City of Ames, IA This Week in Ames, 13 May 2016

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From YouTube: This Week in Ames | Small Talk

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Learn about the Ames Public Library Small Talk program.

A

Hi welcome to this week in Ames I'm Susan gwiazda on today's show we'll check in with the Ames public library.

A

My guest today is Kay Marner with small talk, storey County. Okay, welcome to the show! Thank you. It's nice to be here well, we're here in the beautiful Ames Public Library talking about a brand new program which I really know very little about, but it has to do with children and language and reading. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing here, yeah.

B

It's called small talk story county and it's a collaboration between ames public library, raising readers in story, county and iowa state university and its part parent classes and part research project. Dr. constance Beecher from Iowa State University is the lead researcher on it and the library is putting on the classes and raising readers in Story. County is donating, wonderful, wonderful books for us to give to for the participants to take home so.

A

What a great place to introduce a project like this great collaboration with lots of people interested in what's best for children to raise engaged readers who are prepared for school I know, there's been a lot of research. We were just talking about earlier about the research involving those very young ages in reading and reading to children. Who may be you know, can't read on their own or maybe still, babies tell me a little bit about the research specifically. What does it focus on.

B

The research is focused on the amount of talk between baby and parent during the first 30 months of life, so those ages zero through three, are when the majority of brain development takes place in babies and the amount of talk and the quality of that talk and the interaction with children during those early months are really really important for brain development and language development.

B

So the class focuses on measuring how much talk is going on directly between baby and parent and giving the parent tips on how to increase the amount of talk and it uses a special talk. Pedometer, that's a really cool device, so.

A

You might have a pedometer to measure steps this one actually measures words exactly.

B

It measures words spoken from a parent to a child and conversational turns, which is an interaction between the parent and child. So.

A

I know that may be old school parents might say. Oh my child gets plenty of verbal interaction because she watches television all the time. It's it's more interactive. Isn't that exactly.

B

And another thing that the recorder records our measures is the amount of electronic sound in the background. So if there is a lot of TV on the parents will find out what times of day that is happening and maybe get some tips on how to replace some of that electronic sound with actual talk. So.

A

How are you just does anybody? Do you sign up for this program or how do you get involved? You can.

B

Either call the small talk office and talk with me and the number is 5 15 23 9, 5, 6, 7 3 or you can go online at Ames, Public, Library org and go to the events calendar and find small talk. The next session is going to be summer 2016. So if you find small talk, 2016 there'll be a link. You can follow to register right online and obviously you need a child within that.

A

B

You have a baby 0 through 31.

A

Can't just volunteer to talk to the babies, no.

B

No, it's all about the parent being the one that has that primary relationship and and does the communicating so I do teach the classes then or I. Don't our parent educator, Cynthia Martin who's, an experienced teacher is, is teaching them and it follows a very specific curriculum that is part of the part of the whole program that we're doing so.

A

In your experience being at the library people who are already coming to the library, often already doing those really important things to help build really independent, strong, read strong readers. If you see this program supplementing that, yes.

B

Our first group is definitely people who have come to the library a lot of people found out about the program by coming in the door and seen a display, but in the future we're hoping to find more low-income families by targeting the places where those people may go for services such as mid Iowa, Community Action. So we're hoping to get a broad range of parents who really care about their children's development and even the what we call the rock star parents, the parents who are already doing a really excellent job.

B

There's things that they can learn too, and they can also be excellent role. Models for newer parents or parents with less experience in the class. Well,.

A

One thing before I: let you go, you had a little vest that you and I just want to do. I can show that this is.

B

Yeah, this is the vest that a child would wear one one day per week, and this is the little recording device that slips in a pocket right in the front and hopefully the child and the parent. Both forget it's even on and just have a normal day. They just turned the recorder on once at the beginning of the day and leave it on and after about 16 hours, it'll shut off by itself. So they take it off at bath time, but leave it on for bedtime and everything else, and it.

A

And it's not to catch parents who accidentally let loose a bad word. No.

B

In fact, it is impossible to listen to what's on the recorder. The information is downloaded into a special computer program and it counts the words, but it does not know it. Nobody will ever know what the words were or what tone was used, in speaking the words so.

A

I'm curious, it's recording the parents. Now, as you get into those older ages, it must be recording the children, then the response it.

B

Does it records the response to, and the interesting thing is that the technology is so good that it can tell the voice that it's recording, whether it's a child or whether it's an adult so say, for example, that three-year-old sibling is speaking to the baby. It will record that as talk that was taking place in the environment, but it will separate that out and not count that in the number of words that the parents spoke that day well,.

A

That is fascinating for word to seeing the results of all that research. What a great! What a great project! Thank you K for being my guest today.

B

A

Thank you very much for having me again. If you want more information about the small program you can get that on the Ames public library website that is Ames Public Library org. Look for that information sign up. If you have a child in that age group, it should be really helpful for the community. Some other things coming up. Don't forget! Also, remember: the crews are out painting the streets, those crews will be working. All some are painting the lines and the curbs and give them plenty of room.

A

If you see them working, those streets will look so much better when they're completed. Finally, don't forget: Saturday May 28th is opening day to firm an aquatic center, so get your swimsuits ready and enjoy the pool. Well, that's our show for today, thanks for watching and tune in next week for this week in Ames,.

A