Baby sign, baby talk, baby read

Difficulty in reading is the most prevalent form of academic disability. In spite of so much research and so much debate and an improvement in the general levels of literacy, a percentage of children still graduate compulsory schooling unable to read properly.

Debates about different ways of teaching reading are misguided at best and positively harmful when they impose on teachers one method or another of teaching their students how to access meaning from print.

Children are all unique, and a good teacher knows instinctively that a combination of approa­ches is needed to teach them to read.

We do not impose or exclude modes of speaking and presenting language to babies to help them learn to speak so why should it be different for reading?

Children access language in their own way from a richly linguistic environment. Some children first use nouns as single words while other children use affective phrases first, but they have had wide exposure to both.

Prof. Greg Brooks, in his recent research on literacy, has found that a mixed approach in recent years is now bearing fruit and literacy rates are improving.

But this is still nowhere near reaching the goal of literacy for everyone.

We know that children learn from their environment in order to survive.

From the moment they are born, the information they sense from what they are exposed to is sent to the brain, building up synapses and activating neurons which will then be responsible for their learning.

The language babies are exposed to becomes their native tongue, the tools the adults around them use become familiar, and in Maltese we even say that a son has implicit knowledge of his father’s trade.

Since most households use technology on a daily basis, most toddlers can handle a DVD player, a mobile phone, or a computer before they even start school. Is that the magic phrase - “before they start school”?

A boy named John could read and write 250 words by the time he was a year old. A girl named Emma could string sentences together from flashcards by the time she was three.

John is a boy with Down Syndrome while Emma is a girl with autism. Neither was specifically taught to read, but print was made accessible to help in their development of language.

Many innovations in education emerged from research in disability studies, and literacy teaching could gain from this insight.

The use of non-traditional approaches, with the use of visuals and multisensory materials, such as flash-cards, mind-maps and Powerpoint presentations, gave access to knowledge to children who would otherwise have found it difficult to learn.

Some of these children with learning difficulties and disabilities have now entered post-secondary education and some have been successful in standard examinations. This has proven the point that when knowledge is made accessible, all children can learn, and the earlier learning starts the more effective it will be.

Babies absorb the world around them from day one. They use their senses to make meaning of what goes on around them. They are eager to communicate.

A baby picks up common signs and gestures and uses them before using words. We see babies as young as two months raising their arms to be picked up.

Baby sign language can actually be learnt by parents from the internet.

Babies are surrounded by technology and they see adults using it. They watch children’s programmes on television and on the computer.

Mummy sends messages or speaks to daddy on the mobile, and baby can hear daddy’s voice, but when daddy reads the newspaper baby gets nothing. Baby loves stories and learns that these may come out of books, but how remains a mystery.

My dream is to make language and literacy accessible to all babies as part of everyday life, in the same way that music and technology have become. Only in this way can children take print in their stride and see reading as another skill learnt to ‘survive’.

For print to be accessible to babies it has to be clear, contrasting and simple, in the same way as language is often presented by parents.

The size of print in children’s books is too small for babies. It has to be part of everyday life.

Having printed words on everyday objects such as a high-chair, cot, bottle and table is a good start, as long as the print is large enough.

When they start walking, they can play games putting the cards in the proper place themselves. Writing a few sentences about your toddler’s day on a drawing book and looking at it together at bed-time is another good idea.

Commercial products using videos and flashcards are available online.

It may be a good idea to set up a Baby Language and Literacy club where babies learn to read as a part of language fun.

There are many ways you can help your child access meaning from print before they start school, and, if every child can do that we can say we have eradicated illiteracy – and having made myself redundant I can happily retire.

Ms Pace Balzan is senior lecturer at the Mcast Learning Support Unit.

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If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject to be tackled in the Education section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513 or e-mail dhamilton@timesofmalta.com.