Sue Carolane - Aa Is For Alpacas

To my darling husband David who, before I was ready, acted upon my wish to own alpacas, bought some and left most of the daily care to me.

To my wonderful sons Kieran and Antony who, on returning home from university for holidays, have endured being commandeered to help with shearing, toenail cutting and loading alpacas onto the trailer; all of which frequently involved being kicked, trodden on and spat at.

Aa is for Alpacas

2014 JoJo Publishing

This edition published 2015

Text Copyright Sue Carolane 2014

No part of this printed or video publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

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An alarming downward trend in literacy

During the thirty years I have spent as a speech pathologist in education at pre-school, primary and secondary levels, I have been greatly troubled to see an increasing number of children struggling with learning to read, write and spell. Since reading is interrelated with writing and spelling, we will deal with the topic of reading here, knowing that it spills over into writing and spelling. There are several factors which I believe contribute to this decline in literacy, most of which I wont go into here, but one very important observation I have made is that there are many children who do not have stories regularly read to them at home.

pre-reading preparation is of such great assistance in setting up a child up for a lifetime of happy and successful reading

They learn so much when we read to them

Even if we stop to think about it, we probably dont realise just how much information is unconsciously absorbed into those little brains. Skills are being developed which are quite subtle, and yet of vital importance. It is when we observe the behaviours of children who have not had exposure to books that we realise how pre-reading preparation is of such great assistance in setting a child up for a lifetime of happy and successful reading. This preparation includes:

• The idea of printed words and sentences and how they correspond to what is being said.
• Familiarity with the look of punctuation, so it doesnt present as confusing little gremlins on the page when the child comes to learn to read formally.
• The all-important language stimulation, which comes from being read to and then talking about what was just read (i.e. being read with).
• Development of listening skills.
• The beginnings of perceiving visual patterns in words visually picking out the same word on another part of the page; seeing groups of two or more letters which are the same on different parts of the page.
• Learning to handle books well and turn pages easily.
• Stimulating the imagination.
• Making the association that a book means spending happy, secure time with parents and - from seeing parents reading themselves - that reading is an enjoyable activity.

And that was just off the top of my head!

The result of all this pre-reading experience is that when it comes time for a formal education in reading, the child comes with a positive, relaxed attitude and the whole process is smooth and enjoyable because there is a foundation waiting to be built upon. Add the bonus of having included a good quality alphabet book in your story time repertoire and the foundation is so much stronger, with at least 26 building blocks securely in place.

What happens when we dont read to them?

On the other hand, for children with little experience of books, the whole business of matching the printed word with the spoken word can be seen as a gigantic hurdle, with not enough incentive for them to jump over it. After all, they havent had the experience of cuddling up to Mum or Dad and being drawn into the magic world of stories, pictures and interesting information that lies between the covers of a book and it is unlikely that they would see their parents engrossed in a book either. So why would these children bother with a book?

the child comes with a positive, relaxed attitude and the whole process is smooth and enjoyable

Further, the children who have not been read to are usually not conversed with and therefore have poor language skills, with no opportunity to have learnt that language can be fun and absorbing, as well as being everyday and functional. The cycle is a vicious one. These language-deprived children often dont develop goodlistening skills and listening is one of the skills that underpins language in both its spoken and written forms, quite apart from its vital importance in interpersonal relationships of every kind. And while were on the subject of listening... As technology advances, children have exposure to an increasing number of activities involving a screen in some form or another (TV, computer games, Xbox, Nintendo etc.) and the result of this is that they almost always have visual support accompanying spoken language. They dont learn to just listen. Some parents have observed this when watching a television program with their child and the child asks questions about the story. The answer was there in the dialogue, but not presented in the pictures. The child hasnt been listening. Instead they have been piecing together events mostly from the pictures on the screen. That would be watching TV literally!

Of course the child may be partly listening, but not enough to pick up the additional details that were not presented visually. A golden opportunity to develop listening skills is through conversation. It doesnt matter what the topic is, as long as it is appropriate for the child in terms of interest and experience. You have to listen in order to participate in a conversation so conversation is the perfect way to practise the skill!

children who have not been read to, are usually not conversed with and therefore they have poor language skills

Another excellent way to develop listening skills, apart from conversations and from reading and talking about stories, is listening to story CDs. When my children were young we played story and song tapes (in those days) while they were playing with Duplo, or Lego on the floor at home and we usually played them in the car as well. They were of excellent quality and I enjoyed them as much as the children did. As they grew older we moved on to stories for older children and then to adult material such as Sherlock Holmes and Brother Cadfael. It made a long journey pass quickly and enjoyably and helped them learn to listen at the same time. The ABC produces some wonderful CDs for children - a good starting place.