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In a discussion with a parent, Dr De Gioia offers various easy ideas for parents to try at home to build their child’s literacy skills before starting school.
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Anthea: ‘When do we get off?’ asked Spike. ‘At the last stop,’ replied Curly. ‘Oh, the creek was very full and water was rushing over the stepping stones …’ Katey, I’m really worried about Robbie’s reading and writing skills. One of the other mums whose child’s starting school next year also, said that the children need to be able to read and write and Robbie can’t read and he’s only just learnt to write his name and it’s already November. What am I going to do?
Dr Katey De Gioia: Please don’t worry. Robbie will learn to read and write at school. There are lots of things you can do to help him with developing these skills before he starts though. I know you often read stories to Robbie and this is fantastic and really important. Children love a story before bed don’t they? You can also make up stories to share with him or have him finish a story you might have started. Exploring words can also be fun. You can take turns on how many words you can rhyme. This is a great car game, for example, ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘mat’...
Anthea: ‘Hat’, ‘sat’.
Katey: And it helps with turn taking skills. It’s also good for Robbie to see you reading and know that you enjoy this as well – novels, magazines. Perhaps you could share something with him out of the weekend paper, a sports story perhaps.
Anthea: Have a look at what’s happening here, these children are playing soccer. Can you see them they’ve got soccer balls …
Katey: I know you’re all big soccer fans in your house, show him an article in the newspaper and read a little with him.
Anthea: That’s a great idea. I love the distraction in the car and we can probably get his little sister to join in as well.
Katey: Absolutely. You can also give Robbie opportunities to explore writing materials. This can be anything from pencils, crayons, paints or pens and any kind of paper. You can also draw in the sand or the dirt with sticks. I know he’d love that. Don’t feel that you have to force him to write his name or specific words but allow him opportunities for large and small muscle movement particularly to help him with his pincer grip. That’s the way he’s supposed to hold his pencil. Putting pegs onto the clothes stand and ‘Play Doh’ are great ways to develop these muscles. If he is interested in writing letters, you can get hold of the NSW Foundation Font they use in schools and show him how to form his letters in this way. You can Google this or ask the school or childcare centre for a copy. I know it might seem easier for children to only write in capitals, but this is harder to unlearn and can also cause problems for children as their mum has told them this is the right way and then the teacher says that it’s wrong.
Anthea: That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of that. I think there’s a letter in the information pack on the NSW Foundation Font, which reminds me, I’d better double check that.
Katey: Another handy idea is to get Robbie to help you with the shopping. We all know how hard it can be sometimes to do the groceries with young children but a great way to have them feel part of the job is to give them a job.
Anthea: How about bread? Do you want me to get some bread?
Robbie: There – bread.
Anthea: Good boy …
Katey: Help Robbie write the list with you. What I mean here is give him a pencil and paper and have him write what you need: bread, milk, eggs, ham. He may do squiggles which is fine. You might be able to see a pattern forming and it may not look like script to you but I’m sure if you ask him to read it back he will be able to tell you. Have him take his list to the shop and then he can cross off the list as he finds the groceries. There is a whole lot of pre-literacy and pre-numeracy going on here. It’s fabulous.
Anthea: And it’s a great distraction too, thank you.
Katey: If we think about it, children can read the print material in their environment and it’s great to encourage this. They know what to do when you get to a stop sign and they can recognise fast food chains and cereal boxes. We can talk about the print we see around us with children and get them to have a go at what the words may say. Encouraging them to look at the picture to help with this is also a great strategy.
Anthea: I feel so much better about this now, Katey. Thank you and I’m realising I’m already doing things and I’m really happy about that. ‘Once upon a time there was a Mummy and a Daddy …’
Robbie: Mummy and Daddy.
Anthea: Yeah, and they went out one day and they took their soccer ball. And they said, ‘Let’s go and play soccer,’ and then they met some children. And the children said, ‘I want to play soccer too’. So the Mummy and the Daddy said, ‘Well, you have to learn how to play soccer. Music .
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