I Can Play That (English and Spanish Edition CD-ROM) Mom's Choice Awards Recipient - Gold

I Can Play That is the third book in the I Can series by award winning professor of speech-language pathology, Dr. Suzy Lederer. The 4 short stories in this book use pretend play and music (CD-ROM in both Spanish and English included with book) to enhance the language and creative thinking skills of children ages 2-6. Feeding a teddy a cup of tea soon becomes a sequenced tea party, and finally blossoms into an elaborate, imaginative feast. Reading I Can Play That does more than enhance language skills and creative thinking. According to the National Commission on Reading report, shared book reading is the best activity to prepare children for literacy success. By reading and playing along with the children you love, parents, grandparents and professioinals are supporting early language, literacy, and pretend play development.

Read the story during play time and pretend along with your child and his/her teddy as he/she has a tea party or play the goodnight game. Or, pop the CD-ROM into the PC and let your child listen to the music and read along to the highlighted words as the story is sung and played. Another great time to read the book is at bedtime. The pretend stories go through the sequence of getting ready for bed; i.e. putting on pajamas, washing the face, brushing the teeth and then getting into bed. The children love the delightful pictures of the boy washing Teddy's face and brushing (smearing toothpaste) Teddy's teeth. This activity is a great help to the parents in building the child's bedtime routine.

Dr. Suzy Lederer writes the book based on research and her experience of teaching speech-language pathologists the most effective methods for enhancing the language skills of young children.

Susan Hendler Lederer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at Adelphi University, Garden City, Long Island, New York. She is a state licensed and nationally certified Speech-Language Pathologist with 30 years of professional experience in the areas of language, literacy, and pretend play development and disorders. Dr. Lederer is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, as well as the New York State and Long Island associations.

For over a decade, Dr. Lederer and her Adelphi colleagues and students have been conducting and researching programs for late-talking toddlers and preschoolers at risk of reading failure. Efficacy and descriptions of these programs have been published in peer reviewed journals and presented nationally. This research led directly to the publication of her first two children's books, I Can Say That and I Can Do That, designed to help all children learn to talk and read. Dr. Lederer is also the author of the music CD, StoryBook Yoga, a program that integrates shared book reading, music, and movement.

Dr. Suzy lives in Syosset, Long Island, New York with her husband, Richard, and their son, Spencer.