Home Learning: Practitioners - Listen up

For a few years now, Reception classes have been urged to use synthetic phonics when teaching children to read. The synthetic phonic programme is a demanding one, especially for summer-born children or for those who are new to English. While this method of teaching reading and particularly the focus on starting children so early remains controversial, it is still important that early years settings find ways of ensuring that children are able to cope with its demands.

There are several factors that will affect a child's progress in reading. These include fluent speech as well as whether children have developed a love of books. Another factor in cracking the phonic code is also whether children have good auditory discrimination. This skill is something that children develop over time, but it is also a skill that early years settings and parents can work on together.

BABIES AND TODDLERS

A perhaps surprising starting point when promoting babies' and toddlers' auditory discrimination is to be aware of background noise. While early years settings need to be aware that background noise can impact on children's auditory and speech development, it is worth mentioning it to parents too.

Parents may be interested to do an experiment and see if their child is more responsive when the home is quieter.

PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN

When it comes to supporting parents to help their pre-school child at home with auditory discrimination, it is worth providing them with information about the current approach to the teaching of reading and how the work that we do with children in early years settings supports this.

You could do this in a variety of ways, such as holding an information session, contacting your local Reception class for materials, and using leaflets aimed at parents such as 'The Road to Reading' (available as a free download from Early Education www.early-education.org.uk).

RHYMES AND SONGS TOGETHER

One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to help young children of all ages develop auditory discrimination is through rhymes and songs.

There is plenty of research to show that knowledge and experience of rhymes has a significant impact on children's progress in learning to read. When children are exposed to rhymes, they hear different rhythms and patterns, which is particularly important for children who may be new to English. Children also seem to pick up on the way that words segment into individual phonemes.

In addition, many rhymes and songs also contain alliterations which, because of their repetition, focus children's attention on an individual initial sound - for example, 'Five little peas in a pea pod pressed'.

These are all skills that are needed in learning to read using a phonic-based method. While using rhymes and songs is common in early years settings, it is worth considering taking a structured approach to helping children to learn rhymes so that their repertoire and thus experience of rhymes is being expanded constantly.

Some settings aim to teach two rhymes a month, allowing children to move to Reception with 30 or so rhymes. The advantage of developing a long-term plan for teaching rhymes is that parents can be given the words and if necessary the tune ahead of time so that they can use them at home too.

CHOOSING RHYMES AND SONGS

There was a period of time when nursery rhymes faced extinction. This means many parents and practitioners may not know many rhymes or may only know the first verses. So it is worth choosing rhymes that are catchy and easy for parents to remember while also being sensitive to the content.

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