Literacy plays a huge role in determining academic and future career outcomes. Now new research has come to light that suggests giving kids a head start with reading may be a lot easier than parents think.
According to research from Victoria University, taking preschoolers to story time at your local library can play a huge role in helping them learn to read.
Professor Anne Goulding of Victoria Universities School of Information Management, Dr Mary Jane Shuker and Dr JOhn Dickie from Victoria’s Faculty of Education have been observing story time sessions run by public libraries to see what their impacts they have on pre-schoolers.
The research team found that there are six key skills to literacy development in children that determine a child’s readiness to learn to read and write.
These are:
1) Print motivation (being interested in and enjoying books),
2) print awareness,
3) letter knowledge,
4) vocabulary,
5) phonological awareness (developing understanding of how words are structured and being able to play with sounds)
and 6) narrative skills.
According to Professor Goulding librarians were good at print motivation (encouraging a love of books and reading for pleasure). They did this by choosing exciting or interactive stories with good visuals, and telling the stories in an engaging way,” says Goulding.
Professor Goulding discusses the research findings here