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Signing With Babies And Children: Basic tips for Early Literacy

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Basic tips for Early Literacy

Following on from my last Blog contribution about Signing and Literacy, here are some basic tips how to start off teaching your child to recognise letters:
You can start this as soon as you begin signing to them, no matter how old they are.

STEP ONE: Learn the manual alphabet !

STEP TWO:
TEACHING PHONEMES (SOUNDS):

· Start showing your child the first letter of their name when you say their name (=namesign)
· Add more namesigns for other people who are important in your baby’s life
· When you think you and baby are ready, occasionally emphasize the first letter, ie ‘B-B-B Ben!’
· Progress to other things around you ‘T-T-T tree’

STEP THREE:
TEACHING GRAPHEAMES (written letters)
· When your child can sign some of the letters herself, start showing them the printed letter for their name
· Add a letter a week
· Encourage her to sign the letter when she sais its sound
· Invent fun games to play, ie: spot the letter ‘H’ on the cereal packet or in the shops. Make up memory cards and play this

Always make it fun and make it into a game. As soon as it becomes difficult, stop – and carry on another day.
The aim of the game is to explore your child’s potential without forcing her to exceed the limitations she has – remember every child is different!
http://www.sign2learn.co.uk/

2 comments:

Baby Fingers said...

Baby Fingers said...

For interactive practice, check out http://www.mybabyfingers.com/asl.html. Or go directly to www.mybabyfingers.com. The ABCs can be found on our links page, via Lora's Blog. Enjoy!

Holly Tried It said...

I started teaching my daughter the alphabet when she was about 1 year old. She knows all her letters and the ASL sign for them. We've begun working on their sounds. The ASL sign helps us distinguish the letter for sounds that are close, like bog and dog. It helps her with her spoken vocabulary, too.