Reading & Writing Help
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Reading & Writing Help |
INCULCATING PRE - READING & PRE -WRITING SKILLS IN CHILDREN,TODDLERS
By Sheetal Kapoor, Freshbuds, Mumbai
An infant is in a state of almost ceaseless activity .Legs , arms , hands , fingers & head are in more or less constant motion . His eyes & ears are constantly seeking & receiving stimuli . The infant gets attracted by bright colors eventually focuses on it after considerable concentration . This is the first step he or she takes towards developing pre – reading skills . At about 3 months when the infant is beginning to focus he will follow movements . He follows his mothers voice & turns towards it . This is the right stage to provide him with visual stimuli such as :
- dangling toys from crib or carriage .
- exposing the child to large bright simple pictures & objects .
This is the stage when the child moves his head from left to right in accordance to the movement of the object / person . Eventually he learns to track the object by moving his eye balls only & not his head . This movement is very important & forms the basis of reading .
Movements are very general to start off with & when the child gets familiar with the movements then they get more specific & well defined .
At around 4 months the infant tries to co-ordinate eye hand movement which forms the basis of pre – writing skills .
When a cube is given to a 2 month old he might clutch at it without seeing
it .But a 4 month old baby will see the cube & try to reach it with many exaggerated movements he may or may not be able to make contact .At about 5 months he scoops it in his palm which is not a specific well defined movement but a very general one .
He gradually learns to use only his fingers to grasp an object & then specifically learns to use his thumb & fore finger .
AT 8 months he can actually hold his feeder & drink milk on his own & at 9 months can aim the bottle into his mouth . This is an important milestone & the first step towards pre- writing skills .
At this stage soft squeeze toys will help enhance his palmer grasp since he can exercise his finger & palm muscles by squeezing the toys.
Some activities which can be given to a one year old :
- making tower
- transferring objects from one container to another
- Paper tearing & crumpling
- Peg boards with large pegs
- Putting objects through slots
- Water pouring
Parents can start giving their child finger foods – channa, peas & fruits such as grapes or cut or break food into bit size pieces so that the child is encouraged to use his thumb & forefinger to pick food & aim it into his mouth .
Gross motor activity such as throwing the ball will enhance the child’s eye hand movement . At this stage he can track the ball by moving his eyes only & not his head . This is a very important skill to inculcate good reading since while reading the child needs to move only his eyes from left to right & not his entire head.
At 2 years one can progress towards presenting more challenging tasks to further enhancing PINCER MUSCLES such as :
- peg boards with finer pegs to encourage them to use only thumb & forefinger & to accurately put it in the appropriate slot
- links to enhance eye hand coordination
- Books to open
- Unscrewing & putting back the bottle screws
- Stringing beads & reels
- Sorting activities – red beads & blue beads , chana & rajma this involves eye hand coordination , strengthening pincer muscles & it also helps the child differentiate between the 2 things which will help later when he has to notice the difference between letters e.g. I- l , m- n
- Slates & chalk
- Coloring within outline
All activities which involve pincer muscles help make the muscles strong to hold pencil / crayon . These simple activities go a long way in getting him ready for reading & writing .
Whenever the child is being introduced to something new it first has to be in the concrete form for him to comprehend . Later he can introduce the same concept through picture & then talk about it without having any concrete object or picture i.e. in the abstract manner .
e.g. dog – when first you talk about it let him see one .Later he can identify it in the picture . Then you can just have a conversation about the dog without any aide live or picture . this will enhance his recollection .
Books with big clear pictures help children to “read ” as such . Parents can read stories to children from books that have clear illustrations & captions when the parent moves her finger & points to the words while reading the child becomes conscious of the left to right progression
One has to be careful as to the books used the books have to be within the child’s experience . It has to have colorful illustrations . it is very important to repeat the story constantly over a period of time . Repetition promotes language development & helps the child to make it a part of his vocabulary & he thus also begins to anticipate the sequence of the story .
A child learning to write wriggles his feet, moves his head sticks out his tongue & goes through many movements . After a long practice he eliminates some of the awkward movements & writes smoothly using only the muscles of his arm , hand & fingers.
His early writing consists of random movements & then gradually become more specific & well defined .
copyright@Sheetal Kapoor - Freshbuds, Mumbai
INCULCATING PRE - READING & PRE -WRITING SKILLS IN CHILDREN,TODDLERS