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Child Learning - Open the Doors to the Future
When parents help their children lean to read, they help open the door to a new world. As a parent, you can begin an endless learning chain: You read to your children, they develop a love of stories and poems; they want to read on their own, they practice reading, and finally they read for their own information or pleasure. They become readers, and their world is forever expanded and enriched. That is called child learning.
In the process of child learning, when children become good readers in the early grades, they are more likely to become better learners throughout their school years and beyond. Learning to read is hard work for children. Fortunately, research is now available that suggests how to give each child a good start in reading. Becoming a reader involves the development of important skills, including learning to:
- Use language in conversation
- Listen and respond to stories read aloud
- Recognize and name the letters of the alphabet
- Listen to the sounds of spoken language
- Connect sounds to letters to figure out the "code" of reading
- Read often so that recognizing words becomes easy and automatic
- Learn and use new words
- Understand what is read
In child learning preschool and kindergarten teachers set the stage for your child to learn to read with some critical early skills. First, second, and third grade teachers then take up the task of building the skills those children will use every day for the rest of their lives. As a parent, you can help by understanding what teachers are teaching and by asking questions about your child's progress and the classroom reading program.
You can also help your children become readers. Learning to read takes practice, more practice than children get during the school day. This article attempts to describe what a quality reading program should look like at school and how you can support that program through activities with your children.
The National Institute for Literacy
The National Institute for Literacy, an independent federal organization, supports the development of high-quality state by child learning, regional, and national literacy services so that all Americans can develop the literacy skills they need to succeed at work, at home, and in the community. The National Institute for literacy administers the partnership for reading and other programs that promote child and adult literacy. For more information about NIFL and reading, visit www.nifl.gov.
Family Child Learning Center (FCLC)
Since 1980 the Family Child Learning Center (FCLC) has been helping families and their young children. The Family Child Learning Center is a research and training program located in Tallmadge, Ohio that is committed to developing, evaluating and disseminating innovative services for young children with developmental disabilities and their families. FCLC is sponsored by Akron Children's Hospital in conjunction with Kent State University. The Family Child Learning Center is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of children with developmental concerns and their families. For more details: http://www.familychild.org.
Knowledge Learning Corporation
Knowledge Learning Corporation (KLC) operates high-quality childcare centers nationwide. KLC provides more than just day care; they offer early childhood education programs that promote school readiness and a lifetime love of learning. KLC's family of schools includes 750 community childcare centers, 450 before and after school programs and 90 employer-sponsored child care centers located in 32 states. For more details: http://www.childrensworld.com.
The Child Learning Center
The Child Learning Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder is an integral part of the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. They are a transdisciplinary team made up of SLP, OT, early childhood education, parent resource consultants, and graduate students. Their mission is to:
- Provide a nurturing, high quality, inclusive, developmentally appropriate program for young children and their families;
- Create a model training site for graduate and undergraduate speech language pathologists, audiologists, early childhood educators, and other professionals in training;
- Serve as a valuable resource for research, observation, and community outreach.
For more details: http://www.colorado.edu/slhs/slhs/clc.html.
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