I often chat with my friend Hana about her son’s literacy development and recently she mentioned how much progress he is making while interacting with a child’s website. It is because of this I want to share my thoughts on the importance of emergent literacy.
We are all parents and teachers and we can hold the future of our children in our hands. All of us are aware of emergent literacy and it is my firm belief that if our young ones go through the stages of early literacy development they will be successful at reading and writing.
Children are learning from birth and it is our responsibility to talk to them daily so that they become familiar with language. The oral language is powerful especially in the development of phonological awareness. Talk to your child about objects, colours, people, or places. Do we teach our infants rhymes or is that something of the past? I still remember sitting on my mom’s lap listening to Jack and Jill and repeating this all day long. Expose your child to print! Read to them labels, signs, directions, recipes and stories upon stories. Draw their attention to beautiful pictures and discuss what you see….and most of all allow them to scribble….and if you don’t want those walls dirty then stick a sheet of paper over it but never stifle your child’s creativity!
This sounds so simple but yet some of us can’t find the time to share these special moments with our little ones. As reading specialists we have the responsibility of making Trinidad a literate society. We have to start sharing our knowledge with others so that our nation’s children will be able to read and write.
We are all parents and teachers and we can hold the future of our children in our hands. All of us are aware of emergent literacy and it is my firm belief that if our young ones go through the stages of early literacy development they will be successful at reading and writing.
Children are learning from birth and it is our responsibility to talk to them daily so that they become familiar with language. The oral language is powerful especially in the development of phonological awareness. Talk to your child about objects, colours, people, or places. Do we teach our infants rhymes or is that something of the past? I still remember sitting on my mom’s lap listening to Jack and Jill and repeating this all day long. Expose your child to print! Read to them labels, signs, directions, recipes and stories upon stories. Draw their attention to beautiful pictures and discuss what you see….and most of all allow them to scribble….and if you don’t want those walls dirty then stick a sheet of paper over it but never stifle your child’s creativity!
This sounds so simple but yet some of us can’t find the time to share these special moments with our little ones. As reading specialists we have the responsibility of making Trinidad a literate society. We have to start sharing our knowledge with others so that our nation’s children will be able to read and write.
I agree with you that with this technology learning can now take place from an earlier age.I would also like to suggest that the same computer can be used to play and have fun with e.g. music,games etc.What will in fact be happening is that the child will see the same learning environment in a more friendly sense.Remember also that children need to play and that play is also part of learning.So Shasta all work and no play may not be the best thing for Shasta! :p
ReplyDeleteShasta, I always contend that our parents need to be educated, from a very early stage,about their own power to help their children develop literacy skills.Most parents are of the belief that children do not start learning until they begin pre-school.This is so far from the truth.While doing the Speech and Language Pathology certificate course at the University of the West Indies, I learnt about the intricacies of emergent literacy.I was just as enthusiastic then, as I am now with this ICT for reading course.Just like Hana, I began to stimulate my son's literacy skills in any informal setting that allowed it. He was almost three years at the time. Today he is an independent reader far beyond his age.I have been adding to his interest in reading by introducing him to the ICT skills of digital photo stories and e-books.
ReplyDeleteI speak to parents at my school and the neighbouring ECCE school in an attempt to get them to change their mindset that they cannot help their children to read. All I ask is that they read religiously to their children if nothing else.My plan next term is to convince them to redirect their children's interest in computer technology into something more conducive to learning than the games they currently play.