National Crisis - Aussie Children Struggling With Basic Literacy

It is reported that Teachers and Early Childhood Educators are finding that children are struggling with basic literacy.

Parents are not doing enough to equip their children with reading and speaking skills and are wrongly mistaken that it's a Teachers job to develop those skills.

According to the 2012 Longitudinal Study on Australian Children, only 49 percent of children aged 4 and 5 are read to at home 6 or 7 days a week.

It is estimated 1 in 22 preschool children have a speech sound disorder meeting clinical criteria.

Parents, need to find the time for reading and to set appropriate limits on the use of devices. Teachers are not expected to work miracles. Just 15 minutes of reading each day with your child would provide around 500 hours of literacy learning before they started school.

Reading teaches sharing and involvement. It brings family ties and makes the child feel loved and bonded. Reading always brings closeness and supports the child and the reader to develop relationships. When someone reads to a child, they are exposing that child to more than just the words on the page; they are demonstrating proper speech patterns, the basics of how a book is read (i.e., from left to right, top to bottom, etc.), and the excitement that reading can bring.

There are also other benefits including:

• Active reading stimulates language development and encourages original thinking.
• It contributes to enhancing speech and communication skills.
• Repetition improves vocabulary and memory.
• Early reading to toddlers helps in the mastery of language which helps them as they approach the school age.
• Helps in understanding concepts, applying logic, develop judgement skills.
• Helps the child to deal with stressful situations in their development milestones.
• Improves the attention and concentration which helps in school.
• Helps Bonding.
• The colours, textures and sound in books will help accelerate baby’s mental growth and awareness of surroundings.

It's important for Educators and Teachers to work together with families and encourage them to read to their children daily.

Reference:
Lanai Scarr, Aussie kids are slipping in literacy. Here’s how you can improve your child’s reading before school starts, January 28, 2018
Importance Of Reading To Children