About the Author
Talmage M. Steele
Author Info
Talmage M. Steele wrote and
illustrated, The Gift of Words: How Do
Children Learn to Talk? based on up-to-date research and her experiences as
mother of two, and grandmother of three.
She has an M.Ed. from National Louis University in Early Childhood
Education and is currently retired after fifteen years of experience working as
an educator/consultant under a variety of grants with Chicago Public
Schools. She has worked as a facilitator
and mentor in many early childhood day care centers, as well as for arts-integrated
curriculum projects
Current research shows that many
parents do not realize the importance of giving even very young children the
words for what they are doing, seeing and feeling. The Gift of Words: How Do Children Learn to Talk? offers simple
ways which support parents in their role as their children’s first language
teacher.
The book has a dozen conversation
starters for parents of children 0-4 years of age. Parents at Educare in Chicago and Home
Visitors at Clyde Childcare Center in Cicero contributed their advice to the
book through focus groups conducted prior to the books final publication.
Amazon wants your opinion and
comments on The Gift of Words: How Do
Children Learn to Talk? To order the
book contact bookbsby.com or a search on Amazon.com for
“Talmage Steele” or “ISBN 978-1-54393-560-8”
News
Cicero Home Visitors
Advise Author
Talmage Steele, author of The Gift of Words: How Do Children Learn to Talk? admitted it: she
was stuck the first time she visited the home visitors at Clyde Child Care
Center in Cicero, IL. As a first-time children’s book author, it wasn’t going
well. Steele asked Clyde’s home
visitors to take the book to their parents and to report how it went. Among
other helpful suggestions, they said, “You cannot name the word bird George. In
children’s literature, Curious George is a monkey.” So the word bird became Wallace
Quentin Wordsworthy, Jr.
Two years later, on September 14, Clyde Center home visitors
embraced mothers in the park surrounding the building. It was the second week
of school and women watched over the babies in their arms, crawling across a
mat or toddling through the grass while also chatting with each other. Clyde’s
home visitor program had just begun its school year.
Steele had returned to Clyde Childcare Center to thank the
moms and home visitors and to promote the newly published book. Ana Perez
talked about how she used ideas from the book’s 12 Conversation Starters, “ I just say what I see. When I’m getting
dressed, I tell my baby what I’m doing. I am putting on my shoes, my earrings,
my whatever. It doesn’t take more time; it takes more words.” Michele Reyes
agreed, “I am talking more with my third child, than with my middle child. It
is important to give our children a big vocabulary so they can understand what
they read later.“
Recent research has determined that
the babies’ brains are ready for mamas’ baby talk from the moment they are
born. The baby’s brain provides the synapses, but an adult must provide the
vocabulary. The more languages a child hears, the better. Mamas really are a
child’s first, most important teacher.
Events
September 27, 2018
Family Treatment Center Moms Give The Gift of Words
After dinner, twenty moms gathered with their babies to
practice their most important role as first teacher of language. Knowing that a
child’s brain is 80% developed by age three, they prepared to add literally
millions of words to their children’s daily routines. Adding words to a child’s
day doesn’t take more time; it takes more words.
What does a mom say to a toddler who
cannot talk yet? It is as simple as “Say what you see.” Talk about what you are
doing, what your child is doing, wearing, eating, touching, smelling. There are 12 Conversation Starters in Talmage
Steele’s new book, The Gift of Words: How
Do Children Learn to Talk? and moms were talking through some of them
Thursday night.
