The 4 Ls: Listening, Language, Literacy, Life-long Learning
Literacy
We are thinking about the 4 L’s, listening, language, literacy and life-long learning. Building the first three of these pillars is predictive of the success any child will experience on his/her journey to become a life-long learner. The world changes so quickly that the ability to continue to learn and adapt throughout life is very important.
For this month we will focus on early literacy. The National Reading Panel identified five areas necessary for reading competency: phonemic awareness, phonology, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Managing acquisition of these skills for a child who has been identified as deaf or hard of hearing presents some special challenges. Start reading as soon as your baby is born, if not before!
“There is substantial evidence that ‘hearing’ (auditory brain development) is the most effective modality for the teaching of spoken language, literacy and other cognitive skills.” (Robertson, L. (2009) Literacy and Deafness: Listening and Spoken Language.) That is why, as parents, you must always put hearing and your child’s access to spoken language first. You are accomplishing this with early identification, appropriate technology and expert early intervention.
Hearing children learn to read a language they already have. That is why it is important to bring your young child along to a language level comparable to typically hearing peers before kindergarten. You are working on this in so many ways as you engage in vocal play, conversational turn-taking, reading and narrating your daily activities.
Young children will develop phonemic awareness through oral language games, songs, reading books with repetitive patterns and hearing nursery rhymes and chants and fingerplays. You will provide lots of repetition and an expectant pause (auditory closure) to allow your child the opportunity to fill in words.
As soon as your child attends to pictures in a book, start making personal books and journals. Use drawings, photographs or download images and write a simple vocabulary label or a sentence. Read these books to your child often. This is a great way to build vocabulary. Later your child will write his own sentences! Once your child shows interest or awareness of printed words, you can call attention to individual words or letters in a natural way to begin building sound-symbol association (phonology).
If you like to read with your child and model your enjoyment of reading, your child will love reading too. With all these readiness tools in place, your child will learn to read.
Literacy
We are thinking about the 4 L’s, listening, language, literacy and life-long learning. Building the first three of these pillars is predictive of the success any child will experience on his/her journey to become a life-long learner. The world changes so quickly that the ability to continue to learn and adapt throughout life is very important.
For this month we will focus on early literacy. The National Reading Panel identified five areas necessary for reading competency: phonemic awareness, phonology, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Managing acquisition of these skills for a child who has been identified as deaf or hard of hearing presents some special challenges. Start reading as soon as your baby is born, if not before!
“There is substantial evidence that ‘hearing’ (auditory brain development) is the most effective modality for the teaching of spoken language, literacy and other cognitive skills.” (Robertson, L. (2009) Literacy and Deafness: Listening and Spoken Language.) That is why, as parents, you must always put hearing and your child’s access to spoken language first. You are accomplishing this with early identification, appropriate technology and expert early intervention.
Hearing children learn to read a language they already have. That is why it is important to bring your young child along to a language level comparable to typically hearing peers before kindergarten. You are working on this in so many ways as you engage in vocal play, conversational turn-taking, reading and narrating your daily activities.
Young children will develop phonemic awareness through oral language games, songs, reading books with repetitive patterns and hearing nursery rhymes and chants and fingerplays. You will provide lots of repetition and an expectant pause (auditory closure) to allow your child the opportunity to fill in words.
As soon as your child attends to pictures in a book, start making personal books and journals. Use drawings, photographs or download images and write a simple vocabulary label or a sentence. Read these books to your child often. This is a great way to build vocabulary. Later your child will write his own sentences! Once your child shows interest or awareness of printed words, you can call attention to individual words or letters in a natural way to begin building sound-symbol association (phonology).
If you like to read with your child and model your enjoyment of reading, your child will love reading too. With all these readiness tools in place, your child will learn to read.