There are 5 key skills required for a child to become a reader

Unlike speaking, reading does not come easily or naturally to children. For a child to learn to read, they must be taught clearly and in a defined sequence. Correctly sounding out words (decoding) and understanding what words mean (comprehension) are the two broad skills every child needs to become a reader.

Broadly, the 5 skills a child needs are:

1. Phonemic awareness 

2. Phonics

3. Fluency

4. Vocabulary

5. Comprehension

 

Phonological awareness – a broad umbrella term that involves many skills

• Phonological awareness is the understanding that words can be broken down into sounds that have different meanings.
• It is made up of a group of skills and involves the ability to recognise and manipulate sounds in spoken language.
• It is a broad skill set that allows children to break up spoken words into sounds.
• Children who have phonological awareness skills can clap out the syllables in a word (hos-pi-tal)
• They can do things like rhyme “cat, sat, mat”
• They also recognise that words can have the same initial sounds such as the ‘f’ in ‘frog’ and ‘fish.’

Early phonological awareness

A child’s phonological awareness prior to starting school is one of the most important predictors of their later reading success. Phonological awareness should be a key feature of early literacy programs.

Awareness of rhythm and rhyme

Phonological skills develop in steps. Children first realise rhymes in songs and can clap along to the syllables. It also involves noticing how sounds repeat themselves and sound the same at the end (alliteration). This rhyming aspect of English is why so many young children enjoy Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes.

Rhyming is a critical skill as it indicates that the young child has identified specific features of spoken English. Research from the past 20 years shows that rhyming games and nursery rhymes helps pre-schoolers learn sound similarities in language.

This is an important step prior to reading and understanding that squiggly drawings correspond to sounds. Rhyme has a significant role to play in emerging literacy skills.

Required phonological skills in learning to read are:

• Being able to clap beats in a word
• Recognising and making rhymes
• Identifying separate sounds in words
• Separating and manipulate separate sounds in words

1. Phonemic Awareness – the most important of the phonological skills

Your child’s phonemic awareness on entering school is the single most powerful determinant of success he/she will experience in learning to read. 

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear individual sounds (phonemes) in words. Children need to be aware that spoken words are made up of sounds.

The word ‘sat’ has three phonemes – ‘/s/ /a/ /t.’ To successfully learn to read, children must learn to make a link between sounds and letters.

There are 44 phonemes in English – including sound combinations like ‘th.’

Phonemic awareness is absolutely essential in learning to read. A strong relationship has been established between phonemic skills and later reading. Even when intelligence and memory are considered, phonemic awareness is the strongest predictor of learning to read.

 

Important Phonemic Awareness sub-skills:

Segmenting

Segmenting and blending work together in emerging literacy. Blending sounds together to make words and segmenting words into sounds needs to be taught and practised. These skills are difficult to master, but can be achieved with explicit teaching and practice.

Blending

Blending words involves saying sounds in a sequence and also blending them together to say a word (reading). For example, using the same sounds /b/ /i/ /g/ to hear and say the word big.

These skills go together as we sound out the phonemes /bbbb/ /iiiii/ /gggg/ and then join them together to make big.

Blending and segmenting are the most important of all the phonemic skills. (National Reading Panel, 2000).

Isolation

The ability to hear each separate sound in a syllable.

For example, the first sound in the word soon is /s/ and the last sound is /n/.

Alliteration

The ability to hear the first phoneme in a syllable or word. That is, the /d/ in dad. Identifying the first phoneme is a critical step in breaking words down into their separate parts.

Letter-sound knowledge – the alphabetic principle

The understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds that are represented by letters.

Required skills

• Clapping beats in words
• Recognising rhyming patterns
• Detecting the separate sounds in words
• Separating and manipulating the separate sounds in words

 

2. Phonics – sounds

Phonics is the relationship between sounds and their letter symbols.

It is the process of using letters and their sounds to sound out (decode) words. 

Phonics instruction taught early is much more effective than phonics instruction introduced after the first year of school.

For example, it is knowing that ‘ea’ can make a short ‘e’ sound as in the word ‘bread,’ and using that knowledge to sound out similar words, like ‘head.’

The awareness of sounds and how they are represented in letters is an important part of learning to read. By learning the relationship between speech sounds and letter-symbols, children can use this code to read almost any word.

Letter sound knowledge = the alphabetic principle = phonics.

We start off teaching the spoken sounds of the alphabet, then introduce vowel teams or digraphs. This is when two vowels go together to form one sound – such as the /ai/ in the word ‘rain.’

Once clearly taught, phonic skills need immediate practice in reading.

We teach systematic synthetic phonics at Learning Works,which has the most research to back up its use. 

What on earth is systematic synthetic phonics?

When children learn synthetic phonics, they learn the associations between letters and their sounds in a clear sequence. Children also learn how to blend (putting sounds together to make words) and segmenting (sounding out words).

 

The role of sight words

Sight words refer to high frequency words that do not ‘play by the rules,’ and cannot be sounded out, so they must be recognised visually. Helping children learn high frequency words is a useful way to help children who struggle with their reading. Rapid word recognition is necessary for independent reading.

3. Fluency

Fluent reading shows a reader is confident, accurate and expressive. Fluent readers read rapidly and smoothly. Fluency is affected by familiarity with words and background knowledge of the text.

Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read and to read for meaning.

How to improve fluency:

1. Repeated reading with guidance:

Reading the same book again may be repetitive, but repeated reading improves word recognition, speed and fluency for your child.

2. Extensive independent reading

Good readers spend much more time reading than poor readers. Children benefit from regular reading, so great encouragement should be given to your child to read books at their reading level at home.

4. Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is strongly related to reading skills and school achievement in general. The greater the vocabulary, the more chance there is that readers will recognise words as they attempt to decode them.

Young readers find it incredibly difficult to make sense of words that they have not heard before and that are not part of their vocabulary.

Building a wide and varied vocabulary is an important part of a reading program.

Children learn early words and develop their vocabulary from their parents, other adults they have contact with and family members. Readers find it very difficult to read words that are not already part of their oral vocabulary.

Beyond the importance of vocabulary development for reading, word knowledge has wider implications. It influences thinking, speaking and writing throughout a child’s life.

5. Comprehension

The final fundamental skill in your child’s reading process is comprehension – the reason for it all! Comprehension is the process where your child gains meaning from what they have read, and opens the door to a world of knowledge and creativity.

For beginner readers, the most common obstacle for comprehension is poor decoding of words first, followed by vocabulary.

Typically, reading comprehension improves as decoding skills advance. In children older than 10 years who struggle with comprehension – it becomes the most concerning focus. 

Other factors that can cause difficulties in comprehension are:

• working memory
• making inferences
• a child’s ability to stay focused.

Good readers have purpose

Good readers know why they are reading, whether it is to work out how to make slime, read a recipe, work out how a video game works or research a topic for an assignment.

Good readers actively engage in the text

Good readers think about what they are reading, ask question, search for answers, and mentally picture events relating to the text. Good readers know when they have difficulties what they are reading and know what to do when that happens. Good readers become involved in their own reading processes.

Poor readers do not typically do these things. They do not use comprehension strategies efficiently.

Comprehension is a skill that can be taught

Thankfully the evidence shows that comprehension can be improved when specific comprehension strategies are used.

Teachers can show children strategies that will help them develop the skill of identifying the purpose of reading by:

• accessing prior knowledge
• asking and answering questions as they read
• distinguishing major content from small details
• creating mental images as they read.

Tips for helping with teaching comprehension

Choose a variety of books, including short books

As adults, most of the reading we do is short newspaper articles, letters; emails; recipes, newsletters and so on. Yet much of the material that we ask our children to read is long. Including shorter paragraphs, sports stories, even materials like cartoons and jokes – are helpful.

Teach comprehension from the first stages of reading

Even before your child can sound out all words properly, you can start helping them with their comprehension. Teaching comprehension is really teaching thinking. Picture books can even be used to teach comprehension. Non-fiction picture books can convey an enormous amount of information through photographs, maps and diagrams.

Teach comprehension by reading to your children

Children beyond middle primary school still enjoy listening to stories. You can read at a level that is beyond their own reading level and expose them to more sophisticated vocabulary and language. You can model your own thinking as you determine the meaning of the text.

Important comprehension skills are: 

• Clarifying the purpose of reading
• accessing prior knowledge
• organising new information into current knowledge
• distinguishing major content from details
• using a range of strategies to help understanding, such as rereading, confusing sections, creating mental images, taking notes, summarising, using concept maps and using a dictionary or thesaurus.

 

Early literacy fundamentals

Learning to read is perhaps the most important educational achievement. It is a complex process that unlike language, does not come naturally to children.

 

Children must have mastered many developmental skills before they become fluent readers. Learning Works Geelong created this guide for you so you can understand the processes involved as your child learns to read, write and spell in the early years.

Reading is so critical to success in our society that failing to read well in early childhood creates both problems at school and in later life. There is a strong relationship between early reading success and school failure.

For this reason, Learning Works believes early reading education and intervention is essential so your child will have the best chance at success throughout their education and into later life.

Early literacy (2-5 years old)

Learning to read starts in infancy

Many early experiences help your child prepare for reading. By the time they start school, thousands of hours of ‘reading experience’ has been clocked up.

In fact, the language experiences that your child develops since almost the moment of birth shape language development and their future reading success.

There is considerable evidence that a home and early education environment that values and encourages literacy provides the foundation for advanced reading and writing.

The more familiar your child is with language structures such as how to ask questions and use tenses, the more likely it is that your child will be able to read fluently in the future.

Encouraging Early Literacy

Sound awareness – Rhyming and songs

Many young children enjoy rhyming games and songs. This means they are beginning to have an awareness of the features of the English language and are developing important early phonological skills.

There is an extensive body of research showing that children who enjoy rhyming do much better at reading.

Playing games like ‘I spy’ will help your child realise that words start with particular sounds, a critically important skill when they start reading and writing.  When you say to a small child “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with M,” your child’s brain is registering that sounds match with certain squiggles on a page and things in their environment.

Teaching and practising nursery rhymes, jingles and speech rhymes will set your child up for acquiring language.

Teach your child to love books

Young children are like sponges and absorb a lot from their early experiences. When parents, grandparents and preschool teachers read to them, children begin to understand that the print means something to the people reading. They have a magic skill of ‘reading!’ – modelling the value of books encourages their desire to explore language in more depth.

At this stage, your child will see whole words as pictures. They recognise letters almost like adults recognise logos – but they are memorising shapes at this stage, rather than understanding that letter shapes go with particular sounds.

How to help with your child’s language development

• Involve your child in lots of talking and listening
• Ask your child lots of questions to encourage your child to talk and express ideas
• Use new words in conversations and explain what they mean
• Play word and listening games to build vocabulary
• Show your child how to hold a book, where to start
• Model the value of reading and writing in everyday life – write notes, read books and magazines, make shopping lists

Language Development

The early language experiences that children develop since almost the moment of birth shape language development. A home environment that encourages literacy provides the foundation for reading and writing. The more familiar your child is with language structures such as how to ask questions and use tenses, the more likely it is that that your child will be able to read fluently in the future. 

There is a strong relationship between language difficulties and school failure. The greater the spoken language, the better chance of rapid reading development and comprehension.

School language

In order to read, children need to have a broad vocabulary and knowledge of language or they will not have the background to become a reader. When they make the transition from home to school they need to use spoken language for a new range of purposes – such as telling stories, asking questions, following instructions and learning to communicate more clearly with others.

Most of the words young children hear and use are words they already know. There is a big jump between the sort of language children are exposed to at school compared to their home environment.

Your child must learn to move from informal face-to-face communication on familiar topics to more abstract language. At school, there is a demand for sophisticated and literate language.

Literate language consists of complex sentences with a number of linked ideas. Literate language involves discussing specific topics. E.g. What does the word fragile mean? What is the first word you hear in the word hippopotamus?

Language milestones at 5 Years

By the time they reach school, your child should be able to:

• Recall part of a story
• Speak sentences of more than five words
• Use future tense
• Tell longer stories
• Say their name and address
• Name familiar items within their environment
• Talk to peers and adults about familiar objects
• Ask and answer simple questions
• Respond to simple instruction
• Listen to, and participate in, stories, rhymes and songs
• Know that words, not pictures, tell the story
• Know what letters and words are
• Know how to handle a book – knows that we read from left to right.
• Begin to link letters with sounds. E.g. M says “mmm”

Becoming a Reader – Kinder to Prep

What can I do to get my child off to a good start for reading success before they go to school?

Read to your child daily. Children become readers on the laps of their parents.

Spend 5-10 minutes each day reading to your child. Short and colourful picture books are ideal for children so they can look at the visuals while you tell them the story.

Make story time an enjoyable time that you spend together and that your child looks forward to, so they learn to value reading and associate it with relaxing time with you.

Young children are like sponges and absorb a lot from their early experiences. When parents, grandparents and preschool teachers read to them, children begin to understand that the print means something to the people reading. They have a magic skill of ‘reading!’ – modelling the value of books encourages their desire to explore language in more depth.

Sing nursery rhymes together

Many young children enjoy rhyming games and songs. This means they are beginning to have an awareness of the features of the English language and are developing important early phonological skills. There is an extensive body of research showing that children who enjoy rhyming do much better at reading. (Adam, 1990; Burns, Griffin & Snow, 1999).

Playing games like ‘I spy’ helps children realise that words start with particular sounds, a critically important skill when they start reading and writing. When a parent says to a small child “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with M,” the child’s brain is registering that sounds match with certain squiggles on a page and things in their environment. Teaching and practising nursery rhymes, jingles and speech rhymes will set your child up for language acquisition success.

Teach your child about print and books

• Show your child how to hold a book, where to start and that we read from left to right
• Point out logos and text in the environment, such as street names, the police station or McDonalds.
• Create a book with your child. Engage in a craft activity using their own drawings. You can add in text according to the story your child makes up.
• Ensure your child has access to writing materials and paper so they can practise their motor skills and can experiment with drawing, which will pave the way for writing.

 

• 

Involve your child in lots of talking and listening.

• Involve your child in lots of talking and listening
• Ask your child lots of questions to encourage your child to talk and express ideas
• Use new words in conversations and explain what they mean
• Play word and listening games to build vocabulary
• Show your child how to hold a book, where to start and that we read from left to right
• Model the value of reading and writing in everyday life – write notes, read books and magazines, make shopping lists
• Ask open ended questions to encourage your child to talk and express ideas

Happy Reading!

Need some extra help?

Learning Works Geelong offers literacy (phonics) programs to help preschool children enter school with confidence, while they transition from pre-school to their first day in prep.

Read more about our school readiness program

Our program is play-based and teaches children to love learning, reduce anxiety around starting school, become confident and happy in the classroom and reach their full potential.

Plus, we promise serious fun for little people!

We believe every child to have access to education and the support they need in the early years.  

A parent’s guide to cognitive assessments

How do school cognitive assessments actually work?

If your child struggles at school, the school may recommend a cognitive assessment. IQ is the most common measure of intelligence in education and is used to identify and provide funding level for children with special needs in the classroom. It is important to understand what IQ tests can and cannot do to help support your child in the classroom and beyond. Learning Works Geelong has compiled a pdf. cheat sheet to simplify this process for you.

What is intelligence?

• An ability to adapt to the environment
• The ability to learn new things
• The ability to use a range of mental processes such as memory and imagination
• It uses higher order thinking skills, like problem solving and reasoning
• It involves the ability to acquire and use knowledge
• It is dependent on the context and culture

What tests are used?

The most commonly used cognitive assessments in Victorian schools are the:

• Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV) for children aged 2.6 to 7.7
• Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V) for children aged 6 to 16.11.

Which children are referred for an assessment?

• Those who have language or learning difficulties
• Children who may have an intellectual disability or other developmental behaviour disorders
• Children who are gifted or have high intellectual potential
• Children who are recommended an assessment by their primary classroom teacher.

What is the process?

Accessing Support – the school’s role

• If your child is struggling in one or more areas, or falling behind, your child’s teacher may recommend an assessment.
• This assessment is carried out by Student Support Services or SSS – A Department of Education Service.
• Before referring, the school will review previous recommendations and school actions.
• Your child’s progress and any evidence of learning difficulties will be discussed.
• The school and SSS will identify strategies to provide support.

What these assessments measure – 5 main ‘areas’ of intelligence

Verbal Comprehension

A child’s ability to understand what is being said, understanding verbal information. This is also their ability to use their vocabulary to express themselves.

Strengths in this area look like:

• Great writing skills
• Articulate, and able to express detail in ideas
• A great vocabulary, using a wide range of words

Weaknesses in this area look like:

• Struggling to understand instructions
• Becoming lost in multi-step directions and tasks
• Having difficulty expressing ideas
• Poor reading and writing skills
• Poor auditory memory skills
• Using black and white language
• Difficulty understanding abstract concepts or jokes, like sarcasm
• Struggling to comprehend verbal and language related information.

Fluid Reasoning

A child’s ability to think flexibility to solve a new problem using planning and their problem solving skills.

Strengths in this area look like:

• Thinking flexibly to solve new problems
• Drawing on problem solving skills to solve similar problems

Weaknesses in this area look like:

• Difficulty identifying patterns in relationships
• Difficulty identifying the ‘moral’ or overarching idea of the story
• Having a hard time summarising
• Finds it tough to transfer knowledge from one task to another
• Apprehensive to start new tasks and becomes frustrated without support

Processing Speed

A child’s speed and accuracy of scanning information, mental processing, motor coordination and visual decision making.

Strengths in this area look like:

• Quickly able to take in new information presented on the whiteboard at school
• Finds it relatively easy to keep up with the pace of the classroom

Difficulties in this area look like:

• Taking much longer than needed to problem solve under pressure, complete work and copy down sentences, recognise visual patterns and scan material

Working Memory

A child’s ability to keep in mind what they need to complete tasks. The ability to take in multiple bits of information, mentally work with it and hold onto it long enough to do some work.

Strengths in this area look like:

• Can easily take in a large amount of information in the classroom and process it accurately
• Able to follow complex verbal instructions
• Good at remembering all steps of directions
• Able to organise quickly and plan work tasks
• Great at mental arithmetic and can do large sums

Weaknesses in this area look like:

• Trouble following through on instructions
• Will only remember 1/4 of the instructions given
• Struggling to cope with all of the information presented in class
• Can only concentrate on one thing at a time
• Struggles to complete maths problems
• Struggles with complex problem solving and planning

Visual/Spatial Intelligence

A child’s spatial/non-verbal reasoning abilities. This is your child’s ability to understand better if something is modelled in front of them. They may also be great with puzzles.

Strengths in this area look like:

• Tackles hands on activities
• Greater understanding if something is modelled in front of them
• Good visual-spatial skills
• Good at analysing mathematical graphs, great with puzzles

Weaknesses in this area look like:

• Experiencing difficulty learning to read and to identify and remember all of the individual letters
• Handwriting can be disorganised on the page
• Experiencing difficulty drawing meaning from a maths problem
• Can get lost easily, may not find lost objects easily

What do these results mean?

Percentile Ranks

Percentile ranks reflects how a child performed compared to children the same age. Let’s say we lined up 100 girls the same age as Emily in order of ‘ability. The little girl sitting at position 1 would be the worst performing and 100 the best. If I told you that Emily was sitting at the 50^th percentile, it means that she is RIGHT in the middle and performing as she should be for his age OR that she is performing better than 50% of children her age. With cognitive assessments, the Average Range falls within the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Standard Scores

Put simply, standard scores are these converted scores used to determine where your child’s cognitive abilities lie in comparison to other children his or her age and what range of ability he or she falls under. You’ll see ranges associated with standard scores for the indexes and Full-Scale IQ. As an example, any standard score between 90 and 109 falls within the Average Range.

Another way of thinking about cognitive test results is by viewing them on a Bell Curve. In a normal distribution of results, most results fall around the centre, which is average. Very few people 2% have IQ scores of 130+, while scores under 70 are also rare – with less than 2% of the population having this score. Therefore, most children and people fall in the average range and cluster around the middle.

Ok, we have had an assessment, what do we do with the results?

The report you are given will make recommendations that teachers can use to develop a personalised learning plan.

The cognitive assessment is just the first step. Teachers, like those we have at Learning Works, who are trained in special education, must now implement a plan and strategy to help your child to overcome their learning challenges and capitalise on their strengths.

How can I help my child?

• Discuss the assessment with teachers and tutors to ensure the best strategies are being used to support your child with their learning
• Reduce distractions when asking your child to perform a task that is complex or new
• Your child’s self-esteem may be at risk. It is very important that your child’s classroom based work and homework is pitched at the right level that takes into account your child’s difficulties so they can experience success.
• Break down tasks into smaller steps
• Emphasise and repeat key points
• Encourage the development of your child’s intellectual strengths and teach them strategies to overcome their weaknesses
• Be aware of the limitations of the IQ score and the narrow set of abilities the score represents
• Get regular updates about your child’s progress from their teacher and tutor.

While a psychologist carries out the test, it is the teachers who model and implement the supportive strategies to help your child in and outside of the classroom.

Click the link below to download your copy of our pdf. – Learning Works Geelong parent’s guide to understanding assessments.

Cognitive Assessments

Children with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, can really benefit from apps and assistive technology.

These apps make their lives better by simplifying reading and spelling and ironing out mistakes.

Watch the video to learn about the latest apps for learning and attention issues

Top apps

1. Speechify
This is a text to audiobook app. Text is turned into audio files and stored as a digital library to help with reading. Kids can send web articles, books and handouts to the app. It uses speech to text technology to create audio files.

2. Claro ScanPen OCR Reader
Kids can use Claro ScanPen like a standard camera to convert photos of text into electronic media that can be read to them aloud.

3. Grammarly
Grammarly checks to mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation. To fix mistakes, kids tap on the corrections at the top of the keyboard. The app also gives a short explanation for each mistake.

4. Write Ideas
This app helps to plan and organise ideas for different kinds of writing. First, kids choose a writing assignment, like a book review, informative essay or short story. The app then asks a series of questions to help them brainstorm.

5. Otter Voice Meeting Notes
For kids who struggle to take notes and keep up in class. The app records lectures or meetings while creating digital transcripts of the recordings. The app highlights each words as it’s read aloud.

How to stop your child from forgetting everything during the summer holidays

What is summer brain drain or summer slide?

Summer holidays are a wonderful time for kids to explore and enjoy freedom from the busy school year. At Learning Works Geelong, we believe that after a long year of school your child deserves a well- deserved break to re-energise and enjoy time to relax.

While we don’t expect your child to be doing maths sheets or have their heads buried in a textbook learning Pythagoras during this time, it is important they continue to stimulate their brains throughout the long break to ward off learning loss.

Children and teenagers gain momentum and confidence when they are practicing skills on a daily basis and can slide backwards considerably if they have no summer learning routine. The saying ‘use it or lose it’ applies to children over summer when they are out of practice and don’t engage with any educational activities.

In fact, learning loss over summer is so rife that research by Ron Fairchild, executive director of the John Hopkins University Centre for Summer Learning, has found that teachers typically spend 4-6 weeks reteaching material that students have forgotten over the summer months.

We have rounded up our top tips for keeping your child’s mind active during the summer break so they don’t slide backwards in key areas start the new school year on the back foot.

What can you do, personally, to help combat summer learning loss with your own kids?

Tips for keeping your child’s mind active during the summer break

1. Read, read and read some more

Reading is a great activity for children and teenagers to engage in to keep their brains stimulated over summer. Regular readers are more likely to succeed at school, have improved concentration, have wider vocabularies and be confident, self-directed learners.

Reading opens children and teenagers up to new worlds and viewpoints. Through books they learn to make sense of the world around them, learn life lessons about friendship, family and love and expand their general knowledge.

At Learning Works Geelong, we cannot stress the importance of reading for primary school and secondary school children enough.

To encourage your child to read, we recommend you make a wide variety of books accessible. Visit your local library or the book shop and introduce them to different authors and genres. Your child is more likely to foster a lifelong love of reading if the books they are reading are on topics that interest them.

Primary school aged children will benefit from the one-on-one bonding time they get with their parents by reading together. While high school students have a massive head start if they read books that will be covered by their English teachers during the year.

2. MasterChef or My Kitchen Rules episode at home

Just like the TV shows, encourage your primary or high school child to host a dinner party and film them cooking the meal. Make your own “Masterchef or “My Kitchen Rules,” episode.

Not only is this idea wildly entertaining and important for later self-sufficiency, but cooking also activates the neural pathways used in maths and English. Measuring out ¾ cup of flour for a chocolate mud cake is an enjoyable way for your child to understand how fractions and calculations work. It is also great for visual learners to see each ingredient measured out in front of them.

By reading and interpreting a recipe your child is also applying their English comprehension skills. High school students might cook a whole meal for their family or edit the final Masterchef clip on the computer. We guarantee your child will have a lot of fun with this one!

3. Learning happens everywhere

Teach your children that the building blocks for success at school and in life can be found everywhere. From visits to the zoo, ScienceWorks, camping during a beach holiday – there are ample opportunities for kids to build up their information stash about the world during the holidays. These experiences can prove invaluable and what they learn can be used throughout their lives.

As Susan K. Perry, author of Playing Smart: The Family Guide to Enriching, Offbeat Learning Activities for Ages 4-14 says “You don’t want your kids to think that learning is only something that happens in places called schools.” “Rather, you want them to grasp that learning is fun and can go on anytime, anywhere, with handy materials, not only based on the instruction of an actual schoolteacher.”

Craft days, sewing sessions, woodwork and outdoor gardening are other ideas that pro Craft Days– sewing – creating pajamas for older children or a blanket or woodwork,

School holidays are a fantastic time for children to explore their interests and passions. What is your child fascinated by? Encourage them to start a project inspired by their interests.

4. Write a blog

Children and teenagers will love creating their very own blog or webpage over the summer holidays. Some blogging platforms are specifically customised for children, preteens and teens making the set up process simple for your child.

Encourage your child to write a blog on a topic they are passionate about so they maintain their interest. This might involve them writing on topics like photography, the latest fashion hairstyles or their favourite AFL team.

For children, sites like Kidblog Blogger, Weebly, NationalGeographicKids and ClubPenguin are great as they have been designed with children in mind. Site administrators closely monitor activity and parents can also be made administrators to watch what is going on online. Grandparents and friends can be given access codes to see what their children have written on the blogs, so they remain unpublished and limited to a small circle.

By writing a blog, your child will be involved in all aspects of the writing process in a fun, engaging way. From planning their post, drafting the piece, editing and publishing their post – your child or teenager will practice useful writing comprehension and grammar skills! They will also be able to customise their site as their own with different themes, graphics and fonts, and learn basic website management as well.

5. Play boardgames

Make time these school holidays to play board games together as a family. Not only will this provide a great opportunity for you and your children to bond, but with the right game, their minds are also ripe for stimulation and learning.

Younger, primary school aged children will benefit from games like Snakes and Ladders and Trouble where they can practice their counting and calculating skills.

Games like Monopoly, Scrabble and Chess require strategic thinking and money management skills –  perfect for building brain architecture in high school aged students.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the school holiday break!

The single most important thing a parent can do to help a child get off to a good head start at school and beyond is to read with them regularly

Parents are told time and time again they should read with their children. At Learning Works Geelong we believe that reading with primary school aged children regularly is one of the most important things you can do as a parent to help them succeed at school.

Reading literally changes your child’s brain, opens up different worlds and prepares them for learning. Routine readers not only have a broader vocabulary and stronger verbal and language skills, but they are also able to learn new concepts more quickly.

From improving concentration, building general knowledge about the world and improving maths and social skills – there are so many benefits!

Learning Works Geelong has rounded up the top reasons you should make reading with your child a priority.

1) Young readers are smarter

There is a common saying “today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” Research has shown that regular, out of school reading makes children more intelligent and fosters a lifetime love of learning. A reading practice improves academic performance across the board with better performance in the NAPLAN and general school tests.

From learning concepts’ more easily and grasping the meaning of their school world and social situations, regular reading has a powerful impact on childhood development. Young readers do better in school and in life – with improved language and literacy skills, and wider and diverse vocabularies. They are able to associate meaning to unknown words and concentrate better and for longer. Regular, out of school reading contributes to intelligence and a lifetime love of learning.

2) Reading builds general knowledge

Children learn important life lessons through books. Through books, a child’s brain is stimulated and expanded. Reading exposes children to new ideas, ways of thinking and different ways of looking at issues.

Through books, children are given a creative spark for their writing and are able to express themselves when they speak. Reading opens children up to words they haven’t absorbed through watching television or listening to conversations.

Children who read regularly know more about the world and have basic life skills that are useful in daily life compared to children who don’t read regularly.

Researchers have examined how children acquire knowledge. They have found that reading books gave children the most general knowledge compared to exposure to television or other media. You would be hard pressed to say that having this knowledge is not useful for everyday living!

3) Reading builds social skills in children

Children are taught emotional intelligence and important life lessons through books. Books have the power to instil empathy and can help children understand social situations and what they mean. They are an invaluable tool in a child’s development – introducing them to social concepts like family, love and friendship. The style of children’s books that helps parents tackle trickier topics such as bias, racism, homophobia, religion and illness can be particularly helpful.

Your child can learn about the world through literature – for example, a book may expose a bias, share stories of culture and identity or explain what anxiety is. For example, if your child is anxious about starting school, sharing a relevant story addressing this issue can seamlessly explain the transition.  The educational function of reading cannot be emphasised enough!

4) Reading changes the brain

Children who grow up with books and read more have thinner brain cortexes. The cortex is the outer layer of the brain which is linked to intelligence. Research has found that people with thinner brain cortexes are smarter. Early success in reading unlocks a lifetime of reading and intelligence habits and lays the foundation for future opportunities.

5) A stronger relationship with you

Reading with your child is a nurturing activity you and your child can share. Children emotionally thrive when they are given frequent, positive, one-one-one attention from their parents. Your child will come to love reading if they are given undivided loving attention from you during their story time. When you respond to your child’s reading with delight, enthusiasm and warmth, you are showing your child they are valued and capable – which is extremely important for their emotional development and self image!

At Learning Works Geelong, we cannot emphasise enough the importance of regular reading for children. Reading exposes children to ideas, contributes to their general knowledge about the world and stimulates the brain’s neurons connected to intelligence. Reading improves a child’s verbal skills and comprehension abilities and provides a safe environment to explore social issues and emotions.

Early reading unlocks a lifetime of reading and intelligence habits and sets an upward spiral of academic success into motion.

Happy Reading!

What can you do for your child to give them the best head start at school this year?

For many children across Geelong, this week marks the end of an endless summer holiday and the start of a new school year. TV ads and retail store shelves are reminding us that shortly it will be time to go Back to School! At Learning Works Geelong, we understand that getting your child motivated to get back into the swing of a school routine after six weeks off can be a struggle.

The new school year marks a period of transition for your primary or secondary school child – with new teachers, classes, schedules, academic expectations and maybe even a new school.

We have rounded up invaluable tips from the Learning Works Geelong team to help your child make the transition from the summer holidays and have a successful 2019 school year.

Top tips to ensure 2019 is successful for your child

1) Create routine

Structure is vital for developing mind. If your child is prepared they are more likely to adapt to the demands of school – like sitting still and concentrating on learning new tasks for extended periods of time. Make sure your child is well-rested and ready to engage at school by getting a good night’s sleep and packing school bags the night before. These simple organisational tasks will reduce the challenges on the first few mornings back to school.

Getting organised with a school planner or timetable will ensure that your primary or high school child knows what is expected of them. VCE students will benefit from writing down their SAC dates and planning out their study routine in advance.

An ideal school routine might involve a desk area to work, away from the TV, phones and other distractions, discussing the set homework and assignments from the day and helping to go through any difficulties. This way your child feels supported and that you are engaged in their learning.

Encourage your child’s organisation skills and effort. A good routine will reduce challenges and will allow your child to focus on learning new school concepts.

2) Homework is important

All school aged children are assigned homework to reinforce learning material. At Learning Works Geelong, we believe that some homework is really beneficial for primary and secondary students to make sure key information isn’t lost. Young primary school aged children will especially benefit from your involvement and encouragement in completing their homework.

The best way to approach homework is to spell out to your child what you expect of them before the school year starts. Set aside time each night that is dedicated to homework. Answer questions with them like – Where will they do their homework? What happens to their phones and Facebook during homework time? How long will they do their homework for each day? By agreeing with your child what you expect of them, you are showing how important their education is to you and modelling the importance of hard work during and after school.

3) Inspire Confidence

Confidence can be as important as new skills when it comes to success at school. Praise your child’s perseverance and the effort they put into their school work. Learning not to give up if they find a new concept difficult is an important life skill.

Help them understand that mistakes are okay. Kids need the ability to bounce back from disappointment if they don’t understand something straight away. Your child will become resilient and confident in their ability to keep trying new things if they are taught that mistakes are part of the learning process.

4) Encourage your child to learn new skills.

Teach your child to try new things and to not get upset if they make mistakes. The ability to bounce back from disappointment if they don’t grasp a concept straight away will teach your child that their continued effort will lead to improvements.

Building up your child’s self-belief in their skills is vital for success at school. Tackling new ideas, overcoming disappointment, trying again and trusting in their own abilities are all necessary for your child to thrive at school. Encouraging your child for the effort they put into their school work will boost their confidence, self-esteem and will set your child up to utilise their skills.

5) Rest is important too

It is important for kids to have time to themselves to rest after a hectic school day. Kids absorb the energy of the environment around them, therefore one of the best things you can do is to model a calm attitude. It is important for your child to prioritise after school activities too so there isn’t a complete rush from one activity to another – leaving your child worn out for the next day. A well-rested child is one that is mentally prepared for new experiences at school.

Fun. Make sure your child sets aside enough time to play, read, relax and hang out with their friends. This will make the transition back to school smoother and will give them an incentive to work hard on their homework if they know there is down time as well to make the transition back to school smoother and more enjoyable.

6) Speak with their teachers

Parents can get a lot of crucial information about their child from their teachers. Teachers spend a lot of time with your child and view them through an educator’s eyes. They have exposure to any learning difficulties, academic strengths and weaknesses but also how your child is coping emotionally and getting along with close friends at school. Keep the dialogue open with your child’s teacher. Good questions to ask are: Do you have any concerns about my child’s learning? Does he/she need help with anything? How is my child doing overall?

Speaking regularly with your tutor at Learning Works Geelong will provide another great source of information for you. We fill in any missing gaps in knowledge, help your child get up to speed and excel at school.

Learning Works Geelong hopes these tips help your primary or secondary school child start of the 2019 school year ready to take on the challenges of the year ahead!