Many parents have already seen the benefits of enrolling their kids in early childhood education programs offered by daycare centres. Through these programs, children learn to socialise and get along with others whilst also developing their sense of independence. These also strengthen their minds as they are being introduced to the concept of creativity. One thing you may not know as parents is the fact that this can be your children’s stepping stone to becoming successful writers in the future as well. Wonder how early childhood education help children to become successful writers?
Parents have a role to play
Remember that early childhood education does not just happen within the school or daycare centre where your children are enrolled. It also involves you as parents have a big role to play. In order for your children to become successful writers in the future, you have to be involved in the process by means of following up on your child’s reading progress. Take note that reading is always connected with writing.
At home, you can start reading a book together. Point on the words to help your children become more familiar with them. Help them identify letters and words as you read each page. Use illustrations to make the process a whole lot easier for them. From there, you can ask them about what the story or the book you have read is about. This will enrich their text awareness and their vocabulary of course.
Early childhood education introduces different stages in writing development
Educators believe in the importance of the following stages to nurture one’s talent in writing:
– Scribbling and drawing. One’s familiarity with words starts with the use of pictures. When your children gets used to the pictures they see, they can easily associate words to it. At this stage, however, your children begin to name pictures but do not actually know the meaning of those words that they say.
– Letters. From being familiar with words associated with pictures, your children will then progress into learning about letters. This starts as they see their names on print.
– Beginning sounds. Once your kids know letters really well, educators will start introducing letter sounds to them. Don’t worry if your kids cannot spell words correctly at this stage.
– Ending sounds. From all three stages mentioned above, your children will be able to write words using their familiarity with beginning and ending sounds. They can put spaces between words and be able to write their own short sentence.
Teachers provide support for each stage of writing development
In almost all of the stages mentioned above, teachers make it a point that they incorporate fun ways for easy learning. Play has a crucial role in these stages of writing development. In centres, kids will be allowed to write on a sheet of paper or on a big board. As they draw and scribble, they are encouraged to tell their own story whilst teachers teach them how to write down their own. They can also use different mediums when writing their names – either with a chalk or pen or through paint and sand.
When kids begin to be familiar with sounds, they will be taught how to play with words and create a story. They are taught to write their own sentences and become aware of existing word families and patterns. Journal activities can be integrated at this stage to make them even more interested in writing.
These are but a few of the things with which early childhood education can help children become successful writers. To reiterate, it is important for you parents to follow up on the progress of your children too in order to help them with this endeavour.