Foundations of Literacy
By Sue Palmer and Ros Bayley
Sep 5, 2008, 10:36

Seven strands of practice have been outlined as a basis for planning quality language and literacy experiences for Foundation Stage children. The strands are presented in separate chapters that include a description of the key skills and knowledge that we would like young children to acquire, followed by examples of activities that can be used to promote this development. The activities are generally adult-initiated, but the authors have also attempted to show how these activities can be extended into child-initiated play.

Written largely in response to the over-emphasis on formalising young children's learning, the authors make reference to successful early years education in other European countries, where emphasis is placed upon developing language-competent children through activities to promote speaking and listening, music and movement, and social skills. Alongside this goes a more informal approach to reading and writing until children are of six years of age or more.

Learning to listen (strand 1)

Children's poor listening skills have been causing concern recently in early years settings, and this is largely attributed to present-day lifestyles and family routines. Section headings on discrimination of sounds, social listening, developing aural attention span and auditory memory span give sufficient research-based background knowledge to one's early years practice, without reading like a PhD thesis!

Time to Talk (strand 2)

Section headings on compensating for language delay, talk during child-initiated activities, pole-bridging, vocabulary development, repetition and innovation, developing expressive language, and social language skills all help us as practitioners to plan specific activities to develop children's speaking and listening skills. The final section, supporting talk during imaginative play includes some interesting thoughts on the role of the adult during role-play.

Music, Movement and Memory (strand 3)

It is becoming generally accepted that a child's ability to keep a steady beat is a very good indicator of his/her academic achievements in later life. The authors state:

in the earliest stages, the ability to maintain steady beat may well aid the development of speech, as a sense of timing underlies our ability to pick up the patterns of spoken phrases and sentences.

Some new ideas are presented along with some old favourites that will help children with rhythm, articulation of speech, developing auditory memory, and left and right brain integration (for all you Brain-Gym enthusiasts!) Further suggestions are given for providing the children with opportunities to expand their musical competence through child-initiated experiences.

Storytime (strand 4)

My favourite chapter. It could have been called "Everything you need to know about giving your children the right access to stories!" Section headings include developing listening skills, telling children stories, children telling stories, and developing imaginative engagement with some lovely ideas to get your children's language competence to a higher level. A useful list of 50 recommended storybooks that are great for reading aloud to the children is also included.

Learning About Print (strand 5)

A distinction is drawn between children's spoken vocabulary being a natural development and literacy being unnatural leads the authors to cover the very first stages in literacy development; awareness of print. Alphabet knowledge and concepts about literacy are important pre-reading and writing skills that need to be acquired by children within a playful environment.

Tuning Into Sound (strand 6)

"Phonological awareness means awareness of sounds in language, and is an essential precursor of phonemic awareness - the ability to discriminate individual speech sounds". Some interesting points are made which illustrate the developmental stage in phonological awareness with some nice ideas for activities. A section on phonics is also included.

Moving Into Writing (strand 7)

Developing children's motor control and hand-eye coordination are pre-requisites for successful handwriting. Ideas for helping children with handwriting movements, letter formation, and pencil control are extremely practical and easy to put into practice. Final sections on shared writing and supporting emergent writing will be of use to all practitioners working in the Foundation Stage.

The final chapter offers suggestions for designing a suitable curriculum for language and literacy for children from 3 to 6 years of age, including all seven FoL strands. Appendices clearly show the links with the Foundation Stage Curriculum Guidance document.

An excellent publication; one I know I will return to, to reinforce my own personal knowledge of this area of learning, and also one on which I will be basing a series of staff meetings so that I can get all my staff on board. I'll end with a quote:

The seven strands of FoL- with their constant emphasis on speaking and listening-not only provide the building blocks for literacy so that, once formal teaching begins, more children succeed and fewer fail. They also focus on the enjoyment and appreciation of literacy, so that children want to read and write, and will thus develop their literacy skills through willing practice. Perhaps most important of all, they provide the basis of an essential life-skill which we ignore at our peril-the ability to explore and express our ideas through language, and to communicate our needs and feelings to others. It is the development of these skills, in all our citizens, upon which society ultimately depends

Continuum International Publishing Group
ISBN: 978-1-84706-089-1
www.continuumbooks.com