The development of literacy skills is crucial in pre-schoolers. Childrens’ long-term learning success depends on good speaking, reading, listening and writing skills. Parents can make literacy learning exciting for kids by using the multiple intelligence based approach.
A child is thought to have eight intelligences: linguistic, logical, bodily kinaesthetic, spatial, auditory, visual and naturalistic. These eight intelligences should be tapped when teaching literacy to children. For example, kids can be taken to the beach and asked the phoneme of the alphabet drawn on the sand, using the naturalistic intelligence. Alphabets can be formed on the ground using masking tape and children asked to dance along the lines of the alphabets to tap on the bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence. An alphabet or word puzzle can help make literacy fun for logical learners. Vivid stories can be read to tap linguistic intelligence and build vocabulary.
To teach the sound ‘d’, you may want to dab a bit of peanut butter (no allergies!) behind the two front teeth and get your child to place his tongue there to sound the alphabet. Parents can also print alphabets or words and make laminated table mats for children to discuss during dinner time. Thinking creatively and using the multiple-intelligence approach will make all the difference in acquisition of literacy skills.
Ruhie Jamshaid is from First Steps Nursery Montessori. Call 04-3486302 or email firststepsnm@gmail.com.