To download the CEEHI/VISIT Winter 2007 Newsletter in PDF, click here.

What is in it:

• Front Page: Farewells
• How do Young Children Read??
• Booksharing with your Child with Hearing Impairment
• Activities: Fingerpainting
• Suggestions for Infants with Visual Impairments

Farewell to Krista

Krista Galyen has worked at the Special Education Service Agency (SESA) for the past 5-1/2 years. She has been the CEEHI Program Coordinator, she

implemented new ideas that have helped to reach more people in Alaska needing CEEHI services.

Krista Galyen is going back to school to receive her Ph.D. in Information Science and Learning Technologies. She will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia in Columbia, Missouri. Krista Galyen will be greatly missed by co-workers and all those she has served in Alaska. We are sure she will do great things in her new endeavor. We wish her well!

Compiled by Maria Morgan, SLP San Francisco Special Infant Services

Young children will read books by:

• Sitting in a familiar spot
• Holding the book
• Licking the cover
• Biting the edge Continue Reading

Modified from SKI-HI Curriculum: Family-Centered Programming for Infants and Young Children with Hearing Loss, pp. 2047-2057.  North Logan, UT: HOPE Inc. 2004

Booksharing can be fun for the entire family. Studies show young children whose parents read to them do better in school.  Children that have early booksharing experiences develop an increase of language abilities, vocabularies, and knowledge of themselves and the world. There are three family goals for booksharing. There are: (a) introduce the story to the child, (b) share the story with the child (can be creative – use signs or other ways to have child interact with the story), and (c) conduct a follow-up activity to storysharing.

Continue Reading

Fingerpainting

Fingerpainting is a beloved toddler activity. Here are some tips to make fingerpainting at home easy and relatively mess-free:

• Spread a large vinyl tablecloth under a kitchen table to catch spills.
• Set a tub of soapy water, some paper towels and a wastebasket nearby. That way your child won’t need to stroll across the room, waving red and blue on her way to the sink.
• Fingerpainting directly on large caking sheets that can be easily rinsed off. If your child wants to save a painting, press a blank sheet of paper over it, lift it carefully, and set aside to dry.
• Try “clean” fingerpaint, such as mild aerosol shaving cream with a  drop or two of food coloring.
• Be sure to join in. Fingerpainting can be a surprisingly joyous and stress-reducing way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Overbrook School for the Blind, Parent Early Childhood Education Series

From the beginning, help your baby to get to know his own body and learn what he can do with it. During your daily routines with your baby, you can provide simple activities which will help your baby to know you, feel safe and warm with you, and get “in touch” with the world around him. Continue Reading