Easy methods to Educate Preschoolers Literacy Expertise



Instructing younger kids literacy abilities could be difficult. They’re such an necessary ability that it may well develop into downright intimidating to show them to your college students.

Which comes first? Letter names? Or letter sounds?

The solutions to these questions are difficult. Determining the place to begin can provide even essentially the most seasoned preschool educators a headache.

However, fortunate for you, that is precisely what I’ll be discussing on this week’s episode of Elevating Early Childhood.

Tune in now and be taught all it’s good to find out about educating letter identification and sounds in preschool and which one to begin with.

Are you prepared?

Let’s dive in!

Which Literacy Expertise Ought to You Educate First within the Preschool Classroom? 

[Image quote: “Learning the alphabet, or any of the other literacy skills that go along with it, is not a linear process.” - Vanessa Levin]

It is a query that many individuals, each academics and homeschoolers alike, find yourself asking themselves whereas educating preschoolers. 

The very first thing we have to know as early childhood educators is that studying the alphabet, or some other literacy ability, is just not linear. A number of literacy studying is happening concurrently, as an alternative of 1 after the opposite.

Consider this in relation to how a child develops abilities. When a child is simply studying the best way to stroll, they’re additionally growing different abilities on the similar time. They’re not simply studying the best way to stroll and nothing else. 

My husband’s niece, for instance, is twelve months outdated, and she or he’s now studying the best way to stroll. She’s additionally studying the best way to discuss and the best way to feed herself on the similar time. The exact same factor is true for early childhood literacy abilities. 

Easy methods to Educate a Baby Literacy Expertise

Younger kids be taught the whole lot, not simply letters, from repeated publicity over time. So, for instance, let’s say you’re studying a ebook and also you need to train a baby the letter P. One of the simplest ways to do it’s by displaying them an image of the letter, figuring out it to them, and asking them if they’ll discover it.

Should you actually wished to counterpoint this exercise and take it a step additional, you might say, “That is the letter P, the P says ‘puh’, are you able to say ‘puh’? Can you discover the letter P?”

And you might lengthen this even additional and have the kid look within the mirror whereas making the sound that the letter P makes. This fashion, they’re going to be watching their lips as they are saying the sound, to allow them to see what their lips are doing.

Maintain the Youngsters’s Age in Thoughts

[Image quote: “Young children learn letters from repeated exposure over time.” - Vanessa Levin]

What I like to recommend for anyone, dad and mom and academics alike, is to take a look at the CDC’s milestones for developmental skills, which breaks down what kids are usually in a position to do at a given age.

For instance, three yr olds are nonetheless very a lot within the exploratory stage, in response to the CDC pointers. They’ve solely been on this planet for thirty-six months, and so they’re nonetheless attempting to determine how this entire talking and language factor works.

That implies that three yr olds don’t have to be bombarded with repeated requests to supply letters on command. Merely constructing on their publicity to letters at that age is loads, and it’ll go a protracted technique to laying a strong literacy basis for them.

Consider a younger youngster’s mind like a backyard. You don’t simply sprinkle a couple of seeds on some actually dry earth and anticipate a extremely lush, beautiful backyard to develop. 

No, it’s a must to put together the soil to obtain the seeds. After which when you try this, you’re going to water the seeds, you’re going to drag the weeds, and also you’re going to do the whole lot you’ll be able to to assist your backyard thrive. 

Serving to a younger youngster develop literacy abilities takes the identical quantity of labor.

I focus on all of this in additional depth within the episode above, so ensure that to provide it a pay attention when you’ll be able to. I promise, it’s a enjoyable one!

Learn more about Teach Smarter, a book by Vanessa Levin