A language rich environment is sometimes either forgotten or treated as the only important factor in learning to read.
Three factors are critically important in learning to read successfully:
- Explicit teaching of phonics (the sounds of letters and groups of letters and how to blend them to make words) with opportunity for a lot of practice.
- Developing phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds within words).
- A language rich environment.
Ways of providing a language-rich environment include the following:
- Talk about anything new, interesting and unfamiliar that you come across with your child. E.g. a yabby is a small freshwater crayfish in Australia. Now-a-days people farm them. Yaks are used in the mountainous areas of the Himalayas to carry heavy loads. This could lead on to finding the Himalayas in an atlas …
- Make sure children learn the meaning of new words. You might need to ask them if they understand a particular word, encourage them to always ask, and/or just a drop word into the conversation if you think they might not be familiar with it, e.g. nip, yelp or ram.
- Continue reading books to your child that are well beyond the level that they can read themselves – books with rhyme, poetry, stories, information about things they find interesting …
- Talk to children in a way that is above the level of their spoken language and just a little ahead of what you think they understand. Use whole sentences and proper grammar from when they are very young. E.g. “It’s a horse,” or “Look at the horse,” not (pointing) “Gee-gee.” With a 3 or 4 year old, a conversation about a horse might include colour, what it eats, how it moves, what it is used for, what horses may have been used for in the past, does it look well and happy, what might you need to do to look after a horse …
However, providing a language rich environment, and an environment that is full of books and the love of reading, does not guarantee that a child will learn to read easily and/or well. Point 1 above is usually essential and certainly most efficient, and extra help is sometimes needed with point 2, even if some children can work it out for themselves.
Click on the bottom right hand corner of each video to see it full screen. If you have trouble seeing the videos try y, Phonic Comic 1/29, am – ram jam, Phonic Comic 1/30, Phonic Comic 1/31, quiz – yum zip
Thanks to S. & J. Woods, “Kyalla”, Corrigin, Western Australia (yabby growers and processors) for photograph of yabby; and to J. & M. Cannell, Kathmandu, Nepal / Oyster Cove, Tasmania and R. Johnson, Fern Tree, Tasmania for photographs of yaks.
All illustrations for Phonic Comic books © A. H. M. Wherrett, 2004.
To see the other videos go to Videos for Children
Print the books easy 1-29, easy 1-30 and easy 1-31 back-to-back on A4 paper, cut across the centre on the line, assemble, fold and staple.
{ 0 comments… add one now }