Sometimes the best thing you can do for your child’s early literacy development is simply to let them play. Turn off the TV and anything battery operated then let your child pick up their toys, build blocks or duplos, or manipulate puzzles or game pieces. Not only are you giving your child the gift of childhood, something we so often fail to do in today’s hectice, achievement-oriented world, but you are actually helping them build skills that are key to learning to read and write.
Hand-eye coordination is a necessary skill for written language and the best way to help your child develop this skill is to let them play with toys and activities that involve looking at, using, and discriminating a number of elements. Puzzles are obviously a great activity for this but so are manipulative toys such as blocks, duplos, and magnetix.
My son just spent over an hour this evening playing dominos with his father — OK they weren’t so much playing as setting up complex pattterns and then knocking them down — but I didn’t tell them they were engaged in a preliteracy activity. They were just having fun together. Read more...
Tags: Aids, Attempts, Basic, Coordination Activities, Craft Activities, Dominos, Duplos, Early Literacy Development, Educational Supplies, Effects, Game Pieces, Glue Sticks, Hand Eye Coordination, Hands And Fingers, Having Fun, Information Received From, Literacy, Manipulative Toys, Necessary Skill, Number Puzzles, Reading Difficulties, Skills, Spending Time, Stickers
