I just received an email from a good friend whose little boy has just turned one today. He said his first word yesterday and is beginning to cruise around the furniture as well. Heavens! It’s ‘all systems go’ for a one year old!
How can these things be the start of reading???? Reading is just talking in print. Build a strong language foundation for your little person and read to them daily. You’ll set them up to be a real lover of books and all things printed. Talk about the pictures even though they may not reply to you just yet. Make books fun by using special, different voices for the different characters. Don’t feel embarrassed if your child’s only little, they won’t tell anyone how goofy you sound! Choose books that your child can relate to…. books about everyday happenings e.g. going shopping; running out of bread for their sandwiches; their clothes getting too small for them, as they grow; washing the dog etc etc.
This is the most exciting part of child development, I think…but I could be a bit bias. ENJOY!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
What's happening with my upper primary child?
Upper Primary school – why is it all so different to lower primary?
Often we see children who have done fairly well in the lower primary school years, who suddenly hit upper primary and begin to really fall behind their peers. As speech pathologists, we ‘hear alarm bells’ when this happens. Parents wonder what on earth is going on? … Is it a clash of personalities with the teacher? … Are they being bullied at school and therefore can’t cope with the academics as well? … Is it because the teacher doesn’t know his or her job? …. What on earth is happening?
Concerns can be allayed when we understand that the teaching strategies in the upper primary years have dramatically changed. In the lower primary years very practical teaching materials are used, concepts are demonstrated using visible materials e.g. adding is done by counting blocks or other objects e.g. if we have 3 blocks and we add one more what do we have? Let’s count them 1,2,3,4 and there’s the answer right before our eyes. Children often use their fingers to count at this point in their development. The books they read or that are read to them have glorious pictures in them, often leaving little to the child’s own imagination.
Once children enter the upper primary years, the concepts taught are more abstract and fewer visual aids are used in the classroom. Children are expected to be able to perform Maths tasks in their heads, not on their fingers and now they’ve moved onto ‘chapter books’ with all sorts of adventures happening that are not supported by many pictures. If your child is not quite at this abstract level, they may struggle with this shift away from these learning supports.
Some actvities that may help bridge this gap, at home, away from their peers can be found at http://www.literacyfun.com
Often we see children who have done fairly well in the lower primary school years, who suddenly hit upper primary and begin to really fall behind their peers. As speech pathologists, we ‘hear alarm bells’ when this happens. Parents wonder what on earth is going on? … Is it a clash of personalities with the teacher? … Are they being bullied at school and therefore can’t cope with the academics as well? … Is it because the teacher doesn’t know his or her job? …. What on earth is happening?
Concerns can be allayed when we understand that the teaching strategies in the upper primary years have dramatically changed. In the lower primary years very practical teaching materials are used, concepts are demonstrated using visible materials e.g. adding is done by counting blocks or other objects e.g. if we have 3 blocks and we add one more what do we have? Let’s count them 1,2,3,4 and there’s the answer right before our eyes. Children often use their fingers to count at this point in their development. The books they read or that are read to them have glorious pictures in them, often leaving little to the child’s own imagination.
Once children enter the upper primary years, the concepts taught are more abstract and fewer visual aids are used in the classroom. Children are expected to be able to perform Maths tasks in their heads, not on their fingers and now they’ve moved onto ‘chapter books’ with all sorts of adventures happening that are not supported by many pictures. If your child is not quite at this abstract level, they may struggle with this shift away from these learning supports.
Some actvities that may help bridge this gap, at home, away from their peers can be found at http://www.literacyfun.com
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