4.2: Empathy

Describe how parents, peers and communities may see, feel & shape young children’s early literacy and numeracy experiences

Tags: Oral literacy, nursery rhymes, discovery, community settings, swimming lessons, language, numeracy.



Describe how parents, peers and communities may see, feel & shape young children’s early literacy and numeracy experiences
Tags: Oral literacy, nursery rhymes, discovery, community settings, swimming lessons, language, numeracy.

Recently I was at a swimming pool were I observed a group of parents and grandparents in the swimming pool with their young children who were approximately 6 - 18 months of age, interacting in a circle.

I was amazed that these children were exposed to a variety of literacy and numeracy activities through games, songs, and nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty, singing ABC, at such a young age.  Clearly there was a lot of emerging oral literacy and numeracy opportunities taking place.

The lesson was led by a swimming teacher who was in the middle of the circle, and the parents and children formed a circle around her.  Some of the other activities included climbing over mats, which displayed ABC and numbers 1 - 10, as well as naming and catching toys.

One example of numeracy was having the children stand on the edge of the swimming pool and having their parents or caregivers count to three and then on three they jump and the parents or grandparents catch them.  Another numeracy and literacy activity taking place was the ‘Mother duck went out one day’ song.






Image source: www.dolfinswimschool.com

The children clearly enjoyed the swimming lessons and the activities they were involved in, although they are too young to realise this at the moment, they are developing social skills and interactions with other young children as well as learning numeracy and literacy.

Swimming also teaches intellectual capital in children as well as pedagogies in areas such as literacy and numeracy.  The particular literacy skills I saw evidence of included phonological awareness – the ability for children to learn new sounds and words thus extending their vocabulary.  Young children who attend swimming lessons also develop a range of literacy skills through explicit instructional techniques which include the development of listening skills, the use of rhyming in songs, letter formations in the water, by following instruction cards (Jorgensen, 2012).  Swimming lessons also provides chances for teachers to link the child’s understanding with the outside world, for example the sea, sea creatures are often painted on walls, the children are in specific sea animal groups etc.

Swimming also teaches young children a range of numeracy skills through the teacher using instructional techniques and/or activities in the class that develop numeracy.  Some ways this can be taught is through the use of counting while giving instructions, using visual cues with number representations.

Other curriculum areas that swimming can also help to develop include music; this has also been shown to increase young children’s literacy through the number of songs that are often sung during swimming lessons.  Music can also be related to numeracy by parents clapping in rhythm, children copying or making splashes etc (Jorgensen, 2012).

These skills were promoted through play by climbing on a big mat, young children learn about mathematical concepts such as balance, floating and weight.  Singing songs promotes literacy and phonological development children learn sounds, rhymes and songs.  Swimming has shown that children who participate in early-years swimming seem to achieve particular milestones quicker than children who do not swim.  These milestones include physical, cognitive and linguistic domains.  There seems to be a consensus in the swim industry that young swimmers who have swum for sometime appear to be more confident, more articulate and more intelligent, that their same age peers who do not participate in swimming although this theory is still being researched (Jorgensen, 2012).

This was a wonderful opportunity for me as an observer to observe how numeracy and literacy is being taught within in a community setting, in this case a swimming centre.  Even though it was oral language and numeracy skills being taught, this is a starting point of emerging literacy and numeracy being seen and shaped within a community setting.

REFERENCE LIST

Jorgensen, R., (2012) Early-years swimming – adding capital to young Australians, Australia: Mt Gravatt Campus, Griffith University
Retrieved 13th of October from
<http:www.griffith.edu.au/education/early-years-swimming>


1 comment:

  1. A good example of how and where young children may begin shaping their early literacy and numeracy learning out in their local communities. What particular oral literacy and numeracy skills did you see evidence of? How were they promoted through this play? It will be interesting to return to this reflection at a later point in the topic.

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