How to Help Your Kindy Child with Literacy Butler Primary School

Butler Primary School
Parent Information
How to Help Your Kindy Child
with Literacy
Story Retelling-Home Program
Select a book to be the focus for the week.
Day1:
• Parent reads the story to the child.
• Parent asks some questions about the story.
Day 2:
• Parent explains to the child that this time, rather than reading the text, the parent will
look at the pictures and retell the story in his/her own words.
Day 3:
• Together, parent and child retell the story: (i.e. the adult retells one page, then the child
retells one page, then the adult retells one page…)
Day 4:
• Child looks at the pictures of the picture book and retells the entire story independently.
• If the child is unable to do this, the parent needs to offer some assistance.
• However, if the child experiences significant difficulty retelling stories after repeated
exposure it is advisable to make an appointment with a Speech Pathologist to check on the
child’s overall language development.
Over an 8-12 week period the task of story retelling should greatly improve. Children should
provide more information about the story, use more complex sentences, more complex
vocabulary and retell stories with much greater confidence and ease.
Why is the skill of narrating so important?
• Narrative is highly correlated with literary success.
• The Story Retelling Home Program has been created by Diana Rigg, a WA Education
Consultant and Speech Pathologist.
Areas and Stages of Language Development
Many parents wonder if their child’s speaking and listening skills are developing at the normal
rate. While children can develop at individual rates, there is a general pattern to language
development.
Research clearly shows that the earlier the intervention commences, the better the outcomes
for the child.
The following table of development has been developed by Diana Rigg, Preventing Literacy
Difficulties: Speech, Language & Education Consultancy.
By 3 months, your baby should be able to:
• Startle to a loud or unexpected noise.
• Turn to where a sound is coming from.
• Make sounds other than cries. (eg.”oo”, “ah”)
• Look at an adult’s face when they are talking to him/her.
• Smile in response to familiar people.
By 6 months, your baby should be able to:
• Make sounds and smiles in response to facial expressions and sounds.
• Make different sounds, such as gurgling, cooing, chuckling and sounds like “bababab.”
• Begin to watch people’s faces when they speak and smile when spoken to.
By 9 months, your baby should be able to:
• Reach out and be picked up.
• Respond to his/her name.
• Imitate facial expressions, actions and familiar sounds.
• Enjoy being played with and take turns making the sounds back and forth that go with the
game.
• Babble using the sounds: m, n, t, d, b, p and z. (eg. “baba”)
• Understand and respond to “no” (But may not always agree with it.)
By 12 months, your baby should be able to:
• Recognise his/her own name and turn to look when called.
• Imitate familiar words and animal sounds.
• Begin to match names to objects and will give objects upon request.
• Let you know what he/she wants by a combination of actions and sounds.
• Wave (and understand) goodbye.
• Play simple games like “pat-a- cake” and “peek-a-boo” and will sometimes start the game.
• Say “Dad” and “Mumma” and a few other words.
• Babble whole strings of different sounds to him/her self or a parent. (eg. “Ba-ti-pa-go)
By 15 months, your child should be able to:
• Look at you when you are talking (most of the time.)
• Repeat words that he/she hears.
• Seem to be talking in sentences, but is not using real words.
Understand simple instructions (eg. “Where’s Daddy?” or “Get the ball.”)
By 18 months, your child should be able to:
• Say or use at least 10 words.(eg. names of people, familiar objects)
• Start joining two words together. (eg. “All gone”)
• Point to familiar body parts.
• Sometimes answer the question, “What’s this?”
• Use the word, “No” in protest.
• Will ask for more.
• Respond to directions with the words, “in” and “on”.
• Use imaginative play.(eg. pretend to sweep the floor, make tea)
By 2 years, your child should be able to:
• Say at least 50 words.(eg. name of objects, actions and people)
• Use sentences that are 2-3 words long, even though not all speech will be clear.(eg”No
want”, “No go!”
• Understand about 300 words.
• Start using questions like, “What’s that?”
• Enjoy listening to simple stories.
• Have a conversation with his/her dolls/teddy/toys.
• Play with a toy for 5 minutes.
By 3 years, your child will be able to:
• Say 500 words and understand around 99 words.
• Match objects with their use. (eg. “Show me what you wear/eat?”
• Talk a lot (to him/her self and others.)
• Listen to a 20 minute story.
• Knows concepts, such as boy/girl, day/night, big/little, up/down…
• Use 3 or more words in a sentence.
• Follow instructions with two parts. (eg. “{Pick up the ball and give it to Daddy.”
• Do people outside of the family understand your child half of the time?
By 4 years, your child should be able to:
• Say over 800 words and understand between 1500 and 2000 words.
• Use 4 and 5 word sentences with adult-like grammar.
• Tell a story that is quite easy to follow.
• Follow instructions even if the target object is not in sight.
• Pay attention to short stories and answer questions about the story.
• Start a conversation and continue it while staying on the same topic.
• Follow instructions with three parts. (eg. “Pick up the spoon, put it in the cup and bring it
to me.”)
• Answer ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘how many’ questions.
• Do people outside of the family understand your child ¾ of the time?
By 5 years, your child should be able to:
• Say 2000 words and understand up to 3000 words.
• Use 5 and 6 word sentences with adult-like grammar.
• Express feelings, dreams, wishes and abstract thoughts.
• Tell you what objects are used for/made of and their location. (eg. on top of, next to,
behind…)
• Participate in long, detailed conversations.
• Talk about past, present, future and imaginary events.
• Answer ‘when’, ‘why’ and ‘what happens if’ questions.
• Do people outside the family understand most of what your child says?
Now That I am 4 Years Old… I should be able to:
Speaking
Understanding
Play/Social Skills
• Be understood by most
adults.
• Ask ‘what’, ‘where’ and
‘why’ questions.
• Tell a long story, sing songs
and retell a story.
• Use future and past tense.
• Use ‘and’, ‘then’, and ‘but’
in sentences.
• Be able to follow 2-step
instructions, eg. “Get your
bag and put it in the car.”
• Understand words, such as
‘yesterday’ and
‘tomorrow.’
• Understand ‘why’ and
‘when.’
• Know colours and some
numbers and shapes.
• Make friends.
• Use imaginary play.
• Play simple games with
rules.
• Join in and start
conversations.
Tips for Home
Causes for Concern
• Read stories and ask
questions about the book.
• Encourage your child to
retell stories using their
own words.
• Make up stories using the
• Pictures in books.
• Talk about past, present
and future events with your
child.
• Talk about what you are
doing and ask your child to
retell what you did.
• A small vocabulary.
• Only uses short sentences
or sentences with
grammatical errors.
• Can not retell an event or
simple or simple story even
with support.
• Difficulty following
instructions.
• Difficulty understanding
simple ‘who’, ‘what’, and
‘where’ questions.
• Child’s speech is difficult to
understand.
• Does not enjoy listening to
stories.
Now That I am 5 Years Old…. I should be able to:
Understanding
• Be able to follow 3-step
instructions, eg. “Get your
book, put it in your bag and
then put your bag by the
door.
• Be able to follow
instructions containing the
words ‘first’, ‘last’, and
‘after.’
• Understand everything said
to me. (age appropriate)
• Answer ‘when’, ‘why’ and
‘what’ questions.
• Understand opposites (hot
and cold), location
words(in, on and under)
• Understand humour and
laugh at jokes.
Tips for Home
• Read stories with your child
and ask questions about the
book.
• Encourage your child to
retell stories using their
known words. Make up
stories using the pictures in
books.
• Talk about past, present
and future events with your
child.
• Give your child the meaning
of words they don’t know.
Speaking
• Tell news or stories without
help.
• Retell a story accurately.
• Be understood by others.
• Participate in long, detailed
conversations.
• Explain why something
happened.
Causes for Concern
• A small vocabulary.
• Only uses simple short
sentences or sentences with
grammatical errors.
• Can not tell or retell a
simple story, even with
support.
• Difficulty following
instructions with 2 or more
steps.
• Difficulty answering how,
when and why questions.
• Child’s speech is difficult to
understand.
• Poor conversation and
social skills.
• Does not enjoy listening to
picture books.
Play/Social Skills
• Make friends.
• Play fairly in simple games
with rules.
• Use imaginary play.
• Enjoy social interaction.
• Join and start
conversations.
Speech Sound Development
The following table is a list of sounds and the ages at 75% of Australian children produced the
sound correctly in single words. This information has been sourced by Diana Rigg, PLD, from
Kilminster and Laird, 1978.
Examples
Age
Sound
3 Years
m
n
h
p
ng
w
d
t
y
b
g
k
f
l
sh
ch
s
z
j
r
v
Consonant
blends
3 ½ Years
4 Years
5 Years
6 Years
8 Years
8 ½ Years
th (voiced)
th (voiceless)
Initial
Position
mine
no
hair
pear
Medial
Position
hammer
honey
walk
dog
tap
yes
big
go
car
fire
lizard
ship
chair
soap
zebra
jump
rabbit
vegemite
splash
tree
blue
happy
finger
flower
ladder
butter
yoyo
baby
tiger
pocket
telephone
yellow
pushing
kitchen
racing
scissors
soldier
orange
seven
basket
library
aeroplane
this
thumb
brother
nothing
Final Position
arm
man
cup
ring
mud
sit
club
egg
look
rough
ball
fish
catch
grass
nose
bridge
stove
ask
with
mouth
Comprehension Development
Level 1- Typically mastered by 3 year olds.
Questions at this level are related directly to material in front of the child or that which has only recently been
removed. Most responses are short and some may even be non-verbal in nature (eg. by pointing.)
Matching
Naming objects
Naming people
Naming actions
Copying a sentence
Remembering objects in book
Remembering seen/done/hear
Find one like this
What is it?
Who is that?
What are you doing?
Say this…
What did you see?
What did you see/do/hear?
Level 2- Typically mastered by 4 year olds.
Questions at this level may still focus upon material that is in front of the child. However, the child must focus
more selectively on that which is being asked. (eg. the size, colour, or function of an object; or integrating
information to describe a scene)
Describe scene
Remembering information
Finishing sentence
Identify and describe characteristics of
objects
Identify object functions
Identify differences
Naming object from category
What’s happened?
Who/what/where?
Finish this…
What size is it? What colour? How does it
taste/smell/feel? What shape? How many?
Where is it?
Show me the one we use for…
How are these different?
Tell me something that’s a type of…
Level 3- Typically mastered by 5 year olds.
Questions now become more complex. Often a child is required to attend to one word in an instruction to carry
it out correctly.
Identify object used with another
Describe what event might happen
Assume role of another
Identify similarities
Identify objects by exclusion
Identify alternative
Change pictures in sequence
Describe sequence of pictures logistically
Defining word
Find me one to use with this.
What will happen next?
What would/could/might he say?
How are these the same?
Which one is not…?
Tell me something else we could use.
Make these into a story. Show me the
first/middle/last.
Tell me the story.
What is a…
Level 4- Typically mastered by 6 year olds.
Questions at this level requires the child to think about what may, might, could or would happen to materials,
objects or events; explain how and why; hypothesise and evaluate.
Predicting
Justifying prediction
Identifying cause of event
Provide solution to a problem
Explaining obstacles to a solution
Explaining observation
Selecting means to goal
Explaining means to goal
Explaining construction of objects
What will happen if…
Why?
Why did it happen?
What could you do?
Why can’t we…
How can we tell?
What could we use?
Why should we use that?
Why is … made of…?
Sourced from Preventing Literacy Difficulties
First Steps: Second Edition Reading Map of Development
© Western Australian Minister for Education: 2004
General Description
Role Play readers show an interest in books and the print they see around them. They
imitate the things they see adult readers doing such as holding the book carefully, turning
the pages and using computer icons. They often pretend to read by using the pictures and
their memory to retell stories.
How to Support Role Play Readers
Role Play readers will benefit from a range of experiences. Consider any of the following
suggestions.
• Read to your child every day.Reading aloud helps children expand their vocabulary,
appreciate the value of books and other texts, understand new ideas and concepts, and learn
about the world around them.
• Expose your child to a wide variety of texts, e.g. books, magazines, CD-ROMs, brochures,
newspapers, comics. These can be read many times so children become familiar with them.
Familiarity helps build self-confidence.
• Encourage and praise your child’s attempts to ‘read’.
• Ensure your child sees other members of the family reading and talking about their reading.
This helps Role Play readers understand that there are different reasons for reading.
• Encourage your child to talk about books and their ‘reading’ with other family members.
Encouraging Reading
To ensure that your child is encouraged to become a reader, consider the following
questions.
• Is my child read to every day?
• Does my child see others reading at various times?
• Is a comfortable place provided where my child can be read to? Does my child like
this ‘space’?
• When reading aloud, is the tone of voice changed for different characters, or to show
emotion and excitement?
• Are reading materials chosen that capture my child’s interest? Is my child encouraged
to select the story to be read?
• Is attention paid to how my child is responding to the story?
• Is the reading stopped when my child loses interest?
• Is my child encouraged to join in while being read to, e.g. turning the pages, holding the
book, allowing them to ‘read’ the bits they remember?
• Is my child given sufficient time to answer when questions are asked?
• Are ideas in the story linked with things that happen in my child’s life?
• Is my child encouraged to take notice of print, e.g. find letters from his or her name?
• Is my child encouraged to retell or act out stories he or she has heard?
Reading to Your Child
It is important to make reading aloud to your child part of your daily routine. Set aside
a regular time every day, find a comfortable place without any distractions, and choose
something interesting to read together.
Things to do before reading
• Encourage your child to select the book. Give them a pile of well-known books so they
can choose which one will be read aloud.
• Familiarise yourself with the book as this will make you a better storyteller. Take a minute
to look over the book before you share it with your child.
• Settle your child down and talk a little about the book, e.g. “This story looks as if it is
going to be funny.”
• Browse through the book so your child becomes familiar with books and how they are
handled, e.g. holding the book the right way, turning the pages.
Things to do when reading
• Read clearly. Make the story interesting by exaggerating expressions for different
character voices and sounds. The more dramatic, the better. You may like to add simple
props so your child can identify with different characters or act out parts of the story.
• Hold the book so your child can see the pictures and writing.
• Sometimes let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
• Draw attention to the pictures.
• Sometimes point to the words as you read.
• Ask and answer questions as needed.
• Encourage your child to join in and ‘read’ too. Invite him or her to describe pictures,
‘read’ pages or join in with words that are repeated.
• Accept and praise your child’s attempts to ‘read’.
Things to do after reading
• Talk about the characters and what happened in the book.
• Help your child tell the story from the pictures.
Keep in mind that your child’s reading level and listening level are different. When you
read easy books, your child will soon be joining in with you. When you read more advanced
books, you instil a love of stories and you build the motivation that encourages children to
become lifelong readers.
Selecting Texts
Ensure a wide variety of texts is available, e.g. books, comics and magazines. This will give
your
child exposure to many reading possibilities. If you work on a computer, read signs when
you are out, read labels at home or use a road directory, you are also showing your child
other instances where reading is involved.
Your child may enjoy texts that:
• describe familiar experiences, e.g. first day at school, trip to the zoo
• describe familiar concepts and objects, e.g. book on rabbits
• have elements of fantasy or imagination, e.g. fairytales
• use repetition to capture the rhythm of the language, e.g. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• are traditional rhymes and songs. Usually children can’t resist joining in because of the
rhythmic patterns.
Consider the use of other reading materials such as:
• book and audio tape sets
• CD-ROMs.
Making regular trips to the local library, attending storytelling sessions or visiting local
bookstores are ways of increasing your child’s access to a wider variety of books.
Modelling Reading
Make sure your child sees you and other members of the family reading. Try to read as
many different things in front of your child as possible. Talk about what you are reading
and why you are doing it, e.g. “I am reading this to find out the specials at the supermarket.
I am reading this to find out how to change the oil in the car.”
Outside the home, talk about signs, labels and logos, e.g. “We are going to get hamburgers.
See the sign, It says Harry’s Hamburgers.” Very young children will quickly begin to identify
familiar signs and places.
Model how reading is used in the home every day. Talk about your plans with your child,
e.g. “I am going to bake a cake so let’s read the recipe.” Talk through the recipe as you
gather the ingredients and follow the procedure.
Telling Stories
By having opportunities to tell stories, your child can extend his or her language skills and
also develop an understanding about story sequence.
You can provide opportunities for storytelling by:
• making up stories about things you see as you go about daily tasks, e.g. when visiting the
shops, making dinner, at bath time
• encouraging your child to make up stories, e.g. about bedtime, playtime objects, the day’s
events
• encouraging your child to make up stories that go with picture books that have no words
• having your child retell favourite stories and enjoying these stories together, adding,
praising and prompting as you go
• having a storytelling session where different family members get to share their stories
and listen to others.
Developing Awareness
of Letters and Words
Draw your child’s attention to letters and words that are part of daily life. Point out and
read aloud any printed material, e.g. cereal packets, traffic signs, billboards, advertising
signs.
Make everyday outings an opportunity to show your child how print relates to his or
her life.
Teach your child to recognise words or letters that are significant to them, e.g. their name
or letters in their name, names of siblings, road signs. Challenge your child to recognise
these
words or letters in other places.
Magnetic letters are one way your child can play with and build words. While you work
in the kitchen, your child can pick out and play with letters, placing them on the refrigerator.
Make letters out of play dough. Encourage your child to copy your letters and trace
over them.
Place labels around the home. These could include labels on:
• doors, e.g. Please keep quiet, Ross is asleep.
• food packages, e.g. Only one biscuit at a time.
• drawers and wardrobes, e.g. Ali’s socks are in here.
• toys, e.g. Jigsaw puzzles are in here.
These labels should be written in sentences as this helps your child to:
• make a connection between what we say and what we read or write
• understand that once something has been written it stays the same.
Talk about what the labels say and read them together.
Developing Concepts
About Texts and Print
Talking with your child about the different parts of a book and how the print works
is important. As adults we know this information so well we often forget that we ever
learnt it.
Select one or two items from the following list to point out and discuss with your child
each time you read together.
• A book has a front and back.
• A book has a right way up.
• Books are read from front to back.
• Pages are turned to reveal the next part of the book.
• The left-hand page is read before the right-hand page.
• A page is read from left to right and top to bottom.
• Print is different from pictures. Point to the print as you read aloud.
• Pictures support the print.
• Talk about first and last. These can be applied to pages in a book, words on a page
or letters in a word.
• Words such as ‘letter’, ‘sound’, ‘word’ and ‘sentence’ describe different things.
• Numbers and letters are different.
• Letters have two forms—capital letters and lower case letters, e.g. ‘M’ and ‘m’.
Building a Love of Reading
There are many ways to encourage your child to be a reader and to develop a love
of reading.
• Give books as presents.
• Give books as a treat, e.g. after school instead of buying an ice cream.
• Teach nursery rhymes, songs and action rhymes. Say them, sing them or clap them.
After a while you will be able to leave out bits for your child to add.
• Have a selection of reading materials such as comics, magazines and books available at
all times, e.g. when travelling, waiting for an appointment or when visiting friends.
• Have a special place where books are kept.
• Set aside a time for reading.
• Encourage all family members or visitors to the house to take part in reading or being
read to.
• Encourage children to select their own books.
• Have a family subscription to a magazine, e.g. National Geographic.
• Encourage your child to exchange books with friends.
• Talk about books whenever possible.
• Display your own collection of books.
Questions to Ask
Talking to your child about what is being read is a wonderful opportunity to make
connections with his or her life, develop concepts and understandings and develop
an awareness of what the black squiggles on the page mean.
You may start your conversation with questions such as:
• Do you remember when you …?
• Who do you know that has a ……… (dog) like the one in this story?
• What do you think this story is about (just by looking at the cover)?
• What do you think will happen next?
• Which characters do you like best?
Pausing for discussions should be a natural part of the reading process. Sometimes your
child will stop and ask you questions, and other times you may ask the questions and
direct your child’s attention to specific aspects of the story. This should always be a fun
way to explore the story/information further, not a time when the child feels ‘tested’ or
interrogated.
Using Computers
Computers can’t replace books but they can support what your child is learning.
Many computer programs (also called software) offer activities that can both grab your
child’s interest and teach good lessons. Children have fun using some of the colourful,
action-filled programs.
By using computer reading software children can:
• hear stories, read along and ‘read’ by themselves
• play with objects and characters on the screen to learn about the alphabet, simple
words, rhyming words and other skills important in learning to read
• command the computer with his/her voice, record and then play back the recording
• write simple sentences and make up stories and have them read back
• add pictures and characters to stories
• make and print their own books
• receive praise and see improvement in language abilities.
Using the Library
Visiting the library is a great way to encourage your child’s imagination and learning as
well as providing an opportunity for you to show your child that you value books and
reading.
• Make library visits a regular activity.
• Get a library card for yourself and your child.
• Show your child how to locate the children’s section of the library.
• Help your child select books.
• Attend library storytelling time whenever possible.
• Spend time browsing the books at the library.
Supporting Phonemic Awareness
and Graphophonic Knowledge Through Games
‘I Spy …’
• Begin by saying “I spy with my little eye something that …”, and continue by adding
‘begins with t’, or ‘rhymes with bear’, or ‘ends with at’.
• Invite your child to guess the word.
A variation is Where’s Spot? in which a toy dog is hidden. If your child finds I Spy too
difficult, modify it to Where’s Spot? Choose a hiding place, such as a box and say, for
instance, “Spot’s hiding somewhere that starts with /b/. “Where could that be?” Have your
child look to see if Spot is in the place guessed.
Snap
Use the format of a traditional Snap game.
• Make up a set of cards that match in some way, e.g.
• Deal out all the cards to the players.
• In turns, each player overturns one card from his or her hand and places it face up on
the table, forming a central pile.
• When an upturned card matches the one on top of the central pile, that player places
his or her hand on the central pile, says SNAP, and gives the category for the Snap. The
player then takes all of the cards to add to his/her hand.
• Play continues in this way until one player has all the cards.
Concentration
Concentration is a game that invites players to exercise concentration and memory to
locate matches from a given selection of cards placed face down. The cards used for Snap
can also be used for Concentration.
• Make a set of cards with letters/words or pictures. The cards could include:
– Pictures of objects that begin with the same letter, e.g. box and balloon, cat and computer,
man and moon
– Pictures of objects that rhyme, e.g. cat and bat, moon and spoon, goat and boat
– Words of different lengths. (Note: your child shouldn’t be expected to read the words —
just notice whether they are long or short.)
• Place all cards in the pack face down on the table.
• In turns, each player overturns two cards (one at a time), attempting to match them in
some way, e.g. they rhyme, start with the same letter.
• If there is a match, the player states what that is, keeps the cards and has another turn.
If there is no match, the cards are replaced exactly where they were, face down.
• The game continues in this way until all the cards are matched. The winner is the
player with the most matched pairs.
A Trip to the Moon
• Begin the game by saying “We’re going on a trip to the moon. You can come if you
bring something.” The ‘something’ will depend on the category you choose, e.g.
matching – “You need to bring something that starts with ‘s’.”
rhymes – “You need to bring something that rhymes with “van’.”
• Have players take turns to say “I will bring a …”
• Continue the game for a specified length of time or until the choices have run out.
Shopping
Children learn to identify products at a very early age. Let them assist you when doing the
shopping, e.g. “We need cereal; can you find the Cornflakes?”
Read recipes and write down the ingredients. Help your child find the required
ingredients at the shop.
Get your child to cut out pictures from advertising catalogues and then find the matching
items when you go shopping.
First Steps: Second Edition Writing Map of Development
© Western Australian Minister for Education
General Description of Role Play Writers
In this phase, students role play the act of writing, experimenting with ways to represent
written language either on paper or electronically. Role Play writers experiment by forming
scribbles, letter-like symbols or random strings of letters, often using letters from their own
name. While Role Play writers may ‘read’ their writing, others cannot.
How to Support Role Play Writers
Role Play writers will benefit from a range of experiences. Consider any of the following
suggestions:
• Provide opportunities for your child to write by providing blank paper, crayons, pencils and
other writing materials.
• When you write, give your child a blank copy to write on too, such as cheques, cards,
forms.
• Write for your child. This allows them to see the starting point for the writing and to
understand that print has a message.
• Write about shared experiences with your child.
• Ensure your child sees other members of the family writing for different purposes, and
talking about their writing.
• Encourage and praise your child’s attempts at writing. Encourage them to talk about their
writing and what the writing may say.
• Read to your child every day. Reading aloud helps children hear the language patterns in
books, expand their vocabulary, and appreciate the value of books and other texts.
• Share simple picture books with your child and talk about the pictures and the story and
relate events or characters to your child’s experiences. Encourage your child to make
predictions about the stories.
• Expose children to a wide variety of texts such as magazines, brochures, comics,
newspapers, electronic texts.
Encouraging Writing
To ensure that your child is encouraged to become a writer, consider the following
questions.
• Do I praise all attempts at writing?
• Does my child see me or other family members writing?
• When I am writing, do I talk about whom I am writing for and why I am writing?
• Is a place provided where my child can sit and write?
• Does my child have large blank paper to write on and a variety of writing materials?
• Do I talk about all the ‘print’ I use in the home environment such as calendars,
TV guides, catalogues, newspapers, instructions, cookbooks?
• Do I talk about letters and words I see in the environment, e.g. signs outside shops,
traffic signs, billboards?
• Is my child encouraged to take notice of ‘print’, e.g. find letters in his or her name,
a stop sign starts with the letter ‘s’.
• Do I focus on the message in the writing, acknowledging all efforts, rather than on
whether any letters are written correctly?
• Do I encourage my child to hold a pencil correctly?
Writing with Your Child
• It is important for you to write with your child so that they can see you writing
and hear what you are thinking when you are writing.
• Use photos from an outing to make a book about what you did, e.g. a trip to the
zoo. Plan what to write with your child and talk about the letters being used.
• Keep a diary with your child. They can draw a picture or glue in photos to remind
them of the day. Sometimes, point to the words as you are reading.
• Talk about what you are writing and why you are writing it, e.g. a shopping list so
that you know what to buy, an email to Grandma to thank her for the birthday present.
• When writing with your child talk about the way you are writing, e.g. It is a letter
so I write ‘dear Grandma’ and I finish it by writing ‘love from’…
• Talk about the letters you are using to begin a word, e.g. ‘I need to write sausages
on my list. It sounds like Stephen’s name at the beginning because they both start
with ‘s’.
• Involve your child in many different types of writing such as:
— reminders about jobs to do
— emails to friends and relatives
— making cards for special events, e.g. birthdays, weddings, new baby, thank you
— phone messages
— letters to Santa
— invitations
— shopping lists.
• Make a book of the songs or rhymes your child knows and include an illustration
with each song so that your child can ‘read’ the book.
• Encourage your child to ‘have-a-go’ with writing, by writing letters to family
members or notes to yourself. Try and provide feedback.
• Accept and praise your child’s attempts to ‘write’ even though it may not look like
regular writing.
Writing and Reading Links
Reading and writing are connected in many ways. Developing children’s understandings
in reading will help in the development of their writing. Reading and discussing a
range of texts with your child allows them to:
— hear different language patterns and structures
— be exposed to new vocabulary
— share and discuss opinions about what is presented
— see how different types of writing are organised
— transfer what they know about reading to their own writing.
• Read to your child every day.
• Encourage your child to join in when being read to, e.g. turning the pages, holding
the book, allowing them to read the bits they remember.
• Share book tapes together, particularly those that indicate when to change the
page. Make up a tape together of your favourite book.
• Make sure your child sees you and other members of the family reading and writing.
Try to read as many different things as possible. Talk about what you are reading
and writing and why you are doing it, e.g. ‘I am reading this to find out which
batteries your toy needs’. ‘I am filling out this form for your tennis lessons.’
• Outside the home, talk about signs, labels and logos, e.g. ‘I am stopping because
there is a stop sign; look, it starts with the letter “s”, the same letter as your name,
Sophia.’
• Demonstrate how reading is used in the home every day, e.g. ‘I am going to make
pancakes, so let’s read the recipe and work out what ingredients we need.’ Talk
through the recipe as you gather the ingredients and follow the procedure.
• Provide opportunities for storytelling by:
— encouraging your child to make up stories
— using picture books to make up stories
— retelling favourite stories
_ telling stories about your own child and the things they like doing.
Developing Writing Through Play
It is important that children are encouraged to explore the world they live in. Play is
one of the best ways that children learn about and experiment with what they know
about the world. Try some of the following activities with your child:
• Say, read and act out nursery rhymes. You may want to write out the nursery rhyme
and allow your child to ‘read’ them. Keep the rhymes and create into a book.
• Make up songs, ditties or poems using alliteration or rhyming, e.g. Angus ate apples,
Jake the snake. Write down the rhymes created together and let your child illustrate
them. These games can become books.
• Provide opportunities for your child to use different language or experiment further
with the language they already use, e.g. Your child may love to play with trucks,
and diggers. This gives you the opportunity to set up a ‘Construction’ area. Create a
‘construction site’ together that your child can play in, using the language associated
with the experience. This procedure could be used for a variety of different
situations including those your child may already be familiar with, e.g. doctors
surgery, pet store, zoo, restaurant, farm yard, weather station, etc.
• Use written language to describe activities your child is working on. For example,
label their latest Lego design, write the title of a puppet play you have created
together, write about what you have done into a diary and ask your child to
illustrate.
• Make props for your child’s favourite games and label them, e.g. a firehouse
for the fire station, tunnel with an ‘in’ and ‘out’ sign.
Developing Understandings About Print
Talking with your child about the different parts of a book and how print works is important
for your child to know before they start writing. As adults we know this information so well
that we often forget that we ever learnt it.
• Select one or two points from the following list to discuss with your child each time you
read together.
— A book has a front, a back and a cover.
— A book has a right way up.
— Books are read from front to back.
— Pages are turned to reveal the next part of the book.
— The left-hand page is read before the right-hand page.
— A page is read from left to right and top to bottom.
— Print is different from pictures.
— Talk about first and last. These can be applied to pages in a book, words on a page
or letters in a word.
— Words such as ‘letter’, ‘sound’, ‘word’ and ‘sentence’ describe different things.
— Words consist of letters.
— Numbers and letters are different.
— Letters have two forms: capital letters and lower-case letters, e.g. ‘M’ and ‘m’.
• Draw your child’s attention to letters and words that are part of daily life. Point out and
read aloud any printed material, e.g. cake packet directions, traffic signs, advertising signs,
opening times.
• Teach your child to recognise words or letters that are significant to them, e.g. letters
in their name, names of siblings, road signs.
• Magnetic letters are one way your child can play with and build words. Your child can pick
out and play with letters, placing them on the refrigerator or magnetic board.
• Make letters out of play dough or write them in paint. Encourage your child to make their
own letters or to copy your letters.
• Place labels around the home. These labels should be written in sentences as this helps
your child to:
— make a connection between what we say and what we read and write.
— understand that once something has been written it stays the same each time it is read.
These could include labels on:
— doors, e.g. This is where Khan sleeps.
— toys, e.g. Puzzles are in here.
— drawers and wardrobes, e.g. Ajay’s t-shirts are in here.
Developing Vocabulary
For your child to develop vocabulary, it is important that they are exposed to a wide
variety of experiences. Assist your child to develop a large vocabulary by:
• reading aloud a variety of good literature.
• reciting poems together.
• saying rhymes together.
• singing songs together.
• encouraging your child to dress up and use the language of characters from
stories read.
• going on outings to ensure your child has a wide range of experiences to talk about.
• encouraging your child to retell the day’s events at the dinner table or on the way
home in the car.
• discussing what you have seen with your child.
• introducing words to describe the shape, colour, and movement of toys as you both
play with them.
• valuing what your child says and providing a model of how to communicate,
e.g. through initiating and maintaining conversations.
• encouraging your child to talk with other children. This will provide opportunities
to interact with different models of language.
• using correct terminology when introducing new language to your child.
Building Language Knowledge Through Games
Where’s Spot?
Using one of your child’s toys, e.g. a teddy bear, choose a hiding place, and say, “Teddy is
hiding somewhere that starts with the /b/ sound. ‘Where could that be?’ “ Have your child
go and look to see if Teddy is in the place guessed.
Snap
The format of a traditional Snap game is used.
• Make up a set of cards where pairs of cards have the same letter on them.
• Deal out all the cards to the players.
• In turns, each player overturns one card from their hand and places it face up on the table,
forming a central pile.
• When an upturned card matches the one on top of the central pile, that player places their
hand on the central pile, and says SNAP, and gives the category for the Snap. The player then
takes all of the cards to add to their hand. Play continues in this way until one player has all
the cards.
Concentration
Concentration is a game that invites players to exercise concentration and memory to locate
matches
from a selection of cards placed face down. The cards used for Snap can also be used for
Concentration.
• Make a set of cards. The cards could include:
– Pictures of objects that begin with same letter, e.g. box/balloon, cat/computer.
– Pictures of objects that rhyme, e.g. cat/bat, moon/spoon, goat/boat.
– Words of different lengths (Note: your child shouldn’t be expected to read the words—just
notice whether they are long or short.)
• Place all cards in the pack face down on the table.
• In turn, each player overturns two cards (one at a time), attempting to match them in some
way, e.g. they rhyme, start with the same letter.
• If there is a match, the player states what that is, keeps the cards and has another turn. If
there is no match, the cards are replaced exactly where they were, face down.
• The game continues in this way until all the cards are matched. The winner is the player
with the most matched pairs.
A Trip to the Moon
• Begin the game by saying “We’re going on a trip to the moon. You can come if you bring
‘something.’ “ The ‘something’ will depend on the category you choose, e.g.
matching: “You need to bring something that starts with ‘S’. “
rhymes: “You need to bring something that rhymes with the word ‘van’.”
• Have your child take turns to say “I will bring a …”
Continue the game for a specified length of time or until more choices cannot be added.
Victorian Modern Cursive Printing is the handwriting style endorsed by the WA Department of Education
Please Note: Most letters start at the top of their formation, except for ‘d’ and ‘e’.