sometimes I think we are going overboard with making our children speak perfectly. All these speech therapies for so many children just because they have a bit of problem saying some sentences or pronouncing some words. So what if the child isn’t speaking perfectly or doesn’t know the proper grammar? As long as the child gets his point across I think it is great. Afterall, many adults can’t speak properly either but that doesn’t mean they can’t make a good living or be productive; it just means they won’t be great public speakers. They can still communicate their meanings across one way or another and I think that’s good enough and important enough. The problem is that people do not communicate; not not speaking perfectly while trying to communicate.
“So what if a child isn’t speaking perfectly or doesn’t know the proper grammar?” The issue isn’t speaking perfectly, in fact far from it. This is not finishing school to polish off a diamond, it is making a round wheel out of a square one.
“The problem is that people do not communicate”. Imagine how frustrating when you DO communicate, and your mom doesn’t understand you half the time, your daycare workers understand you perhaps 10 percent of the time, and have to guess from your single word utterances exactly WHAT you are trying to say about that topic, and your grandparents and neighbors understand you none of the time. Imagine when you talk on the phone, your mom has to take the other line and translate everything you say, even when you are coming up on five years old and speaking the same language as the person you are trying to talk to.
Now imagine that you don’t pronounce half of every word, and leave out all verb tenses, possessives, articles etc. And then imagine how well you will do in school in the next couple of years. Sounding out letters in a word when you never say those sounds. Trying to write when you can’t speak a sentence. Trying to do show and tell in class, or participate in a discussion when you answer in single words and not sentences.
I’d rather catch up when it is still games and silliness to work on what he is severely behind on than when he is old enough to realize how much better the other kids speak at school, how behind he is in language skills and failing in his classes, teased by other kids. (and yes, it is learning delays, as he has had ample opportunity to hear and use the languages… 18 month olds speak more fluently than he does).
I agree that it is ridiculous to expect preschoolers to speak perfectly, to enunciate like eight year olds, to give speeches as though they were theatre majors. But I also think it is good parenting to be concerned when a child is a year or more behind in language skills and not catching up despite tons of stimulation. Language skills are the basis of all literacy and literacy is the basis of all schooling. I have done volunteer work with adults who lacked literacy and it is disheartening how handicapped they are in their personal, social and professional lives, often being confused by simple things like written rules at their child’s school or negotiating a lease, and being blocked from employment they would enjoy, stuck in manual dead end jobs.
It is easier to catch learning and developmental problems in toddlers and preschoolers than try to do remedial work when a child is school age, or worse, adult. They learn faster, they have less emotional baggage because of it, and fewer bad habits (ie it is harder to get a child to revise a word they have been saying badly for several years than it is to get that child to say a new word that has the same difficult sounds). And you are avoiding all the academic problems which will stem from it if you can deal with it pre school-entry. That gives me less than six months for Big Boy. And he will be going to school in French, not his stronger English, so he is confused by basic directions, negative sentences etc on TOP of his regular speech delays.
And frankly, when three separate speech therapists, none of whom have a financial stake in evaluating him as needing services since the child will be treated elsewhere, evaluate a child as severely delayed, it is sticking one’s head in the sand to think said child is “doing just fine”.
So, thanks for the lack of concern, but I would rather a congratulations for early diagnosis and actively seeking timely intervention.
I read a very interesting post over at Babelkid.blogspot about “reading” books in languages other than they are written in. You can also read my rather lengthy comment after the post.
L'ourson qui voulait une Juliette
I had read on another multilingual parenting site, that one way to get around a dearth of foreign (or heritage) language reading material is to translate easy to find books (mostly English) on the fly into the language you wish to be exposing your child too. Now my Chinese, which is the language we have the hardest time finding affordable books in, is not exactly fluent, so most English books would be beyond me. But I do sometimes try to turn very simple English books (ie board books with a couple words or a sentence per page) into Chinese books just to squeeze in more exposure. French books we have no problem with, since living in Quebec, French is the majority language. In bookstores they are still costly since they print in such smaller quantities than English books, but in the library they are definitely in the majority, and it is English books that are lacking in choice.
The Seven Chinese Sisters
Anyways, I considered this idea and thought it brilliant as a way to get around the problem of being inundated with English books when you are fully fluent in another language.
I never once thought about the issue of language recognition, ie the child needing to learn that there is a correspondence between the spoken word and the printed word. Babelkid realized though, that her daughter didn’t recognize simple oft-repeated words in print in English… because she always “read” the books in French, thus there was no correspondence at all between the written and spoken text!
The Pet Dragon
I find this fascinating, and thinking about it, I see that it has helped Big Boy’s literacy that I am NOT fluent enough to do this quick trick! For a year now (he is four) he has been able to point to Chinese text and English text and name the correct language. He is able to point to words starting with the “T” sound like his name or “L” sound like mine. And through books like The Pet Dragon, as well as flashcards and games like Kingka, he can read quite a few Chinese characters like “xiao” “shan” “hua” “da” “ren” “kou” “chi”. Thank god that I didn’t read “petit” “montagne” “parler” “grand” “personne” “bouche” and “manger” when I pointed to those as I read along in a book! He’d think they were French characters!
Kingka game
I am sure that Babelkid’s daughter will sort things out, especially now that they have become conscious of the spoken/print disconnect. And I do certainly “explain” plots, words, concepts in one language that he doesn’t understand when I read it written on the page, in another language. But now I am certain to point to the printed word as I read exactly what is written there, and not point to the text when I am explaining in another language.
Amazing how one doesn’t consider these things when one is unilingual, or when one has learned other languages as a literate adult, not as a preliterate child one hopes to teach to read!
Well, my mother tells me that the only reason to send Big Boy to preschool next fall is to give his mom a break. She said this when I sent her his progress report from ReadingEggs when he finished the first ten lessons, which make up Map 1 on their program. He was so proud to get 100% on his little test and get a printout certificate to hang on the kitchen wall.
ReadingEggs is an online learn-to-read program from Australia that is associated with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and condoned by the Australian government to improve literacy. It is used in many preschools and schools down under. I learned about it on Brillkids forum. So I went and checked it out. There are lots of testimonials online, as well as a couple sample lessons from two different levels of the program.
I liked what I saw so I signed him up for a 14 day trial. By day 3 he was totally hooked. Every day he begs to do ReadingEggs. It is like an online games world for kids 4-8, where they do phonics and sight word lessons in an interactive format, and are rewarded with noises, songs, characters and funny animations. At the end of every lesson, which usually has 5 or 6 different parts which must be completed with a high accuracy rate, there is a little 8 page digital book to read.
Once the book is completed, a sort of large easter egg cracks open and a new animated critter comes out. They all have names starting with the sound the lesson focused on, such as Marshmallow Mouse, Nutty Newt, Bee bee Bear, Catty Cake. They are then collected in the child’s album of creatures, where he can see them anytime, and look at their “card”, which is like a baseball card, detailing where they get their name from, what they eat, where they live, who their friends are (all reinforcing that lesson’s letter sound)
The lessons are laid out as stepping stones on a map, ten lessons per map. There are arrows leading to the upcoming maps, giving the child a great sense of anticipation and goals. He can see the unopened eggs on the map beside each lesson stone, and is very motivated to move his little avatar character along the map/path.
Each child can personalize their avatar with different heads, legs, arms, egg, headgear and accessories.
Further motivation comes from earning golden eggs. After each lesson part is completed, the child gets 1-3 golden eggs, which accumulate in the upper right of the screen, and then can “spend” them either at the arcade (little games that reinforce phonics and reading can be bought per play) or at Reggie’s Shop (more avatar options can be bought, and also “house furnishings). Each child has a “house” where his avatar lives, and he can chose his favorite hatched critter to live in the yard, and buy furnishings, from wallpaper to chairs to fountains to personalize it. This provides motivation to do the lessons, and also helps with concepts of numbers, money, saving up to get what one wants, etc.
The lessons are recommended to be done 3 times each, and each time one is repeated, more golden eggs are earned. Frankly at this point (about three weeks into the program), Big Boy is only interested in hatching more critters and moving along the map path as fast as possible, doing each lesson once and not repeating any.
This hasn’t seemed to hinder him since he got 100% on his first review of ten lessons. He has covered the sounds s, b, c, m, p, t, f, the words “I” “a” “am” “ant” “Sam” and composite words with the sounds “cat” “fat” “sat” “bat” “mat” etc. And the sentences “I am a cat” “I am a bat” “I am a fat cat” “I am Sam” “a bat sat” “a cat sat” “Sam sat” etc. Here you can see what is covered in the first level.
They emphasize less the name of the letter, and more the sound of the letter. First the child must click on the letter alone, when they show it and say the sound. Then click on the letter among three separate letters on the screen. Then click on the letter within a word. Then choose between several images that start with the letter (mouse-over sounds out the word out loud). Finally, find the small letter in a word search grid. And then the capital letter in the word search grid.
Next there is a dot to dot exercise which helps both number order recognition and stroke order recognition for writing the letter. And then finally there is a “match the word to the picture” exercise, again with voice over when the child holds the mouse over the written word. There are variations such as making a penguin jump from ice flow to ice flow with the correct word on it (if the child makes a mistake, the penguin falls in the water and the game restarts), or clicking on a letter on a worm on a hook and then a word ending (am, at) on a fish. Each time they are clicked in order, they are sounded out, and the worm and fish approach each other, until finally the fish eats the worm and the whole word is sounded out.
I see real life evidence that this phonics work is taking. Since doing ReadingEggs, Big Boy more accurately pronounces some words with sounds that have been emphasized in lessons. He will spontaneously say a word like “train” and then pronounce the “teh” sound at the start, and say “letter T, like my name” or “milk” “mmm” “letter M, like Mommy”.
Now one may ask why I am getting a 4 year old to do this when he is not in preschool yet. His birthday is in November, so he won’t start until fall 2010, but if his birthday had been September, he would be learning this stuff right now anyways. He shows great interest in his name, my name, and the letters in them, and will point out those letters anywhere.
And I am hoping he will be going to preschool in French in the fall. I am concerned that he will have to make the leap to sounding out letters and the connection between the written and spoken word in what really is his third language (his birth language being Mandarin, and his first language at home being English). I would like him to have a base already in his first language, the one in which he has a strong vocabulary and comprehension.
If he understands the concepts behind phonics and reading in English when he starts French preschool, I think that it will be easier to transfer those concepts onto sounds he uses less often, like the accented e’s and a’s in French, and words and pictures he might not associate immediately. For instance, will he look at a picture of a dog, and think “dog: D” instead of “chien: C” in school? At least if he already understands the reading concepts, he can focus on the foreign French vocabulary and ways of writing it. That is my thinking anyways.
Also, we mostly read in English at home, though I try to get about half and half English and French library books. He does complain and go “Why French mommy, I like English!” when I pull out the French books, but he still listens. But I would like him to be able to read the majority English books we own and borrow, and in the French school system here, I don’t think they emphasize English for several years. And when they do, it will be English as a Second Language. So I feel a duty to do the English schooling myself, so he isn’t three to five years behind his English peers in English literacy.
Finally, I was swayed by the testimonials of parents on the ReadingEggs site: Big Boy has some expressive language delays, specifically morphosyntax, and other parents had written about how their children with special needs in language were greatly helped along by a phonics program. Indeed seeing it on the screen, and having to match the heard and spoken to the visual in a game environment already seems to be helping Big Boy make sense of the language. I am sure that as he reads and creates proper sentences within the program, this will reinforce his own expressive language skills. Indeed there is a complementary storytelling component to Reading Eggs, where children can put together words and images to create simple books that they can print out.
So, as for now, I highly recommend ReadingEggs. Big Boy loves it, I love it, we have lots of fun, and it is together time (he sits on my lap). He is learning computer skills as well, and has gone from an absolute beginner to a somewhat confident mouse user, clicking and dragging and dropping. Sometimes when he gets frustrated I mouse for him (he listens to the instructions and points to the correct answers and I move the cursor). But so far his skills in listening, computers, paying attention, and meeting goals have all increased in the three weeks we have used this program. The first two weeks were free, but we have signed up for a year for $79 AUS (about $74 Cdn). You can also get 6 months for $59 AUS.
We’ll be doing updates on ReadingEggs as he progresses, and also we are waiting on the printed components: books that match the digital ones online for review, workbooks, progress charts etc. The printed materials are discounted when you subscribe to the online lessons. Right now only Level One (first 40 books) are available in Canada, shipped from the US. Level Two (second 40 books) should be available in the near future. If not, higher levels must be shipped from Australia, which is long and expensive. When we have received the printed materials I’ll do an update.
If anyone else has a learn to read, or online phonics program that they have tried, do let us know. Were you happy or unhappy? What were the pros or cons? Have you tried ReadingEggs too?
Childbook.com
