This week I had the opportunity to assess a student in letter knowledge and phonics. This student has been in Head Start for two years and the mother wanted him to be tested for kindergarten. The teacher asked me to assess and I was surprised that this student only knew four letters. He did not any recognition of sounds of the alphabet. I asked the student to tell me the letters in his name. He was only able to recognize two letters in his name. I was totally shocked. This student writes his name everyday. The teacher does the ABC Word Wall everyday, along with the morning chart. I can honestly say that this student has no concept of what the letter are.
Now when I go into the classroom, I search out this student and work with him. If this student does not grasp the letter/sound correspondence, he will have some serious problems in the beginning months of kindergarten.
I have asked the mother to work with him at home. She was surprised that he did not know his letters. I asked if she worked with him at home and she said that his siblings did. I suggested to her to read books to him. Environmental print from fast food restaurants, familiar foods or books that he likes she can point out the letters to him.
I would like to advocate for programs that will help familes incorporate reading into everyday activities. This could be in the form of creating shopping lists for groceries, a list of chores, types of foods they like or a learning how to keep a journal.
Early childhood professionals could support this effort by donating books or helping familes to choose websites that will teach phonics and letter recognition.
Yvette T.
Yvette,
ReplyDeleteI think reading is so important and families need to understand how important reading is. I think some families think the students read at school and that is enough.
Reading programs which involve families and home would be a wonderful program. There is a program out here called Parents as Teachers which helps with reading awareness and home.