Literacy news

Making time

27 Jul 2006

One of the ten principles underpinning Birth to Three Matters is 'Learning is a shared process and children learn most effectively when, with the support of a knowledgeable and trusted adult, they are actively involved and interested'. This principle applies across all early learning, but it is particularly relevant when it comes to planning for early literacy. [.]

Examples of how babies and very young children develop literacy skills and how practitioners can support them appear in the Birth to Three Matters video, as well as on the laminated cards, so let's consider some of them.

Communicating

Young children only make sense of the written form of their language(s) against a rich understanding of spoken language. Babies can build a find repertoire of sound-making and simple 'conversational' skills. But they gain these skills only through frequent, happy interaction with familiar adults - not by pressing buttons to release the battery-powered voice of a complete stranger.

• A natural flow of communication may happen during spontaneous play.
• Give-and-take conversations can evolve around planned resources.
• Toddlers and young children do not restrict their speaking and listening to play experiences...Personal care routines build communicative relationships with easy opportunities for chat.

Rhythm

All young children need to tune into the sounds of their language(s). However, English is an especially difficult language, because there is no easy set of rules about how a sound or sound blend is expressed in written letters. Young speakers and listeners of English need generous time to gain a rich spoken vocabulary and be confident in saying and hearing sounds.

Nursery rhymes, songs and chants help young children manage the flow of their words and tune into sound patterns. The best singing times are often spontaneous and any group time needs to be limited to a small number of children. Repetition enables children to recall a song or rhyme and soon to start the singing themselves. The same kind of happy repetition arises with stories that read almost like a poem, with a flow of words and a recurring phrase.

Storytelling

Young children who are enthusiastic about books are well set up to be keen to learn to read for themselves, when they are truly ready. Babies and toddlers need experience with different kinds of books, an interested adult and only a very few other children.

• The video section on the Skilful Communicator [in Birth to Three Matters] features a very young child and a baby showing real enjoyment of a book and the conversation that unfolds around the storyline and illustrations. The practitioner is their childminder, yet there is no suggestion that this kind of close contact could only happen in a family home. On the contrary, the clear message is that group settings need to plan for this kind of snuggling-in time to be easily available on request.
• Whatever the type of setting, toddlers should have favourite books that they can take from a basket or low shelf when they choose. They can have learned how a book works, turning the pages and even echoing some of the storyline or what a familiar adult usually says to each picture or photo.
• Young children can realise through experience that some books give you information about big trucks, going shopping, spiders - anything that interests this young child.

Appropriate early literacy experiences provide young children with reasons to want to read and write. Older children often want to write down stories, but this task requires more than knowing what letters to form. Children need to feel confident in how to create a story - what is going to happen and who the characters are.

Suggestions within the four cards supporting A Skilful Communicator remind practitioners of the importance of storymaking and storytelling. Props, such as storysacks, enable children to play out a story. Open-ended pretend play resources give scope for imaginative narratives to unfold.

(Extracted from an article by Jennie Lindon, Nursery World)

Tags: Talk To Your Baby

Return to literacy news