3.3

OUTCOME 3.3 – State the strengths & possible limits of your own ability to observe & offer literacy and numeracy experiences with children less than 4 years of age.

Tags: young children, reading, literacy, numeracy.

I am a second Year Early Childhood, Special Education student, and so far I have only had an opportunity to do my placement in a preschool with children generally aged between three years eight months to five years of age.  I am fairly limited in my ability to plan and observe younger children, such as babies and toddlers reading and engaging with books, due to my lack of practical experience.

Over the years I have watched with interest as my second and third cousins enjoyed reading and looking at books.  They too, had been read to, and knew how to hold a book correctly, being very careful when turning the pages, pointing to the words as they are being read aloud, if I ask where is the cat they will find the cat and point to the picture.

At the preschool, where I am currently doing my prac, every so often during the children’s free time, I will sometimes have one or two children aged approximately four years come and ask me to read a story book to them.  As I read the book, they point to the words or run their finger under the words being read.  These children are very engaged with the story and I will often ask questions such as where is the rabbit, how many sea shells can you count or what do you think is going to happen next?

This week I was keen to observe a younger child reading a book.  This is in line with this weeks’ topic of children being active participants in literacy and numeracy. 

Please find below the You Tube Clip titled smart baby/toddler reading and having fun (2 years old).

Video source: ‪http://brillbaby.com

I have managed to find a You Tube clip on the Internet of a little girl named Felicity.  Felicity is Two years and Four months of age. Felicity seems to have mastered the ability to read the “Thomas the Tank Engine” picture book.  She knows how to hold the picture book up correctly, she does not point to the words, so I wonder if she has memorized them and is reading from her recall memory.

Felicity’s words generally flow together, very well.  Felicity’s father appears to be in the background and is filming Felicity reading the book.  During the reading of the book I did notice he whispered a couple of the words, this may have prompted Felicity to make corrections. 

Felicity is able to make sense of the story, with Gordon and Thomas both being Blue, she appears to be having fun, when saying the words go go go.  Towards the end of the book, her father asks her “if she wants daddy to read it”, Felicity says “no firmly she wants to read it herself”.

Felicity can work out form the picture that she lost, her father prompts her “who lost?” Felicity is then able to read, “Gordon lost and Thomas won”.

Sadly due to my limited experience with working with children less than 4 years of age.  I was only able to complete this outcome through making my own observations on You Tube.  However, in the future, I hope that having completed the literacy and numeracy subject birth – 4 years, I will be in a better position to plan and lead young children’s literacy and numeracy experiences.

Throughout this topic I have learnt a lot about the various resources that are available for young children from birth – four that have a literacy and numeracy focus.  My strengths include the ability to critically analysis Felicity’s current learning from the “YouTube clip”.  I am also good at sourcing literacy and numeracy resources such as the animal alphabet and animal number cards 1 – 20.  I have since used the animal alphabet cards to develop my own animal phonics set, please refer to learning outcome 2.3.  I am also confident I could further Felicity’s interest with “Thomas the Tank Engine” by developing and making a set of "Thomas the Tank Engine”letters and numbers,  Felicity and I could then use this set of letters to make  words out of the set of letters, found in "Thomas the Tank Engine" book.  Overtime I could also introduce Felicity to the Animal set of letters and numbers 1-20 this would further her understanding of literacy by spelling out various names of animals and involve counting along with the hard cover book that comes with the number set.