A bed time story
Once upon a time, in a household not so far away, a young child is laying their head to rest for a long nights sleep. A mother or father is reading them a story before they tuck you into bed turn the lights in your room out. But why? Reading to children builds morality and develops literacy. Its the first step in teaching your child to read and right skills that are crucial to becoming an functional member of society. Lets continue our story to find out.
Sometimes your Mum or Dad may get you to feel the textures on the pages. As they read, your absorbing information, what sounds are my parents using to form the words, what do those words mean. Your teaching language, how to talk, understand what others are saying to you. The story might about a child just like you who is struggling with some kind of problem. They might rely on help from a ‘hero’ who saves that day or the main character might solve it themselves. Sometimes your wondering where that main character is. These sorts of book are silently teaching morals, ethics and emotions. The character may feel fear, joy sadness, asking your child to identify these emotions will help them learn to regulate there’s and explain how there feeling.
Lets look at the science of it, each baby is born with a preset group of sounds. As you grow into a child, that group of sounds little down into just the ones you use within the languages you speak. This is how babies learn how to understand and then speak a language, and why they start babbling and mimicking sounds and noises. As they babble more the sounds they make become more and more similar to the sounds you make as the parent/career. This is why the younger you are when you start, the easier it is to learn a new language. It’s easier for a child who is going to be raised bilingual to learn both languages at the same time. It means that you don’t have to relearn new sounds for each new language. You also only retain the sounds you regularly use in person, so if your child learns a second language, they need to use it regally. One other thing, listening to a tv program in a foreign language even regularly they will not learn how to speak it though the program alone. A child will not respond the sounds spoken when the person talking is not physically in the same room. If they are going to be raised bilingual, than one or both parents need to be fluent in one or both languages.
The more you explore the sounds within the language the better your vocabulary, the only way to explore your language it to use it. By reading to your baby, you are exposing them to which ever language your reading to them in. Remember babies only pick up on the sounds in person so the more you expose them to the sounds within a language, the more they retain and you reenforce the sound set of that language. The better able to use and understand the sounds relevant to your language the more capable you are of assigning the correct letter to each sound. In reading to them though out there childhood and into primary school your teaching literacy, you need to be literate to be successful in life right?
So my tips, read to your child every chance you get, even once there in school its a good way to spend time with them if nothing else. Avoid reading books thought a screen because it doesn’t support there development in any capacity. Reading to children in person teaches emotional intelligence and language in the only way that a young child will pick up on. Ask questions whilst your reading to confirm there understanding of the story and engage your child with the story. Have a chat about it afterwards, explore the concepts within the story the more you talk about the story, the better. At the end of the day, you always walk out the door and turn out the light so what’s the extra five minutes, its a good chance to continue there education at home as well as build a relationship with your child.
Last but not least, activity of the week:
Obleck, sometimes its liquid, sometimes its a solid. Exploring it can be a really engaging experience.
You will need
One part water
One part corn flour
Food colouring, optional
Mix cornflour, water and colouring (if used) together in a tray. Pair with sand toys or kitchen wear for gooey, slimy fun.