Thanks again Tanja for joining us.

—————————————————————————————

“Yoghurt!” my son David shouted. He was not even one year old at the time.

We were on our way to the beach, and I assumed he wanted a frozen tub of the stuff to eat until we arrived. But as I turned around in my seat to give it to him, reminding him that he ought to have said ‘please’, I noticed that he was pointing a chubby finger at the vehicle right in front of us.

There, on the tail-gate of the pickup truck, was the word “Toyota”.

Before formal schooling begins, literacy skills are picked up in subtle means, before they are actually “taught” to a child. And that ought to be an indication that the “look and learn” method does not suit each and every child.

We know that learning styles differ:

• Aural (auditory-musical) indicates a preference for music and sounds;
• Logical (mathematical) utilizes logic, reasoning and systematic methods;
• Physical (kinesthetic) bring into play the body, hands and sense of touch;
• Social (interpersonal) opts for learning when in the company of others;
• Solitary (intrapersonal) is the decision to work alone;
• Verbal (linguistic) plumps for the use of words, both in writing and speech.
• Visual (spatial) chooses graphics, images, pictures, and spatial perception.

Despite this, most parents and teachers “expect” a child to follow the praxis obtaining with the peer group, be it recitation by rote or point-and-say. No allowances are made for children who could, and would, learn faster and better in their own preferred style and method of learning.

Having said this, it is worth pointing out that for most children, a combination of learning styles is by far the best technique to use. The idea is to make his grasp of the alphabet fun, albeit being didactic.

Games

“Learning Through Play” is a concept that is as old as the hills.

And one of the first methods that come to mind is giving new life to a pack of cards. All you have to do is cover the front of the cards with blank paper, stick a picture on the top two-thirds of each card (two for each letter), and write the initial at the bottom.

Unlike a look-but-don’t-touch wall frieze, this will give ‘tangible’ and ‘tactile’ results – and may also be used to play an interminable game of “Snap”… These cards could also be placed, face down, on a flat surface and used for a “Memory Game.”

If whole words are written on the cards, they may be utilized as flash cards, too.

You can also purchase or make, “first” books, called so because they are made of cloth or plastic. These are safer to use in the bath or in the cot, since unlike paper volumes, they do not disintegrate and pose a danger to a child who could swallow bits of the latter.

If you find fabric or plastic sheeting (of the type used for tablecloths) that incorporates an alphabet design, all you have to do is attach the “pages” at the side, by sewing them. This is the safest method, since glue, tape and staples may pose dangers if gnawed at. I found this out, myself, when my son Robert plugged his nostrils with gobs of chewed paper he had peeled off his Alphabet Jig-saw Puzzle.

High Class?

There is the question of whether children ought to be taught the upper- or lower-case letters first, or whether “the big one and the little one” must be presented together to facilitate assimilation.

Some educators even go as far as insisting that letters must be taught ion sequence, so that the child will not find difficulty in reciting the alphabet when this is required of him.

However, opinions differ on this one too.

When I worked as a Kindergarten Assistant, it was the norm to teach the children (3-4 years of age) the vowels first and foremost. We made a game of it; someone would pretend to pick up the phone and reply with exaggerated phonetic sounds of the vowels to whatever the person on the other end of the line was supposed to be saying.

Then followed 5 other letters – b, s, t, l and m, so that the children could get a cross-section of “shapes” (curves and straight lines and combinations), with the upper case letter being written after the lower case one.

All ten would have their own “scrapbook” – made up of collages, pre-writing exercises, potato prints, and pictures, colors, and shapes with a connection to the consonant or vowel for that month, so by the end of the scholastic year, they would hopefully have mastered them.

The ideal way to show children that a proper noun starts with a capital letter is to have their name and surname spelled out in separate letters – with practice they will be able to put it together correctly; even more so if you first write it down on a strip and then cut out each letter separately in a jigsaw-puzzle style, so that the parts fit together.

If you use sandpaper, or corrugated cardboard, you will literally add another dimension to this exercise. This game may also be done with letter fridge magnets.

A child would also love to write his name in the sand – on the beach, in a sandpit at the playground, or in a sand tray at home – according to the opportunities he has. He would also enjoy “painting” his name in water with a brush, on a slate or chalkboard.

Laminated paper and a water-based felt-tip pen provide another source of fun… if he wears an orphan sock on his “free” hand, he can erase and re-write without missing a beat.

Touch and Go!

Most children will absorb information when the way it is given involves some kind of mess; a pile of magazines, glue, glitter and stickers will encourage children to make their own Alphabet Book. If this is given a theme, rather than being a haphazard collection of pictures, the child will be learning how to organize information too; and this will be in good stead later. It does not matter of the child cannot pronounce the words properly, as yet.

• An Animal Book would have alligator, beaver, cow, donkey… this will also increase a child’s vocabulary, especially if you steer away from the common cat, dog, and fish creatures.
• The Food Book would have asparagus, broccoli, cucumber, damson… again; try to avoid oranges, apples and tomatoes.
• The Things Book would have anchor, bridge, climber… and in this case you avoid airplane, ball and chair.

This is another reason why you must haunt rummage sales and stock up on old magazines!

Children will encounter the printed word wherever they go: street signs, television, food cans, birthday cards, newspapers… each of these is an intrinsically unique learning opportunity.

Song and Dance

Children love rhythm. Most of them love repetition. A good number of them insist on consistency. This is where alphabet songs come in. You can use the tried-and-tested ones handed down in specialized books – or you can make up silly songs that will have the child giggling gleefully along in no time at all, even if he does not understand all the words. This is especially important, because if a child “knows” the Alphabet Song it does not necessarily mean that he understands what the alphabet is.

Alliteration and onomatopoeia sound especially funny to children.

Action songs and rhymes are other learning tools worth trying. Memory games such as The Clergyman’s Cat prepare the way for teaching abstract concepts as well as encouraging lateral thinking skills.

Always keep in mind that a laptop is not a lap; don’t delegate the teaching of letters to a machine. Not only because of the insidious fashion of misspelling “on purpose” in order to appear hip, or to “save time”, but because otherwise you will be missing out on “us” time, too.

by Tanja Cilia

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.