Laurie Lind Makin - Live, Love and Learn: How Young Children Learn to Speak, Read & Write through Everyday Life with You

First published 2013

by ACER Press, an imprint of

Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd

19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell

Victoria, 3124, Australia

www.acerpress.com.au

Text copyright Laurie Lind Makin 2013

Design and typography copyright ACER Press 2013

This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, and any exceptions permitted under the current statutory licence scheme administered by Copyright Agency Limited (www.copyright.com.au), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, broadcast or communicated in any form or by any means, optical, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Edited by Elisa Webb

Cover design, text design and typesetting by ACER Project Publishing

Cover illustration by Paul Sellenger

Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group

EPUB ISBN: 978-1-74286-155-5

Kindle ISBN: 978-1-74286-165-4

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Meet the author

I was born in Canada, immigrated to Australia in 1969 and have lived here happily ever since. Having taught in Canada and France, I entered university life in Australia, working for many years at the Nursery School Teachers College, at Sydney College of Advanced Education, at Macquarie University and at the University of Newcastle. My research and teaching have been in the area of early childhood language and literacy in monolingual and multilingual contexts. I have published several books and many journal articles, and contributed to the development of a range of teaching resources for early childhood educators. Following retirement from the University of Newcastle, I spent time in Hong Kong as a Visiting Scholar in Early Childhood.

For several years, as Founding Director of the Children and Education Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, I developed and implemented a research-based early language and literacy program with colleagues, called SHELLS (Support at Home for Early Language and LiteracieS). Live, Love and Learn draws upon and extends this experience. It also draws upon my PhD research, teaching resources that I have helped develop and, of course, my personal experiences as a mother, stepmother and grandmother. Live, Love and Learn is designed to assist families and early childhood educators to support young childrens language and literacy learning through everyday interactions and activities.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents, my grandmother and my Aunt Reeta and Uncle Cliff, of whom I have so many loving memories. In particular, it is dedicated to my mother, Harriet Lind, a writer and a wonderful role model.

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to:

my husband David, daughters Diana and Melissa, and their families

grandsons James and Matthew who, unwittingly in most cases, contributed so much to the contents of this book

Sarah Eastwood for her photos

Clair Redmond for her cartoons

the families who contributed photographs and work samples of their children for inclusion in this book

Debbie Lee, Managing Editor and Publisher, ACER Pressalways a pleasure to work with

Elisa Webb for her helpful editorial assistance.

Chapter One

Introduction

Physically, mentally and emotionally, children change enormously between birth and school entry at the age of five or six years. From tiny babies wholly dependent on others, children who do not have difficulties affecting their development become physically active able to feed themselves, reach things they want, manipulate objects, walk, run, jump and climb. Mentally and emotionally, they learn to understand and influence more and more of what is happening around them. They become able to consider abstract notions like truth and friendship. They learn to ask questions, consider ideas, understand alternatives and solve problems. They develop relationships and feel empathy or rejection. They learn to listen and talk to others, to read, write and use technology. Every day they learn more about the world around them.

What they learn and how depends mainly on you, either directly or indirectly. It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance for young children of loving, caring relationships in safe and secure environments. Live, Love and Learn: how young children learn to speak, read and write through everyday life with you focuses on children between birth and six years and explores an area of learning that underpins and affects their whole livesliteracy.

Live, Love and Learn is written for all those who play a significant role in the care of young children and who can provide them with a positive context for literacy learningparents, grandparents, other members of the extended family, close friends and neighbours and early childhood educators in the wide range of out-of-home settings experienced by children between birth and six, including the first year of formal schooling.

So, what is literacy, and what is your role in your childs literacy learning?

Literacy in a changing world

Literacy is one of our most important means of communication. The word literacy now includes listening and speaking as well as reading and writing, and also all of the many technological activities that are included in the term techno-literacy.

How is the life of young children different from your own when you were a child? If youre a grandparent you may well remember things like dial telephones, telephones fixed to the wall and maybe even telephone operators for domestic calls. You may have lived several years of your life without television, computers or any digital media platforms. The word text meant something that was read from paper-based print. The word forward referred to physical movement rather than communication via email, and an application was usually for a job. Blackberries were used in crumbles and eaten for dessert.

If youre a parent and think back to your primary school years, you may remember early hand-held digital games like Donkey Kong, but no mobile phones, DSs, iPads or iPhones. Computers probably werent used in your primary schools, and teachers placed a lot of emphasis on neat handwriting. The word Google, either as the name of a site or the name of something you can do to find out information, probably didnt exist. If it was used at all, it referred to a way of staring wide-eyed at something.