Episode 178: Daily One-On-One Talk Builds Strong Readers

"Send me a Text Message!" Kindergarten is supposed to sound like a lively room full of ideas, jokes, and questions. But many early childhood educators are seeing something different: fewer opportunities for young learners to actually practice oral language, even while expectations for early reading keep rising. I dig into why that shift matters so much because vocabulary, syntax, and confident speaking are the building blocks that support literacy, reading proficiency, and long-term reading c...