Post on 05-Jan-2016
transcript
IMPORTANCE OF EARLY LITERACYLaura Lee Wilson
Head of Children’s Services
Holmes County District Public Library
“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. This is especially true during the preschool years.”
~Becoming a Nation of Readers
SIX SKILLS TO LEARNING TO READ
1.Print Motivation
2.Phonological Awareness
3.Narrative Skills
4.Letter Knowledge
5.Print Awareness
6.Vocabulary
Children who enjoy books will want to learn to read
Notice the lack of red and green in the brain scan of the neglected child.
PRINT MOTIVATION
A child’s interest and enjoyment in books
Birth – 2 years: begin reading books, even to babies
2 – 3 years: continue reading to your child; let your child see you reading
4 – 5 years: make book sharing a special time; attend library programs
Any book that a child wants to read is promoting “print motivation”
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
A child’s ability to hear and play with smaller sounds of words
Birth – 2 years: sing songs, say nursery rhymes
2 – 3 years: play word games with rhyming sounds
4 – 5 years: what word would you have if you took “hot” out of “hotdog”
“Most children who have difficulty reading have trouble with phonological awareness.”
Sheep on a Ship, has rhyming words that will encourage word playand “phonological awareness”
NARRATIVE SKILLS
A child’s ability to describe things and events, to tell stories
Birth – 2 years: talk to your baby
2 – 3 years: ask open ended questions. “What do you think is happening in this picture?”
4 – 5 years: ask child to tell you what happened in a book in the beginning, middle and end
Learning words begins at birth and grows throughout a child’s life. Most children start school knowing between 3,000 and 5,000 words
Jump, Frog, Jump! allows children to predict what is going to happennext which promotes “narrative skills”
LETTER KNOWLEDGE
A child’s ability to name letters, knowing their sounds, and recognizing them everywhere
Birth – 2 years: Help your baby see and feel different shapes (The ball is round)
2 – 3 years: talk about shapes - what is the same and what is different
4 – 5 years: write your child’s name, point out letters
By the time children are 2 years old, they understand 300 -500 words. You help your child learn new words by talking and reading together.
Any alphabet book will assist in learning “letter knowledge”
VOCABULARY
A child’s ability to know the names of things
Birth – 2 years: talk to your baby, encourage babbling
2 – 3 years: when your child talks add more details, read books
4 – 5 years: allow your child to express themselves through language, read books and have child retell the story
Research shows that children who have larger vocabularies are better readers. Knowing many words helps children recognize written words by talking and reading together.
“Vocabulary is learned from books more than from normal conversation with adults or children or from television exposure.”
~Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children
Children will learn new “vocabulary” by listening to books read to them
PRINT AWARENESS
A child’s ability to notice print, knowing how to handle a book, and follow the words on a page
Birth – 2 years: allow your child to hold board books and cloth books
2 – 3 years: Point to words as you say them; hold the book upside down
4 – 5 years: Let your child choose a book, turn the pages, repeat words they are familiar with
Talking with children develops comprehension skills that will help them understand what they read.
Any children’s book that interests a child is good to use forreinforcing “print awareness”
Notice how different parts of the brain are used for different readingfunctions. Reading truly is a whole-brain activity.
Brain synapses are formed with new and repeated activities towardthe beginning of life. Notice during the teen years, that those synapsesthat are not used through repetition begin to diminish.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD?
R E A D!Keep Books with ToysSpeak ClearlyAsk your toddler questionsVisit the Library