Preliteracy
We have worked with over 3000 preschool and kindergarten students to develop resources, games and apps to help prepare children for kindergarten and education success.
FrogABC teaches children upper and lowercase letters in a fun accessible way.
Preliteracy skills are the foundation for reading and easily acquired by children between 3 and 5 years of age. These include letter recognition, counting, and letter-sound recognition, which is the basis of the phonic approach that’s commonly used to introduce reading in kindergarten first grade. Rhyming is part of this approach because it teaches that children words can involve multiple sounds. Number recognition and counting are the foundation for primary math skills such as addition and subtraction.
The main obstacle n teaching preliteracy and pre-math skills is that they involve abstract symbols that have no intrinsic sensory meaning. The letter A is an arbitrary symbol whose meaning has to be taught, similar to the number 7 or 129. These take some time and patience to teach, which why parents are generally a child’s best teacher. Teachers have limited classroom time and resources to address each child’s learning stage, so parents are really an unspoken necessity for children’s success. This basic fact is the major reason we developed this site to help provide some of that support. A child who enters first grade knowing a good portion this material has a head start for academic success.
It’s helpful for parent to know what skills are associated with early formal schooling. Below is a common list of what is expected to be learned in preschool and kindergarten.
Preliteracy and pre-math skills
1. Identify basic colors: red green blue orange yellow, purple pink black brown
2. Recognize common shapes such as square triangle and circle
3. Know the 26 letters of the alphabet
4. Letter sound correspondence (phonics)
5. Recognize the numbers from 1 to 20
6. Count 10 or more items
7. Recognize first name by sight
8. Be able to recognize words that rhyme
Literacy and math skills commonly taught in kindergarten
1. Recognize common sight words such as cat, dog, run, and, the etc.
2. Write the letters of the alphabet
3. Nursey rhymes
4. Counting 30 items or more
5. Do simple addition
Finally, it’s important to understand the role conversation in language development and comprehension. As humans, we are genetically primed to learn language. Children generally know about know about 5000 words by the time they are 5 years old if they come from homes where talking and listening is part of daily life. This is amazingly large vocabulary since it occurs without formal teaching. It occurs naturally as long as children hear language being spoken because the developing brain is wired to figure out the meaning of most words from the context in which they are spoken. So social interaction through conversation is essential for children to learn to communicate their perceptions and emotions. There’s an old adage that says ‘you don’t really understand what you know until you try and communicate it to some else. If possible, try not talk to children naturally and ask them lots of questions? Forming the answer is a complicated communicative process. If they know you’re interested in what they say, they will rapidly learn to become .
Language helps young children learn to influence their environment without relying only on emotions. In this way it also helps them to learn socially appropriate ways to manage emotions and communicate their feelings though words.
To help children use language effectively, preschool teachers often suggest parents ‘talk to’ their children as opposed to ‘talking at’ them as we often do when trying to regulate their behavior in social situations. Ask children what they think about something they see, or how they are feeling. Using words to describe their experience helps to improve memory and create categorical. Organization of experience. Using words to label their own emotions, or the emotions of others, helps them to self-regulate their own behavior and gain a better understanding of the actions of others.
Basic cognitive and socioemotional skills taught at home or in preschool that foster kindergarten readiness
1. Put together simple puzzles
2. Identify parts of the body (head, shoulders, knees, ankles, arms, legs, etc)
3. Draw self with head, body, arms, legs, hands, feet, facial features
4. Be able to state age and birthday
5. Recognize and label basic emotions in self and others (Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprise, Scared)
6. Tell full name when asked
7. Identify pictures that are alike and different
8. Be able to tell or retell a simple story
