Learning Path Stones

Listening and Reading Comprehension

Listening and Reading Comprehension
As children develop comprehension of books read aloud or independently, they explore the uses and functions of written language. They begin to construct meaning, eventually applying critcal skills to make inferences and draw conclusions.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary
While infants and toddlers learn vocabulary by memory, older children use word structure and context to help understand the meaning of a word. They identify synonyms and antonyms. They use prefixes, suffixes and base words to build their own vocabulary.

First Words

First Words
Infants string sounds together to imitate language. Later they use these sound strings to represent things in the world (baba for bottle). As toddlers they progressively build vocabulary and begin to learn the principles of word order (red ball, not ball red).

Listening and Speaking

Listening and Speaking
Children learn the intonations and speech patterns in language by listening. Learning to read also requires careful listening, because good listening skills help children break down words into their individual sounds.

Book and Print Basics

Book and Print Basics
A child's early experiences with books greatly influence his ability to learn to read. Reading together helps a child learn how to turn pages one at a time and that text moves from left to right. Advanced readers learn how to use books for research.

Spanish Vocabulary

Spanish Vocabulary
Exposure to foreign languages at a young age can help children understand their own language better. Studies show that children who are bilingual or who study foreign languages enjoy increased academic achievement and perform better on standardized tests.

Matching

Matching
Matching develops early logic and reasoning skills and is a component of early math and literacy.Children match like objects, shapes, patterns, pictures and stories, letters to sounds and pictures to words.

Early Number Sense

Early Number Sense
As early as 6 months, babies begin to understand the concept of numbers, noticing small groups of one, two or three things. As children develop number sense they learn to count by ones, skip count and count backwards, gaining the foundation for operations. Children who have good number sense find learning operations like addition and subtraction much easier.