Just as gesturing, cooing, and babbling lay the foundation for oral language, gestures and sound play lay the foundation for success in reading and writing. Language researchers have found that children who struggle with sounds when learning to talk often repeat those struggles when learning to read and write. Researchers have found that struggling readers in grade 3 and beyond often lack phonological awareness. Animated Literacy makes the path to success in reading and writing easier by placing a heavy emphasis on gestures and sound play in the early stages of instruction. In a natural sequence, babies coo vowel sounds one at a time for several months (ooh, eeh, ah) before combining consonants with vowels to babble at around 8 months of age. Are You Sleeping replicates this process by first replacing bell tones in the song with vowel sounds. (Oscar's bells are saying, Ah, ah, ah.) When consonants are introduced, they replace beginning consonant sounds in the bell tones similar to what babies do when they babble. (Sally's bells are saying, "Sing, song, sing." Billy's bells are saying, "Bing, bong, bing.). Sound play then continues in the songs My Puppy and Bay - A - Bay.
