Thoughts and Tips for Giving Young Children a Good Start in Literacy
This wonderful list of helpful advice was written by our lovely Cygnets tutor, Yien Lein Fisher
What are some of the things we can do to help our young children get a good start in language learning?
Very young children:
· Interact lots by speaking to them, whether in English or your native tongue, while you go about your everyday activities.
· Try to give specific names for everything in your child’s world, including the outside world (e.g. distinguish, if you can, between the trees in your road when talking about them, so, “Look, the oak tree is losing its leaves.”)
· Play and sing lots of nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes build a child’s sense of the three R’s, Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition – three important literary devices used extensively in prose and poetry.
· Cuddle up with your child for a few minutes each day and flip through a board/ picture book together while you read and talk about the pictures. This makes the action of reading a pleasurable activity, and gradually builds a child’s stamina for spending time at one particular task.
· Take them to a library regularly for them to look at and handle books.
· Limit screen time. It is hard for the written word to compete with the moving image, and your aim is to cultivate a desire to spend time with the former rather than the latter. If your child watches something, try to choose programmes that use good vocabulary and promote the imagination e.g. Bagpuss, Mr Benn.
Reception – Year 2:
Learning to read is the most important skill in these years and educational efforts will be directed towards enabling your child to learn and use this skill with increasing facility. (Learning to write is of lesser importance as largely a fine motor skill that most children will acquire with time.)
Once the mechanics of blending have been learnt so children can read individual words,
· reading out loud must become a daily habit, even if just from one or two pages of a simple reader e.g. the ‘Peter and Jane’ Ladybirds Keywords series. Build up length of time and difficulty level as the child is able (do not discourage the child by increasing the amount to read too quickly, or reading level. Move the child on at a pace comfortable to him/her.)
· Ideally the child should be read to for at least 30 minutes per day (can also use audio books). More is better. Being read to is extremely beneficial because children need to carry on acquiring vocabulary that is in advance of their reading abilities, and whilst everyday conversation with family, teachers and friends plays an important role, books are best for widening a child’s familiarity with new words.
- Choose a well-written book with good illustrations for both your child and yourself. Pictures are still very important at this stage because your child needs to furnish his mental world with pictures of the different things he will come across as he reads.
- Include fairy tales and Greek/Roman myths. Many literary works draw on ideas, motifs and characters found in these stories.
- Carry on with simple poems and encourage memorisation (this will be often picked up naturally.)
- If you’re stuck for ideas, use the books listed in the Five-In-A-Row homeschool syllabus.
· Carry on naming things in the child’s world, including the outside world.
- Try to name the birds you see in your garden or outside space.
- Talk about his or her physical environment, including how your house/flat is situated by looking at where the sun rises and sets (is your house east-facing? south-facing?)
- Talk about the weather every day, including how the length of days change in the different seasons.
· Encourage imaginative play with wooden blocks, Lego and such like. Amongst other things, this is one of the best things you can do to develop your child’s spatial reasoning and awareness.
· Play lots of games together – memory games, simple word games, counting games. Orchard Toys produce inexpensive games that are both entertaining and educational.
· Encourage your child to draw (just give them a sheet of paper and some crayons or colouring pencils), cut and paste things, do simple origami and clay modelling.
· Listen to music with your child, including songs, and encourage singing along.
· Carry on going to the library and bookshop, including the news agent, and let your child choose what he/she wants to look at (books, magazines), even if too difficult to read at present.
· When visiting places of interest e.g. museums, National Trust places, let your child help him/herself to brochures and maps to look at.
· Encourage your child to develop a special interest e.g. horses, and help the pursuit of that interest by taking him/her to relevant places, buying magazines or borrowing books etc.
· Continue to use the screen judiciously; try to watch simple documentaries together.
Please note that getting your child to do assessment books, including those designed for Reception/ Year 1/ Year 2, is likely to be of limited value at this age, unless for handwriting.