Children's language development fascinates me. I have been reading a great deal about brain development and the process of learning language and reading. Many parents and teachers, who worry about their children developing language and learning to read, tend to push the children to learn the alphabet, phonics, and sight words at a younger and younger age. Although more pressure is being put on children to learn at an earlier age, reading scores in this country continue to slide. One of the countries that outranks the US in reading scores is Finland. Do they have a secret formula for teaching reading? Do they know something that we do not? Do they have some kind of reading magic? Their solution to raising good readers is simple - they do not start to teach reading until the children are at least 6.5 years old. This is not rocket science - it is the age at which first graders began to learn to read many, many years ago when I was in first grade. Now, in our rush to improve reading scores, we are pushing children to learn at a younger and younger age. While they often can recognize sight words, they lack the years of preparation that they spend learning how language works, learning the sounds and rhythms of language, learning how letters are put together in different combinations to create different words, and learning how that we read top to bottom and left to right.
Our program is a relaxed, developmentally appropriate program which allows the children to learn naturally by experiencing and experimenting. Rather than drilling the children with the sounds of the letters and worksheets that involve copying letters, they are allowed to develop a love of and understanding for the language. The children listen to stories and talk about the sounds and letters in the books. They learn poems and rhymes (did you know that the child who knows eight nursery rhyme type poems when he begins kindergarten is a measurably better reader by third grade?) and experience lots of environmental print. By the time that they start kindergarten they are well on their way to learning to read.
Let me tell you about several of our children that are discovering how the alphabet, language, and writing work together. The three year old teacher had printed the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill" on a piece of paper and hung it on the wall in the reading area. When I came into the room, Danny was standing at the paper, tracing under the words with his finger, and reciting the nursery rhyme. About half way through, his finger was far ahead of the rhyme. He looked at the page, said, "No", and began again with his finger following his words. Was he reading this? No - he had learned from watching the teacher that his finger had to line up with the words that he was reciting. He was learning that specific combinations of letters make different words. Without this knowledge, learning to read would be difficult, if not impossible.
Several days later, George was awake at nap time. He looked at Jane, who was asleep, and said, "Jane is a sleepy-head". Suddenly the light bulb came on. He smiled and said, "I get it! Jane is asleep and she has a head!" Again, the understanding of language, and the ability to decode compound words is an essential prereading skill that can only be learned by using language. A young child who has a conversation rich environment will be a better reader than one that is forced to drill letter sounds.
One of the four year old girls was bouncing when I saw her a few days ago. The children had been grinding whole spices with a mortar and pestle (sensory stimulation, gross motor experience, language development), when she noticed that the spices that she was using came from a bottle that was labeled "Nutmeg". She couldn't wait to tell me that she found my name on the bottle. She told me that if I had the word nut in front of my name that my name would be "Nutmeg". Again, Nancy was learning that letters work together to make words, that a word can be broken down into its parts, and that the same combination of letters can make the same sound in different words.
Do you want your child to be a successful reader? Get rid of the "educational" toys, turn off the TV, and read, read, read to your child. Talk about what you have read, talk about what you see, and talk about what you are doing. Let your child see you read. When you need to look up information, let the child see you do it and talk about how you are using the words in the phone book, cookbook, directions, etc. Teaching reading is not done in a vacuum - it takes place every day. Unless a child has an understanding of language and how it works, and appreciates that reading is important, he will not be a successful reader. The best part is that while you are helping your child to become a successful reader, you will be having a lot of fun together and sharing some special times that he will remember for years to come.
To all parents and teachers - I would highly recommend the book
Reading Magic by Mem Fox. Mem is an author of children's books and a teacher. I spent a whole day at her workshop at a NYS Association for the Education of Young Children conference several years ago. She is extremely wise and extremely funny, and I often give her book as a baby shower gift, along with some children's books.
