Limited literacy and phonological awareness skills are a growing concern amongst parents and educational specialists. Combine this with a culture more intent on watching movies and playing computer games than reading books, and literacy skills are under threat.
Speech and Language Pathologists
Speech and language pathologists (also known as speech and language therapists, speech pathologists or speech therapists) are being inundated with worried parents and teachers. People are recognising that poor literacy skills aren’t just about struggling to read, but have longer-term implications regarding education, knowledge and opportunity.
Illiteracy
Now, imagine that your opportunities were limited due to an inability to read. Perhaps letters appear to muddle themselves up on the page, and by the time you’ve painstakingly sounded out the vowels, you’ve forgotten what the previous words in the sentence were. This is reality for thousands of school children. It's known as Developmental Reading Disorder or Dyslexia.
Tips to Help Improve Literacy Skills
If you are a parent reading this, improving your child's literacy is actually very simple.
Mem Fox's book Reading Magic is highly regarded amongst speech-language pathologists worldwide. It provides many inspiring suggestions, including some of the following:
- Read with your child everyday.
- It's never too early to start reading to your child. Infants can learn to turn pages of cardboard books.
- Let your children see YOU enjoying reading. Children imitate what they see.
- Allow your children to see that reading is something that everybody does everyday (shopping lists, road signs, maps, emails, internet, recipes, newspapers, instructions, newsletters...).
- Regularly visit the library with your child and make it fun.
- Encourage your child to choose their own books.
- Ask family and friends to give books as presents.
- Take books on day trips and holidays. They keep children entertained for hours and are easier to carry than most toys.
- Find books that have engaging illustrations to maintain your child's interest.
Developing Pre-Literacy Skills
- Choose books that have sound play and rhymes, as these are particularly good for assisting literacy. There’s a reason why Dr Seuss is so popular.
- Books with nursery rhymes and songs will draw your child's attention to the sounds that make up the words, and therefore assist with pre-literacy skills.
Age-Appropriate Books
Ask librarians, teachers and speech-language pathologists to recommend age-appropriate books.
A good guide is to remember that:
- Books with animal sounds are ideal baby books as they are often easier for a child to attempt to imitate than "real" words.
- Simple books with a single word on each page are great for toddlers.
- Books with lots of predictable and repeated short sentences are perfect for preschoolers.
Books. Besides educating, they also entertain. By ensuring that your child’s literacy and reading skills are sound, you’re not just giving them the key to academic achievement, you are also giving them the life-long gift of gaining endless pleasure from literature. If you suspect that your child is struggling, seek the advice of a professional (such as a speech-language pathologist) as soon as possible. Early intervention can prevent years of frustration
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