It is with great pleasure that Savvy Mama welcomes a friend and guest writer this week, local Gold Coast Education Consultant, Nicole Swan. Nicole is a qualified Early Childhood Educator with Diplomas in Early Childhood Education, (AMI) Montessori and a Bachelor of Children Services from Bond University. She has a culmination of 12 years teaching experience in Australia and Canada. (for more information on Nicole click here.)
Setting up Your Child on the Road to Become a Successful Reader and Writer
The road to becoming a reader begins the day your child is born. Children have the ability to speak a language and learn a language through listening to their family members talking. Children learn to respond to all the sounds that fill their world, and begin to understand written language when they see adults reading, and have adults read to them. Hence, learning to read and write starts at home, long before children go to school.
We have learned a lot about how children learn to read and write from several decades of research. A large body of research over the last ten years particularly supports the idea that children need a certain level and type of awareness of sounds as a foundation for learning to read and write. An important part of reading and writing is making the links between speech sounds and letters. Learning about speech sounds is a part of a child’s learning about literacy concepts such as; sounds, syllables, words, sentences and letters.
Research tells us children need a lot of opportunities to:
• Build spoken language by talking and listening
• Learn about the print in books (you could discuss words and expand your child's vocabulary during storytime)
• Learn about the sounds of spoken language (this is called phonological awareness - write 'a' as in apple, or 's' as in snake)
• Learn about letters of the alphabet
• Be read to and, read in their own leisure
• Learn to use letter-sound relationships (this is called Phonics) and be able to recognise sight words when they see them (words that we cannot sound out and are memorized by sight, words such as are, the, was, you, said etc. )
• Learn to spell and write
• Develop their ability to read quickly and naturally (this is called fluency - practice, practice, practice)
• Build their knowledge of the world around them (you could play 'I spy', games to expand knowledge and discuss topics of interest)
• And build their ability to understand what they read (this is called comprehension)
Reference: National Reading Panel. (2000), Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its implications for Reading Instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Nicole teaches Fun Family Phonics locally in Burleigh which makes learning to read and write a fun and creative adventure! Classes are available for children 4 years of age and up. She offers a patient, proactive approach to teaching the children phonics with an opportunity in each class to see, speak, hear, write and bring into play the new letters they learn. For more information on Nicole’s classes phone her on 0403 962 053 or email.
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