Four Simple Tests to Protect Your Preschooler From Future Reading Failure

Birth to early childhood is a critical time in a child's life to learn literacy skills. Parent's can easily find ways to build their child's literacy skills. It's a matter of being mindful and incorporating easy to do activities into your child's daily routine.

According to the National Early Literacy Panel from the Florida State University, University of Colorado and Rutgers University, the building blocks of literacy begin in infancy and when combined with supportive parental involvement children will have better - developed language and literacy skills than children in homes where these activities are less frequent.

Even though research studies often show a link between parental intervention and the development of literacy skills in children, reports suggest their effectiveness varies widely. To help parents understand their role as First Teacher better, they need to be equipped with both the skills and strategies to encourage their child's language and literacy development.

In order to confer a benefit to your children, in terms of their literacy development, there are a number of physiological factors to be considered first. Dr. Mary Meeker and Dr Guilford of Structure of Intellect Systems, say " Since full scale right to read programs were launched some thirty years ago, the US has had extensive research into the efficacy of various reading programs and approaches...and the proportion of functional literacy has not improved substantially."

Early childhood reading activities can prevent your child from becoming a non-reader. But before introducing reading activities into your preschooler's daily life early diagnosis of four causes of failure to learn to read should be examined. Here is a checklist of things to look for before beginning a reading program:

1) Vision: Obviously your child must have good near point vision. It seems simple enough but many adolescents who have not learned to read are indeed incapable of seeing the symbols on the page. If your preschooler's near point vision is not developing properly, no reading program will succeed.

2) Hearing: Many methods of reading training are phonetically based. Your child must listen to the sounds of the letters and words in order to learn them. They should be screened for auditory or hearing discrimination before you begin a reading program.

3) If your child shows lack of integration in all five senses the resulting confusion is often enough to affect their reading proficiency. A sensory integration testing will identify any balance, visual, or auditory developmental problems.

4) Inner Ear: In rare cases, one form of dyslexia has been traced to inner ear problems. If our child is developing a form of dyslexia that does not respond to immediate treatment they should be screened for further diagnosis.

Before you expose your preschooler to literacy training make sure to give them a smart start. They must have good near point vision skills, their hearing must be up to speed, they must have proper balance and if they are displaying any of the signs of early dyslexia that are not responding to remediation have them tested further. These developmental tests are available though your medical insurance or private health care. They are invaluable as you prepare your preschooler for reading.

Good Reading!

Joan Gibson is a Structure of Intellect practitioner and a Leadership Trainer. She has worked with clients from 4 to 64 years of age. Reading is a foundational skill and she has developed an effective program to promote reading success in all ages.

[http://www.joangibson.ca]

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Welcome Children With Autism on Your Playground Using These Simple Planning Tips

When designing a playground to include children with autism, you must understand that there is a spectrum of severity and every child is different. Some children have a more moderate type of autism, while others will have more severe symptoms. There are other diagnoses on the spectrum, most commonly Asperger's Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Some researchers even put ADHD and ADD on the spectrum. Despite the differences along the spectrum, there are common symptoms between people with autism and one of those is that 95% of people diagnosed on the spectrum have Sensory Processing Disorders.

Dr. A. Jean Ayres is generally credited with developing both a theory of sensory integration dysfunction, now called Sensory Processing Disorder, and the therapeutic interventions for children who have it. Her work emphasizes the importance of three of the senses: tactile (the sense of touch), vestibular (the sense of movement and gravity), and proprioceptive (the sense of how our body works (muscle and joint information).

People with Sensory Processing Disorders maybe hyper-responsive to sensory input meaning they overreact. While other people maybe hypo-responsive to sensory input meaning they under-react. In many people it is a combination of both. This leads us to the fact that every child is an individual. Therefore, just like every other child, children with autism react differently and enjoy different activities on the playground. However, we can take some information about the three senses talked about above and make some general observations of what should go into a playground that actively welcomes children with autism.

1. The playground should be fenced so that when a child feels the need to flee from over-stimulation, he isn't able to leave the area.

2. The playground should include nature: gardens, grassy areas, trees, etc. Recent studies from University of Illinois found that a walk in nature helps children with ADHD stay attentive.

3. The safety surfacing must meet or exceed all guidelines. Children, who do not feel their senses strongly, may want to climb as high as they can go and jump off. The intense fall enables them to feel the impact. They may not recognize the danger so it is important that the safety surfacing material is maintained on a regular basis.

4. There should be quiet areas where a child may go to regroup when she is over stimulated. This quiet area can be made through landscaping or the use of playground equipment, such as a playhouse.

5. The playground equipment should be spaced a little further apart enabling the child to play without touching or being touched by another child.

6. There should be playground equipment that swings, goes around in circles, and enables children to climb and jump. These activities help children with both their vestibular and proprioceptive systems.

7. There should be equipment such as monkey bars where a child can hang. This puts pressure on their muscles and joints and helps to develop the proprioceptive system.

8. Parents who are raising children with autism often talk about how much their children like to slide, so it is important to keep slides in your playground. You might want to include different types of slides since different types of slides often provide different sensory input.

9. For tactile input, sand and water activities work well. You might want to include a very large sandbox, where a child could cover himself with sand. The weight of the sand will calm some children.

10. There should be play activities that the child can do by himself, while keeping out of the major line of traffic. Play panels such as tic-tac -toe, or a marble maze, often can meet this need.

11. Children with autism often need to work on where their body is in space. Crawling through tunnels is a good activity for this. It may be important to have windows in the tunnels for the caregiver to watch and provide assistance if needed.

These are some beginning thoughts for designing a playground for children with autism. But as always when planning a playground it is important to have members of your community involved in the planning. Some people you might want to include on your planning team to ensure you get good feedback on the needs of children with autism are parents (especially parents), Occupational Therapists who specialist in Sensory Processing Disorders, and Physical Therapists. You may also want to find a few children with autism that are willing to give you their input as they are the ones who will be using the playground.

When the needs of children with disabilities are taken into account at the beginning of the design process, you end up with a playground that can be enjoyed by everyone in your community.

Mara Kaplan is a play expert with 15 years experience in play space design and operations. She is currently conducting research on what parents who are raising children with autism want in a playground. Give your input by completing a short survey
Click Here to read more about Mara's thoughts about playground design guidelines for children with disabilities.

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