Do the preparation you give to your daycare children make a difference? You bet they do!
As the 4 year olds arrive at the Mountain View Parent Nursery School, they pick out their nametags and hand them to teacher Betsy Nikolchev to fasten. “Great job finding your name, Elaine,” Nikolchev says. “How did you know that says Elaine?” “Because it starts with the letter ‘E,’” she answers. “What other letters are in your name?” the teacher asks. “E-l-a-i-n-e.” “Wow. I’m so proud of you,” Nikolchev says.
Recognize the signs of progress in your pre-reader and share the information with your center’s parents.
Long before children can read books they need to master key skills that will help them make sense of all those black squiggles on the page often in the child care center environment. The National Institute for Literacy has identified a number of building blocks that prepare children for reading.
Familiarity with print and books:
It’s important for your child to know that people read words, not pictures, and that the words she sees in print are related to the words she speaks and hears. She also needs to know how books work — that you begin with the cover right-side up and move from front to back, one page at a time.
Reading milestones:
- Recognizing print in everyday life, on cereal boxes, street signs, and more
- Knowing you can use print for many different purposes, from stories to grocery lists
- Holding a book, turning the pages, and pretending to read
- Following the series of events in some stories
- Asking questions and making comments that show she understands what you read to her
Letter recognition:
The more letters your child is able to instantly recognize and name by the time he starts kindergarten, the quicker he’ll be able to focus his attention on other tasks such as the sounds associated with each letter. It’s easiest for your child to begin learning the letters in his name.
Reading milestones:
- Singing the ABC song
- Recognizing the shape of letters
- Starting to learn the sounds of letters: “B” makes the “buh” sound
- Sounds of speech: Technically called “phonological awareness,” this is the ability to discern the sounds in words.
- Word play is key to phonological awareness because it entails listening to the way words sound and recognizing how they change.
- Developing a sense of syllable is another key part of phonological awareness and is an important precursor to sounding out words.
Sounds of speech:
Technically called “phonological awareness,” this is the ability to discern the sounds in words. Word play is key to phonological awareness because it entails listening to the way words sound and recognizing how they change. Developing a sense of syllable is another key part of phonological awareness and is an important precursor to sounding out words.
Reading milestones:
- Identifying letters and realizing that they represent the segments of her own speech
- Understanding that “dog” does not rhyme with “cat”
- Clapping out syllables in familiar and unfamiliar words — cow/ boy, ro/ de/ o
- Phonemic awareness: Before children learn to read print, they need to understand that words are made up of speech sounds, technically called phonemes. Reading expert Louisa C. Moats, co-author of Straight Talk About Reading, says phonemic awareness is essential because our writing is a representation of speech sounds. “Ninety percent of the time, kids who have reading problems have a weakness in their ability to detect and identify speech sounds,” Moats says.
Reading milestones:
- Naming several words that begin with the same sound — bat, boy, and bell
- Replacing one sound with another — replace the first sound in pig with /d/ to make dig.
Take the time to recognize progress, and help your center’s parents to see it as well. You can copy and paste this information into a parent’s eNewsletter. You can also read more at Scholastic.com. Become familiar with ways that you can stand out as a child care provider. As you become known as a thought leader, your parents will talk about it to their friends, and you can watch your business grow, while the children under your care thrive.
