Strategies to promote early literacy in children.

Early Childhood Education and the Importance of Parents

Early childhood education is critical to maintaining children’s safe development. Children who have early access to comprehensive education services have been shown to excel in kindergarten, demonstrating the effect that early education has on children’s potential success (Barnett 5). Parents play a vital part in ensuring that children obtain an education at an early age. Regardless of a child’s history, it is important for a parent to ensure that they learn the fundamentals of reading and writing through a variety of techniques. Learning at home is therefore beneficial since the kid is comfortable with the world and may not be afraid. Early learning for children can also be used by parents to understand their children and establish if they are experiencing any challenge and how they can be helped (Melhuish 96). Early literacy can be used by parents to develop if their children are suffering any delay or disabilities in their quest for knowledge (Johnston 2). This development phase is essential as it will determine the experience a child will have and when they apply it in school, they will be able to achieve better academic grades.

Strategies to Promote Early Literacy in Children

Some of the strategies to promote early literacy in children include:

Playing Games

Advancement in technology has played a significant role in the passing of information to children. Today, numerous games exist that children can play with the help of their parents. Some of the standard games include those that involve alphabets and once the press an alphabet, there is a sound associated with it. Parents can use this strategy to engage with their children as it will help them to learn the basics of any language in a fun and interactive manner. Other games include those that involve selection of objects based on images and how to pronounce the words. It is vital as it will help to acquaint the child with different topics such as types of fruits and animals.

Changing the Attitude of Parents

Parents are the primary stakeholders when it comes to promoting knowledge to their children. Parents need to be sensitized of the importance of supporting their children and personally coaching them as this will have an impact on their future academic lives. Early lives of children have a fundamental effect on their development of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Based on research done on parents with children living in Jamaica, parents who spend more time with their children teaching them to sing, reading books and playing with them, the children performed better in their childhood, were more aggressive regarding their behavior and they had better self-control. It translated to their adult lives as those children who played with their parents more now earn an average of 25% more as compared to children who did not receive early schooling (Tough 1). Changing the behaviors, beliefs, and attitude of parents will have a significant impact on the development of early childhood programs hence should also be emphasized around the world to help in better development of children.

Reading Words Aloud

Children benefits when they hear stories from their parents. By reading, it gets the baby to start to talk and produce sounds which is essential as it enhances their speech from an early stage. The book involved should have images as children relate better to pictures and then the sound they hear their parents say. It will help them to identify colors, animals, shapes, concepts and all the information they need to know as they develop. The reading can happen at any moment of the day or night, and it helps to keep the children composed. Some of the skills the children get through this is creating a pattern and improving their attentive habits which they can apply in their later stages of development. As they continue to grow and they have learned how to read, speak and a little bit of writing, they can be introduced to other relevant reading materials such as math’s, history, science or grammar among many others. Early literacy that starts with reading words aloud is essential as it helps in their emotional, social and intellectual development which they can apply in their later stages of development in life (Pamela 1).

Teaching Children How to Sing and Pronunciation

Vocabulary development is an essential aspect of early child development and the earlier they learn, the better as it will help them to build their vocabulary that they can use later in their lives. Carrie claims that parents who sing and tell their children stories tend to develop better vocabularies, the become better reader and hence better education performers in school from an early age. They also learn about print awareness, and this is helpful as they will know how to hold a book, where to start reading from and understand what they are reading. Children begin to use their skills in their verbal and nonverbal communication which helps them to learn to express themselves. Through language development that children get through early literacy, the learn how to talk and interact with other people in their environment. Children can then apply the skills in learning how to write as they scribble what comes into their minds (Carrie, 2013).

The Role of Parents in Early Literacy

Early literacy is as critical as any other development phase in the life of the child. The impact that this can have can translate to the success of the child in later years. Just as the child has a role to play, parents have an even more significant role to play as they are the ones who determine the program the children should go through. Parents need to be sensitized on the vital role the need to play in ensuring early literacy for their children. By applying the various strategies such as reading words aloud, changing the attitude of parents, singing, playing games, the child can be able to develop their social, emotional, cognition and noncognition skills. The benefit for parents is that they can be able to establish some of the challenges children face early in life and know how they can help them to develop better. It is the best stage of providing learning to children as their brain is growing and what they learn they can apply it later in life. Nurturing children through delivering early education is essential, and parents should take the initiative of making their children learn as this will help in the development process of the child.

Works Cited

Barnett, W. S. “Preschool education and its lasting effects: Research and policy implications.”

(2008): 5-12. http://nieer.org/resources/research/PreschoolLastingEffects.pdf

Carrie Shrier. ”ABC’s of Early Literacy: The importance of developing early literacy skills.”

(2013). http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/abcs_of_early_literacy_the_importance_of_developing_early_literacy_skills

Johnston Susan S, McDonnell Andrea P, Hawken Leanne S. ”Enhancing Outcomes in Early

Literacy for Young Children with Disabilities.” Sage journals. (2008): 1-7.

Melhuish Edward C., Mai B. Phan, Kathy Sylva, Pam Sammons, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Brenda

Taggart. ”Effects of the Home Learning Environment and Preschool Center Experience upon Literacy and Numeracy Development in Early Primary School.” (2008): 95-114.

Pamela Paul, Maria Russo. ”How to Raise a Reader.” The New York Times. (2016).

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/books/how-to-raise-a-reader

Tough Paul. ”To Help Kids Thrive, Coach Their Parents.” The New York Times. (2016).

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/opinion/sunday/to-help-kids-thrive-coach-their-parents.html