Developmentally progressive instruction allows children to learn handwriting. An open-educational resource by literacy and writing experts supports instruction for kindergarten to Grade 3 children.
Engaging in purposeful, meaningful and strategic conversations with children can directly support children’s language comprehension, an important component of reading.
Parents in a study about the accessibility of French immersion programs discussed inadequate support for learning to read and feeling pressured to pay for expensive tutors.
Handwriting is a learned skill that must be taught through direct, developmentally progressive, consistent and sustained instruction. Teachers will need professional development and resources.
Having a vast and deep vocabulary affords precision and nuance in making meaning of the world, and this is key to children becoming proficient readers.
Cognitive skills related to early literacy can be nurtured this summer by engaging in activities that develop social-emotional skills and positive self-regulation.
Direct instruction matters in learning to read, but reading can’t happen unless children are supported in making connections to what they know and their experiences.
Children in an Oji-Cree northern First Nation are learning traditional teachings about ‘Namebin’ (suckers) and working on literacy skills at the same time through a community literacy project.
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary