Learning to read and write from birth?

Did you know you can lay the foundations to help your child learn to read and write from birth, or even before they are born?

I talked to my son while I was pregnant.  I didn’t know he was a he then, but that didn’t matter.  I wanted my baby to hear the sound of my voice and to prepare him for the shock of the outside world.  And I haven’t stopped talking to him since.  Neither has he.  “What’s this Mummy?”  “Why does this happen?”  “Where does that come from?”

I’m now looking at how to help him learn basic reading and writing now he has started school.   I want him to love books like I do.   I even started selling Usborne Books to get cheap books for him.

So what have I done so far that might have helped him?  Much of the usual.

• nursery rhymes – lots of word repetition in a fun way.
• talking - I have made conversations out of the most mundane things.  Starting with “Where’s the red cup?”.  Then “What colour is the cup?”  To “I spy with my little eye something that rhymes with up” and “I spy with my little eye something beginning with c”
• storytime - I have always read books with him.  He has learned how to hold a book, that stories have a beginning, middle and end, and follow a structure.  It has helped his concentration – he wants to know what happens.  He chooses the book himself now, and of course has favourites.  I don’t worry about repeating the same stories – in fact, it is helping him start to recognise the shapes of words.
• colouring and drawing – since he had enough co-ordination to hold a pencil I have encouraged drawing.  It helps strengthen and develop the muscles in his hand.
• out and about – whenever we visit places I take the opportunity to introduce him to new words, and encourage him to talk about what he is seeing.  I hope that by increasing his vocabulary will help him remember the written word when he sees it.
• library visits - he has been a member of our local library since he was about 18 months old.  The library has given us access to a much larger range of books than we could afford or accommodate in our modest house and has helped our son decide what books he likes best.  Some libraries have storytime sessions, often in the daytime for pre-schoolers, and some during the school holidays.  Although there are many library service cutbacks at the moment, it is worth looking out for any library activities that are still available.
• his own books – we value our local charity shops for great quality secondhand books.  A cheap way of introducing new books to his own library. He has always had his own baskets under the bed for him to rummage through and choose his favourite book.

There is so much more I could have been doing and I’ll go into that in more detail next time. I now need to go and pick him up from school and once home, help him with his reading.

Developing Fine Motor Skills for Free.

From the day she is born a baby is starting to develop fine motor skills.

Extend a finger and a newborn baby will grasp that finger, as a reflex reaction.  As a baby develops you will see her controlling the opening and closing of her fist, as the reflex reaction disappears  by the time the baby is three months old.

Encourage her to pick up things, hold them and put them down. Gradually her grasp will strengthen and she will be able to hold objects for longer and move them from once place to another. Ultimately her pincer grip will be strong enough for her to pick up small objects between her thumb and forefinger – just in time for encouraging self-feeding.

Give her the opportunity to pick up and hold a spoon, and even to try to feed herself.  Be prepared for the mess!  Place objects slightly out of reach to encourage your baby to reach for them and pass items to him to pass back to you.  Tie or attach things to the handle of the car seat or on the buggy or stroller.

At this stage she can make marks, not only with pencils and crayons but also with spilt food, paint, rice or sand.  Why not spread out a tray of sand for your baby to draw shapes in the sand?  This is the first step on a child’s journey to writing.

Once a child is able to hold a crayon or pen, make available plenty of paper for scribbling.  It will start with scribbling but this will help her to control the muscles in her hand and to develop the hand-eye co-ordination she will need for writing.  As your child gets older you can make drawing more fun with a variety of coloured pencils and crayons, chalks and glitter pens.  What can be cheaper than a piece of paper and a pen!

Shape sorting toys, from approximately 18 months, are great for encouraging a child to develop both fine motor skills and gross motor skills.  He’ll use his gross motor skills (we’ll hear more about these in a later article) to hold his body still to look at the toy, and then use fine motor skills to hold and turn over the pieces before placing them through the correct hole.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills

What are fine motor skills?  If you have children you will no doubt have been told by professionals of the importance of your child developing his or her fine motor skills.  Well, what are they?

Fine motor skills relate to the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects, and fastening clothing.  Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a child’s ability to eat, write legibly, use a computer, turn pages in a book, and even perform personal care tasks such as dressing and grooming.  Ultimately weak fine motor skills could affect a child’s ability to progress in the world around him.

How can you help develop a child’s fine motor skills? It’s never too early to help your child to develop fine motor skills.  From birth give your child toys that he can hold and handle; touch and feel – rattles that he can grasp and turn in his hands, soft toys with different textures, colours and sounds, even touchy feely books.

As the child becomes a toddler, you could introduce threading and lacing activities.  There are many lacing bead sets available with different themes to enable the development not only of fine motor skills but also imaginative play.  Soft clay is ideal – what child can resist squeezing play dough through his fingers and watching what happens? Or how about hiding an item in the soft dough for your child to find?

Once a child starts to hold a pencil, encourage him to colour in pictures, draw shapes and lines. My little once was scribbling on paper long before he could form any letters.  Mind you, there is that moment when you don’t know what he’s drawn and have to ask carefully what it is. “Is it an elephant?” “No, it’s a car mummy.  Can’t you tell?”

Encourage cutting with scissors – straight lines, zigzags, curved lines and more. Holding a pair of scissors will help strengthen his hand and fine motor skills plus the muscles that will help him hold a pen and undo buttons for PE when he starts school.

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