Month: May 2024

Indoor/Outdoor Circuits Ideas – To Support Language Development

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Well, true to form, the half term holiday weather is a mixed bag, sunny one minute then pouring with rain the next!  

So, here are a couple of ideas to help your child burn off some of that pent-up energy. Best of all you can class it as language development homework (working on instructional, directional, body awareness vocabulary and listening skills).

An indoor/outdoor circuit training course does not have to take up much space or be messy (but it might be a good idea if indoors to move ornaments a little further out of the way).

Simple activities can be fun if they are done for short periods of time and children do love a time challenge. Make each activity last anything from 30 seconds to 1 minute.

You could record how many they did in the time and see if they have improved when you try it again.

Why not try:

  • Hopping on one leg and then the other (balance & coordination)
  • Use the bottom step of the stairs for step ups (bilateral coordination)
  • Curl ups (core strength)
  • With a cushion balanced on their head can they touch their toes without dropping the cushion (balance, coordination, bilateral coordination and core strength)
  • Star Jumps (balance & coordination)

For more fun, simple activity ideas check out our games page, it is amazing how much fun you can have just hopping, jumping, skipping and dancing on the spot: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/games.html

If you are feeling really brave why not try building an obstacle course, a lot of the fun is in the designing and making.

Let go and have fun!!!

What are CVC Words in #Phonics?

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With many parents sadly having to tackle home learning again; we thought it would be useful to re-run this blog from last year explaining CVC words in phonics.

The letter C means a consonant letter is required.

The letter V means that a vowel letter is required.

So, a CVC word is one that has a consonant letter followed by a vowel and then a consonant as in the following examples:

cat    dog    mat

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet and these can be split in to two categories:

Vowels – ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ and the letter ‘y’, when it is used as a semi-vowel, in words such as by, my and fly.

Consonants – ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘h’, ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘z’ and the letter ‘y’ when it is being used as a consonant, in words such as yak, yam and yellow.

Schools will often use the abbreviation CV, CVC, CVCC words when sending home phonics work or suggestions for phonics games. It is also used by many phonics computer games, activity programs and schemes.

Here are some examples for:

The ‘What’s That?’, What You Doing?’ and ‘Why?’ Stages

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As children interact more with the world and those around them so their language and communications skills increase and the ‘What’s That?’, ‘What You Doing?’ and ‘Why?’ stages begin. Yes! It can drive you insane at times, but it is at these stages they are cementing their knowledge and understanding, their brains are like a sponge, absorbing all sorts of information and linking them together.

It is at these stages that a child can easily misunderstand explanations and develop misconceptions as they try to find reasons and meanings for themselves. So, it can be very useful to talk through some things again later, checking their understanding and thinking. A good way of doing this is to ask them to tell someone else who was not there, perhaps Dad or an older brother/sister for instance. This way you can help them to develop a better understanding of the meaning of the word or concept.

You can also broaden their experiences, on which to draw understanding, by setting up play scenarios or other activities.

Beat ‘The Terrible Twos’ – Gestures & Signing

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Before an infant/toddler (1 to 2 years +) can talk they will often use gestures to help them get what they want, or let you know that they want you to do something again. Quite often these gestures are only really understood by you, this makes it difficult for others to understand your child, causing them to become frustrated at the lack of response.  

Although your child’s receptive language (understanding what is being said and asked of them) is developing well, their expressive language (telling others what they want and think) is far more limited, with them only being able to say around 20 words. The frustration of understanding but not being able to communicate leads to what is commonly known as ‘The Terrible Twos’. Sign language can be a very powerful tool to help you and your child to manage and lessen these communication frustrations.

For more tips and ideas to help you and your child to develop effective gesture and signing techniques follow the link to our ‘Gesture & Signing’ page: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/gestures-signing-babies.html

When do phonics skills start?

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There are 10 stages of phonological awareness. Stages 1 to 7 are what we class as the pre-phonics skill stages (https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-development.html) and stages 8 to 10 (https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-development-phonics.html) we would class as the phonics stages.

Phonological awareness skills relate to our sensitivity and understanding of the sound structures of our spoken (oral) language. It enables us to progress from our awareness of large sound units (words in sentences) to smaller sound units (phonemes in words). It also incorporates the ways in which we communicate through speech, body language and written forms.

Research suggests that our phonological awareness (Stage 1: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-awareness-stage-1.html) begins in the womb at about 24 weeks.  New born babies have a preference for their mother’s voice, as they have had an extended period of time hearing the voice before they are born, and so find it comforting. They do not understand the words, just the sound, rhythm and intonation of her speech pattern; more like music.

So, talk to your baby even before they are born, they will not understand what you are saying but their brain is busy; starting to store sound information that will later help them to understand language and learning to speak.

Babies initially have no language preference; they respond only to the sounds and facial gestures and mouth shapes that accompany them.

How you talk to your baby also has an impact; research has shown that babies prefer you to talk to them using regular words (normal adult vocabulary) in a slightly higher pitched and more sing-song way. Although many adults do this naturally when talking to babies it has become known as ‘Parentese’ and is very different from ‘Baby Talk’. For more information about ‘Parentese’: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/how-to-speak-parentese.html