Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi,
I am wondering whether it is good idea to teach letters of Alphabet to children between 2 to 2/5 years old?

Hi Hamid,
Singing the alphabet is something we do everyday especially when we are in the car doing school pick up and drop off amongst lots of other songs.
Because in Family Day Care we have all ages in our group so the little ones learn and sing when I am teaching the older ones. The families and I love it when we hear the 18mth+ 22mth olds singing in their beds at sleep time "a b b b a c c" its very very cute. In ECE learning has to be fun. If they enjoy it do it. When I teach the older children and have activities that tie into the letter we are learning the babies do the activity as well but they are learning different things like how to hold their pencil, paint, gluing, drawing, how to hold scissors, their colours, how not to eat the glue and paint, etc etc.
Linsaa fdc

Hi,
I just want to improve children's language skills, but I do not know exactly what kind of activities can improve toddler's language, I read books and used puppet, I provided home-corner activity (pretending play) and singing songs for children. I want to have better ideas for working on children vocabulary and promoting verbal communication.

Hi Hamid,
I think you are doing just about everything you can. I believe the main thing is that we use the correct language and talk talk talk to the children about everything and when doing everything. I have babies that are not talking at home and say lots of words here like....up...ta...Papa [that's my husband]..... bye bye bird...bye bye plane and very last they call me Nanny.
To be honest we are ethnic here and we talk a lot.
As they get a bit older and if you notice particular words they need help with just work on one word at a time, break it up into bits they can say like hos.....pi....tal, let the parents know what word you are working on, then after a bit put it together but that's not till later on. 2-2.5 they are taking everything in, keep up with what you are doing and it will all fall into place as they get a bit older.
Linsaa fdc

Thanks Linsaa and Lorina