Maintaining a journal for your child is a simple and
effective tool for early literacy development. You can start using it as soon
as she starts holding a crayon and scribbling (as early as 1 and a half or 2
years of age). All you need is a plain notebook preferably A4 or A3 size. As she
makes marks in the book, ask her what it is and write down the words or sentences
next to the drawings. (Don’t restrict her to the thick crayons. Let her explore
drawing with markers, pencils, pens, coloured pencils etc.) You will see how
her ideas progress from words to sentences to stories.
Seeing you write, will
motivate her to attempt writing down the words herself with scribbles or
letters. Depending on her age, phonemic awareness (awareness that words can be
broken down into sounds) and phonic skills (ability to associate sounds with
letters of the alphabet) she will write the words with initial, medial and
ending sounds (developmental/ phonetic/ invented spellings). For example
initially she might write just the letter ‘a’ to say apple, then ‘al’, then apl
and so on. Please remember not to criticize her drawings, stories or her
spellings. Just accept and support no matter how silly they are. It’s the
start of big ideas!
The journal should be used as a motivation and confidence
building tool for literacy development and not for attaining perfection in
handwriting or spellings, although good handwriting and spellings would be the
byproducts of it. Apart from enhancing reading and writing skills, journal
writing is also great for promoting fine motor skills and vocabulary
development.
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