Jj is for Jottings 111. Word Confusions: Ton/Tonne; Home/Hone.
For all the reasons given in the article on punctuation, clear communication is important, since that is the whole point: to get your message across to the listener/reader. Many people confuse similar words, which undermines their message. There will be articles from time to time on this topic, beginning with the word confusions Ton/Tonne; Home/Hone. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 96. Interactive Reading With Children.
There is a difference between reading to children and reading with children. Reading TO children is just that – reading a story without any sort of discussion or interaction. (For disquieting statistics on reading to children, see here.) On the other hand, interactive reading with children, or reading WITH children, is an active process rather than a passive one. In this case, you are encouraging the child to think, predict, remember and discuss the story, and other related topics may also arise. Therefore it has all the benefits of reading to children, plus many more.
Too young for interactive reading with children, but the right age to start reading TO her.
Jj is for Jottings 88. Hearing Loss Effects on Speech, Language and Literacy.
Hearing loss effects on Violet’s speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading “Aa is for Alpacas” to her.
Moving on from discussing fluctuating hearing loss in the previous article, we now turn our attention to the effects of hearing loss on speech, language and literacy. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 68. Communication Milestones.
Here is a chart put together by a group from Queensland and the National Office of Speech Pathology Australia which you may find useful.
Here is the link if you want to print copies.
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/milestones
Jj is for Jottings 57. Reading to Dogs.
If you had your reading L plates on, who would you rather read to – a person or a dog? Young readers reading to dogs is an idea which originated in the USA in 1999, and is being adopted in Australia in schools and libraries. Different programs exist, but they are all variations on the theme. Continue reading
Off to school next year – excellent preparation.
Jj is for Jottings 33. How More Routine, Fewer Choices Make for Smarter and Happier Children. Part 3.
Here is the third part of an article which appeared in the Pulse section of the Border Mail on February 6 last year, and it bears repeating. The first part was in Jottings 18 and the second in Jottings 26.
Behavioural optometrist Michael Smith gave these guidelines:
How to prepare your child for the ‘game of school’
• Talk with your child;
• Travel/drive/explore the world;
• Use a wide range of vocabulary;
• Play simple games with words and alphabetic sounds (make it fun);
• Read books daily — limit distractions and make the experience a special time; and
• If you are concerned about your child’s progress or development, do some research and get help as it is easier to rectify problems at an earlier age.
THE fallout is felt in the classroom.
Mrs McCormack (a teacher for 45 years, now retired) knows all too well the validity of Mr Smith’s comments after four decades of teaching.
“Nothing can replace the experience of the smell and touch of a book, of sitting cuddled up on your parent’s knee while they read to you and hearing and seeing the expression in their voice,” she says.
And while she believes advances in technology have brought a wealth of stimulation to our world, at the same time it is robbing children of vital skills needed for school and life.
“It’s like we have thrown out everything that’s old to bring in everything that’s new,” she says.
“It may not happen in my lifetime but I can see a point where the focus will return to the basics — the three Rs (Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic).
Mr Smith is adamant the over-use of electronic media before kids start school is affecting them socially, physically and mentally.
“Plonking children in front of a television for hours a day and then another two hours on the iPad or Xbox is depriving children of movement and of words,” he says.
“So many kids are starting school with a limited ability to be creative, to see in their mind.”
These are the children who end up at Mr Smith’s door.
He has countless stories of parents who come to him almost at their wit’s end about little Johnny mucking up, falling behind and generally struggling to grasp the basics of learning.
In a heart-felt letter, one mum wrote that she once had a son who hated school so much he would cry and lock himself in the toilet.
“Every day he would lay on my bed and say I hate myself, why can’t I learn and every day my heart would break (sic) for him,” she wrote.
“He was three years behind the other children in his grade and falling further and further behind.
“Now he’s a changed boy; he loves going to school, his handwriting has improved 100 per cent and he is now reading books, loves maths and is going well at sport.”
But it was the new-found confidence evident in her son’s own words that captured it best for Mr Smith.
“Thank you for helping me. You have helped me in my school work so much,” the boy wrote in pencil.
“Now can you help me pick up a chick … ha ha.
Marshmallow sitting on the front door mat. Notice the white bits on the mat from her preening. Quite messy, and rather difficult to get out the front door without sending her flying (not literally).
Jj is for Jottings 26. How More Routine, Fewer Choices Make for Smarter and Happier Children. Part 2.
Here is the second part of an article which appeared in the Pulse section of the Border Mail on February 6 last year, and it bears repeating. The first part was in Jottings 18. We will visit other parts of the same article in other Jottings.
GETTING your priorities right as a parent is a sentiment with which behavioural optometrist Michael Smith wholeheartedly agrees.
As thousands of students poured back into classrooms across the Border in recent weeks, the odds are that some of them will come across the path of the Wodonga Vision and Learning Centre founder.
Mr Smith believes about 30 per cent of children start school before they are ready.
For the past 30 years he has helped children (and adults) with “visual processing problems” who may be struggling in a classroom or with reading.
His work is about much more than prescribing glasses.
Behavioural optometry examines how a person’s vision affects how they function in the world around them, according to Mr Smith.
“Vision is your pervasive means of dealing with the world around you and if you don’t do that well then you are going to be compromised — at school, in sport and even at work.
But it’s at school that the problem generally rears its head, according to Mr Smith.
“Often a child who has not developed their vision adequately will be written off as clumsy or just not good at sports for example,” he says.
“But when you hit school, you have a situation that forces the issue and many kids are just not ready.
“They have not developed the skills they need to be able to deal with the classroom and they are the ones who end up needing intervention.”
So what does this all mean?
It begins when we are babies, Mr Smith says.
“Visual curiosity first triggers a baby to move their hands to try and grasp something or to roll towards something.
“Eventually your movement becomes more and more complex as you learn to crawl and then eventually walk.
“Once you are on the move your visual curiosity can take you to places you can’t reach.”
Mr Smith says that as we get older we don’t always have to go to things and touch them.
“Your vision has had so many experiences, you can look at something and know what is is,” he explains.
But if your visual system does not develop beyond that point, for whatever reason, problems can arise, he says.
“If, for example, you start school and you still have to touch everything you are not going to function in a classroom because you can’t touch words or numbers,” Mr Smith says.
“It is parents who give them their language and they need to both watch and listen to you. That cannot be replaced by a computer screen.”
He says once you have a vision problem it modifies the way your body works and the way you move.
It can also affect behaviour.
He says there are a lot of things parents can do to help ensure their child’s visual system develops properly.
But it requires an investment of time.
It means reading to your child is more important than the washing.
It means less time in front of the television or Xbox and more time playing outside.
“Children need a lot of movement experience,” he explains.
“They need outside play so go to the park, ride a bike, dance, catch and throw a ball or play with a balloon when they are little.
“Give them something to make or create — whether it’s Lego or some paper towel tubes and sticky tape.
“And you must read to your child. That is essential.”
Mr Smith says a lot of children come to him with poor vocabulary and don’t know how to construct a simple sentence.
“It is parents who give them their language and they need to both watch and listen to you,” he says.
“That cannot be replaced by a computer screen.”
But the investment of time can sometimes be the hardest thing to do, he concedes.
“It’s difficult because both parents generally have to work and our society is such that in order to support ourselves parents have to work,” Mr Smith says.
“The parent may only see their child for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and most of that time is spent pushing the kid to get ready for breakfast or dinner or out of bed or off to bed.
“It’s not quality time.
“It’s survival time.”
Following the sequence from Jottings 16, it’s easy to read Marshmallow’s mind…”I’ll pretend I’m not looking.”
Jj is for Jottings 17. Learning New Words (Vocabulary) Through Reading.
Following on from Jottings 16, in which I encouraged you to keep reading to your children even when they are learning to read for themselves, here is some further information from a 2015 study:
Beginning in primary school, the ability to work out meanings of unknown words through reading is an important skill for acquiring vocabulary, and this continues right throughout life. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 16: Keep Reading to your Children.
Now that the school year is beginning it’s a good time to remind parents that, just because your child is learning to read, it doesn’t mean that it is time to stop reading to THEM. (That’s not shouting – it’s already bold and the underlining didn’t come through on the post.) I have noticed that, when I question “my” children (clients) about whether stories are read to them at home, an alarming number indicate that they have never had stories read to them (and these children usually have no idea about how to handle a book); some still have stories read to them (yay!); and some used to be read to, but since they began school and are bringing home readers, their parents listen to their readers in place of reading to the children. It is vital to do BOTH. I know it adds time to a busy life, but they’re only young once and it’s definitely worth it because it contributes to their success and happiness. (It should be noted here that I take what younger children say to me with a grain of salt – they don’t always perceive things accurately as a result of their limited experience, so some who say they don’t have stories read to them may actually be read to, but there are many who would be presenting an accurate picture.)
The books we read to our children usually have a much more complex level of language and a broader range of topic than the readers they bring home. In this way children are exposed to information that is outside their direct experience. I was reminded of this vividly last year when I was reading a little story to a child with a particular sound error. The story was heavily weighted with this sound to give him practice in saying the sound correctly in sentences when answering questions about the story. The story was about a boy making a sailing boat and taking it to a canal to try it out. Not surprisingly, my student had not heard of a canal, so he received a lesson on canals and, since I’ve been in a narrow boat on a canal, he also had locks explained to him – why they are necessary and how they work – adjusted to the child’s level of understanding, of course.
In addition to expanding a child’s knowledge and vocabulary through reading to them, it also provides excellent practice in maintaining listening attention, which is so important both in education and in everyday life.
As mentioned elsewhere, I used to read to my children at the dinner table through to late primary school. I did it to share with them books that I had loved as a child or, as they grew up and we moved on to books of an increasingly high level, as an adult. We talked about the books, of course, and I occasionally see glimpses of the positive effects of doing that, even now in their late 20s and early 30s.
You’ll need to go back to the pictures from Jottings 12 and 13 to get the sequence. The coast is now clear and Marshmallow is making a determined advance on the dog food.
