re doing is, first of all, being absorbed because we know our young little ones, their eyes and ears are everywhere. They’re paying attention to everything. And they always are, even when you think they’re not. And so, I mean, pretty much you can just narrate what you’re doing. It’s like, oh, I need to do the laundry. We ran out of clean whatever. I need to do the sheets today. 

Joanne Grobecker (27:41.711)

Yup. 

Kris Reilly (27:55.993)

I’m going to put the sheets in the wash machine so you can narrate what you’re doing. Then as they’ve expanded their language, it’s like, what do think we’re doing? It’s like, yes, sheets. We’re going to wash the sheets. Or, yes, we need to feed the dog, that kind of thing. So all of those wonderful things that you’re doing, basically going to almost like you’re narrating yourself talking to yourself, but you know you’re doing it out loud. 

Kris Reilly (28:21.338)

For your child and then you can ask them to do the same thing. And again, we go back to those WH questions. What are we doing? Where do you think we should go next? Or as they get older and they’re at that like, that pre-alphabetic stage of their scribbling and they want to scribble, have them make you a list. They’ll make you the list and have them have their paper in their list. 

Joanne Grobecker (28:40.401)

Haha 

Kris Reilly (28:43.641)

And we all know it’ll be a bunch of scribbles, but the great part is they’ve participated in the list. It’s like, oh, OK, we’re going to go to the bank first, then we’re going to go to the grocery store, then we might get our car washed. Or we’re going to go to the bookstore to story time, or the library. The children’s library sections at our local libraries are fabulous, and the children’s librarians have so much to share. have so many great books and so many good activities to share. 

Kris Reilly (29:11.181)

So that’s the nice part is there’s a wealth of information out there. I know it can be hard to access it or get to it, but there is tons of information out there. So it’ll be fun. 

Joanne Grobecker (29:22.619)

Yeah, so when people talk about a language rich environment, it’s not necessarily sitting down and teaching your kid how to read. It’s just using words, talking to them, narrating your day, asking those back and forth questions, even if they’re too young to respond, just doing, reacting to them and showing that you’re understanding their facial expressions. Is that all it is? Just spending time with your kids? 

Kris Reilly (29:46.022)

It honestly, it really can be. It’s the, I guess it’s the conversation. It’s the oral language. Tiffany Hogan, who runs the cell lab at a Mass General Hospital down in Boston, she talks about, you know, oral language as being a foundation for literacy. And that really is kind of where it starts because obviously being an educator for teaching literacy, if children can’t actually hear and, you know, produce the sounds, 

Kris Reilly (30:13.911)

It’s going to be more difficult for them to actually read and write to the letters associated with the sounds. So it all starts again with like oral language. So that talking piece is the most critical piece. And then what we can do is we can teach those constrained skills, which is, we’re talking, know, phonics, you know, A, in the alphabet of principal A represents add, and then we can build it together and blend in segment sounds into words and the words into sentences and so on. 

Kris Reilly (30:43.433)

And then the same thing, know, orthographically map that and create basically, you know, paragraphs, sentences, words, sentences, paragraphs. However, if you don’t know how to create the B sound for B and then you don’t represent that B sound makes the letter represents this letter B and this is how you form letter B, all of those things that we need information and foundational skills before we even get to that part. 

Kris Reilly (31:08.341)

So the language piece sort of helps with that. And then we even get to like, do you form it with your actual, motorically with your mouth, that kind of thing. And how do you form the associated letter with your hand, those kinds of things. 

Joanne Grobecker (31:21.443)

I saw this really interesting thing that they said the English language has they called it 45 phonemes. So in the English when you’re looking at like an A and A can say A it can say and that you can just say these words say all the sounds that a letter makes to your baby or and let them say them into a mirror to see the way their mouth looks while they’re making them. 

Kris Reilly (31:44.037)

Right, that’s exactly it. mean, you know, the English language has between 44 and 46 phonemes depending on the research you follow. And then there are all those sounds associated with those graphemes, those letter symbols. And realistically, you know, think about teaching how to read, teaching how to decode is making that connection that, you know, A, just saying the sound A is represented by like the letter A, but the long sound A is represented by, you know, at least, you know, seven, eight different grapheme patterns. You know, you’ve got A, you’ve got A consonant E, you’ve got AI, you’ve got AIY, you’ve EIGH, it goes on. And then that’s where you’ll see your children in like, you know, first grade, second grade learning those systems. But so that’s kind of in, you know, first or second grade, definitely into third grade, you know, and usually by the end of third grade, people have got it. And if not, they, you know, they may be receiving, you know, some support somewhere. 

Kris Reilly (32:41.749)

To really understand how the system works. But when you’re little, birth through age five, you’re truly understanding like, these are words, these sounds that you’re talking about are actually words. And words comprise like these crazy things called symbols, and these symbols are like letters, and they represent something. So it’s very abstract, but it all starts with oral language. And again, the things we were just talking about are are constrained skills, and those are things that we can teach you exactly how to do those words vocabulary, is so critical and that background knowledge is unconstrained and that you’re the more vocabulary, the more extensive your background knowledge, the deeper your background knowledge, the better off you’ll be in middle school, high school and beyond that goes into that. So all these little constraints are fabulous like through early elementary school, but then it’s that. 

Kris Reilly (33:37.165)

Background knowledge and that unconstrained skills that are going to take you into the future. So you’re building all that foundation birth through H5. 

Joanne Grobecker (33:44.491)

That’s excellent. And so I know once this child’s in school, they have a lot of supports at school. So you have teachers, educators, experts that can really notice if something’s not typical because there’s peers to compare them to. If you have a class of 20 kids, you can tell if there’s a kid that needs help and the school will step in to help them. Are there any signs families can look for maybe when a child’s one, two or three years old? 

Joanne Grobecker (34:10.021)

That might suggest a child could benefit from early intervention or extra support. 

Kris Reilly (34:14.859)

Absolutely. Early invention is key. know parent information center understands that as well. But take a look and listen to make sure, know, are they hearing you? Can they see you? Can they hear you? Let’s go to the census. And if you’re concerned, check with your pediatrician. Don’t hesitate. Absolutely. Then when you’re talking about language, are they making sort of the sounds that you’re expecting? The ASHA, which is the American Speech Hearing Association. 

Kris Reilly (34:43.319)

They have on their website sort of developmental milestones for what sound you’d expect to hear by what age. That kind of thing I know, like I alluded to a colleague, a young child in our family that we were making the sound and the mm sound. it’s like, we don’t have the P sound yet, or we don’t have the T sound yet. So we actually looked up. It’s like, where does this fall in? As an educator, we always talk about the vocalic R. That kind of said, where’d what sound do they say the earth sound and what sound do they say the th sound and when to worry and when not to worry. So you can definitely look all those things up. Can students can the children actually follow them follow instructions? You know, do they have that joint attention? So if you say go get the cup or go get the purple cup and it’s a sippy cup, can they do that? You know, hopefully within the reach. know, I mean, can they can they follow that one step direction? Can they follow two step directions? 

Kris Reilly (35:41.463)

Are they hearing rhymes? Can they hear the rhyme word bat and cat or a bat octopus? Do you know that kind of thing? Yeah. And can they retell it like a story, a simple story, but can they retell a simple story? Those are kind of things you want to kind of listen for and look for. And if you have any concerns, absolutely reach out to your pediatrician. 

Joanne Grobecker (36:01.873)

That’s great advice, thank you. Are there any books, songs, or games you’d to recommend for families to help them with building language? 

Kris Reilly (36:10.329)

Probably books that a lot of people may have been using already, like the Bill Martin Jr. books, like the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What You See, any art Carl books, like the Very Hunger Caterpillar, basically the ones that are super engaging. There’s a repetition, there’s that rhyme. The illustrations are super exciting for children. very, like they’re in board books now too, which is great. So the littles in our family have them in their mouths and they’re eating them all the time. So it’s like, this is your treat and this is the book I’m gonna read to you. So. 

Joanne Grobecker (36:34.609)

Yep. 

Kris Reilly (36:39.229)

There’s Jump Frog Jump, all the Goodnight Moon. Now they have like Goodnight Gorilla. I just came from Cape Cod, so there’s Goodnight Cape Cod. Did a whole thing for school this past week on Goodnight Construction Site, which was… 

Joanne Grobecker (36:52.197)

Yes, yes, my daughter loved that one when she was in preschool. 

Kris Reilly (36:56.433)

That’s it. Well, that’s it. have a preschool group this year. It’s summer and we we’ve gone through the froggy series and then we’re going through there There was an old woman who lived in a whatever series and now we’re doing Like I said the good night series because they just they like the predictability of it, but it’s changing enough They’re like, that’s different and I’m like, yes, you’re right. That’s different like, you they don’t understand. They’re doing a comparison contrast of two different texts. I mean, we’ll have this conversation in seventh grade too, but I can do it at four, you know, so it’s pretty exciting. Obviously, the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I mean, any ABC control, Is Your Mama a Llama? Those are great. And then obviously, Where the Wild Things Are is great. Some students love it and some absolutely not too much. I had a daughter who my daughter did not hear from them. 

Joanne Grobecker (37:33.915)

Yes. 

Kris Reilly (37:47.841)

Mo Willems, all his elephant piggies. 

Joanne Grobecker (37:50.751)

Yes, we’re a big Mo Williams fan here, yep. 

Kris Reilly (37:53.517)

Yeah, corduroy bucks. Some kindergartners this past year have been very interested in the Who Would Win series, know, shark versus like rhinoceros, which I know, like, my third graders enjoy it, but even my kindergartners are like, and we, know, for them, it’s really looking at the pictures and I’m reading the captions, but they’re very interested in the facts behind each animal. And then they have this deep conversation of why one would win. 

Kris Reilly (38:22.997)

It’s very interesting. again, that love of language, that background, like give me the facts about this, this character, this species. very interested in that, which is exciting. Cause you, you forget how, whatever their passion is, whether it’s, you know, I’m interested in water or I want to know everything about, dinosaurs, but only this type of dinosaur. mean, use that language, use the words that go along with that scientific language and children just soak it up. 

Kris Reilly (38:52.089)

Amazing, it’s so much fun. 

Joanne Grobecker (38:53.841)

So it’s okay if they have a special interest. We had a big dinosaur fan here. I have a dinosaur right here on my desk. We have a big dinosaur fan here, a big solar system fan here. And it’s okay if your kid can’t read the books themselves, if you’re reading books that people might think are above their level to them. 

Joanne Grobecker (39:16.817)

Okay, because sometimes we go to the library and they wouldn’t have, you know, there’s only one bronchiosaurus book and it’s not quite written for a five-year-old, but that’s okay if I’m reading to my child even if their words are too big for them to read themselves. 

Kris Reilly (39:30.105)

Absolutely. And we say that honestly, just, you know, start at birth, go all the way through. We say that with our students who were, you know, early elementary through middle elementary. It’s like, you know, your vocabulary, unconstrained. So therefore, you know, you can keep learning new words and understanding what those new words really mean. And then what’s great is then the students will start to use those words in their everyday language and that will show up in their writing as well. So. 

Kris Reilly (39:59.115)

How awesome is that? That’s what you want. So you’re not constraining them based on like, what can I read? What can I spell? It’s no, what do I know? Which is pretty exciting. yeah, always, even though we have families who say, I don’t know, my child wants me to read them anymore. They’re older. like, no, mean, or have them listen to, if they’re older children, have them listen to the books, like audio books, that kind of thing. Because it’s… 

Joanne Grobecker (40:27.653)

Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask about because I know that Tony boxes are really popular there. I don’t know if you’ve seen them with little ones in your family. It’s these little characters and you can put in and it’ll read your child’s story or with older kids being able to go on YouTube and listen to someone reading them a story or an audio book. Is that okay too? 

Kris Reilly (40:46.229)

It’s perfect. It’s wonderful. It’s definitely, it’ll be even cool if like you could have the student hear it or the child to hear it from that voice and then maybe you could read it and they could have different voices. My son was very much a Thomas the Tank Engine kind of guy. We went through an entire phase of that and we would find, my spouse would eventually say, I’m not reading it right. He’s telling me I’m not reading it right because he wouldn’t say the voice is the way I would say it. 

Joanne Grobecker (41:15.153)

Yep. 

Kris Reilly (41:15.481)

I like, that’s true because you have a different narrator. And then I’m like, well, what’s a narrator? It was the person who was actually reading the story. And then eventually by three, he was like, well, no, no, no. You people walk away. I’m going to read the book to you. And we all know it was from memory, but he did. So it’s like there were times where we’d be on a train or going someplace and he’d have the book in front of me, but I’d be in the front seat reading the book again from memory. And he’d be like, we’re not on that page. I’m like, oh, I’m so sorry. 

Kris Reilly (41:45.049)

But I mean, and that was exactly it. They just learn so much. So there’s that’s the other part is if they need to read the book, even though as an adult, you’re like, please, not this one again. You know, if it’s time to read it for 757th time, read it the 757th time. It’s something something they need. And then as they want to read some of it themselves, do that go back and forth. well, you read this page. I’ll read the next page. 

Kris Reilly (42:14.105)

And you’ll find that that will help as they get older and they’re reading, you know, the chapter books and then the longer chapter books, that kind of thing. So you’re basically early childhood literacy is you’re just building all those great foundational habits. It’s exciting. 

Joanne Grobecker (42:27.921)

So exciting. If you could tell every parent or caregiver one thing about supporting a child’s language and literacy development, what would it be? 

Kris Reilly (42:37.933)

Honestly, talk with your children. Read books and talk with your children. Just keep talking. Wait for them to respond. Keep talking and then follow their lead too. If they keep pointing and asking what and why, answer. 

Joanne Grobecker (42:55.097)

And so I know some families have multilingual families where there is a language in the home, maybe with the parents or grandparents, but English is spoken at school. Should we be speaking English at the home only or is it okay to speak our home language or read in our home language? 

Kris Reilly (43:14.329)

I’m so glad you asked, thanks. Honestly, home language is fabulous. Multilingual families are amazing. honestly, whatever their home language is, absolutely home language, 100%. Do whatever works for their family. And eventually children code switch back and forth, which is pretty exciting. We have children who come to school and teach our other peers, their peers, words and vocabulary. 

Kris Reilly (43:44.099)

They’re like, I don’t quite have the word for that. This is what I know it is. And then we’ll look it up or we’ll have someone who speaks that language too. And they teach it to all of us. So it just expands out. It’s beautiful. It’s a fabulous. 

Joanne Grobecker (43:55.951)

That’s exciting. Is there a benefit if you say speak Spanish at home and that’s your native or your home language? Is there a benefit to reading in Spanish to your child if that’s your home language? 

Kris Reilly (44:09.209)

100 % absolutely. The nice part about Spanish is there’s a lot of cognates which are words that have the same sort of origin in Spanish and in English so that that cross generalization is pretty pretty great and live there’s other languages that do that as well actually all the languages do it but it’s just it’s exciting to see that happen so absolutely family members because again all the underlying reasons to talk and have for books are still there it doesn’t matter which language it is. So it’s sort of like what language is spoken at home is the language read, write, talk, listen all in that language. And it’s great. It’s fabulous. 

Joanne Grobecker (44:49.233)

That’s great to know. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate speaking with you.