Letter Recognition and Knowledge - The Childhood Edition
Letter knowledge is usually defined as recognising the letters of the alphabet, knowing the letter names and how to pronounce them. It is important to introduce children to letters in their early childhood years. It’s a stepping stone towards the path of reading and writing. Letter knowledge will help children to read swiftly and confidently. They also need to be taught how to differentiate between letters of the lowercase and uppercase forms.
How to expose your children to letters:
Playing with alphabet shapes
- This can be done by hanging various posters in their room, touching the letter blocks, playing with alphabet cards or having various letters in the form of magnets on the refrigerator.
Helping them notice letters in books
- Explore various books together. As you read, talk about the shapes of various letters. You can also point out the letters in their immediate environment like cereal boxes, menus in a restaurant, signs on the road.
Learning how to speak letters through Montessori learning toys
- A montessori toy is one that stimulates learning by encouraging kids to experiment. The key object is usually to help them develop their motor skills.
Some links for such toys are-
By scribbling letters
- Drawing, scribbling and writing can lay the foundations of letter recognition. All you ned to have are some writing and drawing materials handy. There are also various sets that you can invest in like-
- https://www.berrybee.in/products/english-pre-writing-board
Just paper and colors also work. Make sure to make them sign their work and put it up on the walls or cupboards for positive encouragement.
Using familiar names to participate in letter recognition
- This can be done by singing different songs and stories with familiar names and words.
Some facts to consider when your child is learning the alphabet:
- There are a total of 26 letters in the English alphabet.
- Each letter has an upper and a lowercase, therefore, there are 52 shapes for children to remember.
- There are 26 sounds that they need to remember and that can be confusing in the start.
- Some letters can have more than one sound and some letters can have the same sound.
- The sounds can vary when the same letter are paired with different ones.
The reason why we need to remember these facts is - We need to patient with our children when they are learning how to remember them.
A child who has letter knowledge understands that each letter has its own shape, recognises lower and uppercase letters and is better at understanding sounds. Little Genius encourages early letter learning for all kids. It makes them to grow into confident children who can voice their thoughts. Our phonics classes for kids, reading classes, reading circle programs in Vadodara, Ahmedabad emphasize on the development of children by early letter learning.
