Ways to Develop Children’s Literacy Skills

Children’s literacy development is one of the most significant tasks for parents. Even though there are institutions such as preschools and kindergartens, parents are the ones with a vital role in their children’s education. Literacy is the basis for their ability to write, read, and communicate. Therefore, your mission as a parent is to talk to your kids a lot. Also, you should read books, play games, and sing daily. However, let’s go through and see which skills and activities are helpful for literacy development, as well as what is essential to do if you have a specially gifted kid.

Skills needed for childhood literacy

Every reading and writing skill is necessary for your kid’s literacy. The basis for all other skills is phonemic and print awareness. A phoneme is the smallest sound fragment with the meaning, and it’s essential for kids to hear and recognize them to create words. On the other hand, print awareness is critical for reading. You (parents) can encourage it with books and other reading materials. Road signs, billboards, and other forms of environmental print are also beneficial.

After that, we are coming to vocabulary and reading comprehension. Vocabulary represents the total amount of words that a kid has in mind. However, there is an active and passive vocabulary. Active contains words that kid regularly uses in speech. On the contrary, words in passive vocabulary are those that kid has interpreted through context or use by others. Therefore, when children understand the text they read, you can say they have reading comprehension. That also means they can understand different patterns and conclusions. For instance, if a child reads a text where people carry the ball, he/she can conclude they are going to play football or basketball.

Activities that help literacy development

As we said earlier, literacy development is crucial for kids to read, write, and communicate correctly. When it comes to reading, you as a parent, have to be very careful. You have to read the text correctly, with voice modifications, pauses for punctuations, etc. Not only will they hear how to pronounce words and construct sentences, but they will also feel excited about what’s going to happen next. Furthermore, it is also constructive if you run your finger under words you read. It might seem weird, but it develops a sense of orientation as well as concept and spacing between the words. 

When it comes to writing, you should encourage them to do it whenever it is possible. Give your kid some exciting tasks. For example, if they write two or three different stories that day, you’ll give them a small (or big) gift. Also, you can buy them a diary, which is very good for daily practice and routine. That way, they’ll improve their writing skills rapidly. You can also stimulate them with buying a book by their favorite author or buying a pen they adore. 

Most of these activities you can do with your kids to help them advance. But if you see they are struggling or having difficulty conquering some of the above listed activities you should consider professional English tutoring as a way of relieving the pressure and helping them reach their goals.

Specially gifted kids

These kids should reach their full potential. Therefore, even if it might seem strange to you, they also need individual tutoring (as kids who can’t learn particular lessons do), especially when it comes to math and English tutoring. They are ahead of other kids in many school subjects from the beginning, and they have to keep making progress. It will be a massive mistake for both parents and professors if these kids stall. However, that is not the only reason for tutoring gifted kids.

They need personalized lessons. Imagine how bored they will be listening to a lesson in the classroom they’ve already mastered. They mustn’t lose interest, and that’s going to happen without tutoring. That way, they will become active learners, and new lessons will occupy their brain. Furthermore, it is also the benefit for the rest of the class. If a gifted kid has the individual task during a course, you can be sure that they won’t disturb or distract other kids because of boredom. However, there is one downside – other kids in class might get jealous. The teacher has to play a vital role if that occurs and control the situation. Explaining that everyone has to be an active learner is essential for a good atmosphere in the class.