54 | August 2012 | woman this month Parenting Mastering English Whilst this skill of using phonics is obviously extremely important, remember, English is not so straightforward. There are many words that do not follow the phonetic code; the sounds we verbalise in such words do not match the symbol sounds, for example, the word ‘was’. With such words children will learn them as ‘sight words’. They will start to recognise them when they experience them sufficiently to possess an enduring mental imprint they can use. This experience can take the form of explicitly talking about how these words do not sound as they look, by using flashcards, reading stories with repetitive language patterns, from picking these words out from short texts and even by creating a mnemonic. Mnemonics are basically language devices for helping the human brain to retain learning. We can use them to help children become more familiar with word structures and so help with their reading and spelling. A mnemonic for embedding the word ‘because’ could be Big Elephants Can Always Upset Small Elephants with the first letter of each word relating to the letters of ‘because’. Variations on a theme Schools will differ slightly in their exact approach to the order of phonics learning and the high frequency and irregular words they work on and send home for you to practise. The best advice is to keep track of learning in school and support this at home. If your child’s school does not communicate this to you — ask. Writing emerges and develops as the various pieces fall into place along the journey upon which your child’s writing progresses through many stages. At times you may feel frustrated, perhaps with an apparent lack of progress or that your child is not retaining spellings. There are many pieces to the jigsaw and they will come together with positive encouragement and time! The time factor depends a great deal on the individual. All children are different; it may take one child a day to learn a spelling list from school and it could take another child two weeks to fully embed new spellings in their long term memory. When starting to write sentences, young children have a great deal to think about almost all at once: pencil grip, letter formation, using phonics, recalling phonetically irregular spellings, making sense, spaces, capital letters and full stops and there are many other conventions on the way. Enhance the journey by being patient, praising all efforts (your child will then WANT to do more) and by communicating with school so that you can support the development of the various elements involved. So, enjoy the journey and the progress you see but most of all, never compare your child’s progress to that of their class mates. Language acquisition can be so much fun; use your imagination to help your child learn!
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk0MTkxMQ==