Path for Words
Five-Minute Language Learning Activities for Children Ages One to Three Years
Dedicated to language learning for a targeted age group, Path for Words is a helpful teaching and parenting resource.
A lucid and encouraging family education handbook, Marie Martinez’s Path for Words provides strategies for language learning for toddlers aged one to three years old.
With already heavy demands on families’ day-to-day commitments, the book notes, finding open pockets of time in a typical day for parents and caregivers to aid in their children’s communication can prove difficult. Thus, this guide encourages enhancing the quality of a child’s learning opportunities by applying strategies to routine and everyday events. Drawing on nearly two decades of work as a certified speech-language pathologist and behavior analyst, Martinez shares insights on age and learning milestones while clarifying tactics for daily use.
Filled with inclusive and straightforward advice, this is a useful resource for augmenting childhood learning through daily interactions and with minimal additional effort. Its copious tips are delivered in manageable segments, and its work is well supported with additional resources. Organized into two complementary parts that deliver commonsense advice, it outlines basic verbal and nonverbal communication and related learning patterns for toddlers aged one to three, expanding its message with precise reasoning and easy-to-follow steps for daily execution.
Part one addresses various developmental milestones by age, including gestures and the use of consonants in speech; covers concerning behaviors like tantrums, kicking, and hitting with mitigation techniques; and praises the benefits of incorporating a second language into a child’s cognitive development. And for families using speech and language sessions with their children, the text includes short worksheets for capitalizing on its guidance.
Part two further develops the foundational material to highlight everyday activities where learning can occur using items already in the home, including toys, measuring cups, and pictures. Drawing on “targeted language-learning strategies” and applying the SPOT method to the activity (Specific, Positioning, Opportunities, Teaching), six opportune times to augment routines are highlighted: bath time, diaper changes, snack time, restaurants, outside play, and books. This section emphasizes children’s verbal levels, too, naming developmental milestones as a means for determining which activity level to implement. Brief checklists, answers to frequently asked questions, and related case studies supplement each section.
An early family guidebook with a mix of clear advice, accessible strategies, and engaging examples to meet a parent or caregiver’s needs, Path for Words is an enlightening manual for those seeking to improve language learning in toddlers.
Reviewed by
Katy Keffer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
