Kids speech therapists tips to prepare for Prep

Preparation for Pre-Literacy

Congratulations, your little one is off to Prep next year. You are probably beginning to think about school uniforms, backpacks, lunchboxes…and all that Christmas shopping! What about preparing your pre-prep for literacy-learning? Our experienced kids speech therapists in Brisbane north have all the tips you need to help your child have a smooth transition.

Prep students can be expected to learn several letter-names and letter-sounds, as well as recognise and write common letter-shapes, recognise letters from their own names, and identify and generate simple alliterations and rhyming words. These skills are essential for later literacy-learning, including reading connected text, spelling multisyllabic words and story compositions.

A child’s pre-literacy skills are the best predictors for the development of their spelling and reading skills.

What are some things that you can do to prepare your pre-prep?

• Frequently read story-books to your child exposing them to printed text as well as creating a fun literacy-learning environment.
• Read and sing nursery rhymes together emphasising the rhyming words.
• Put up an alphabet wall chart and practice saying and singing the alphabet together – be careful of ‘m, n, o, p,’ we don’t want children learning these letters as ‘emanenopee’!
• Writing letters in the foggy shower screen or in the sand (when at the playground) or in finger paint.
• Encourage lots of drawing – of people, animals, princesses, princes, castles and more.
• Using a shortened pencil or crayon (five to 10 cm) encourages a more appropriate pencil grip ready for beginning to write.

Our kids speech therapists are always happy to help parents support their child’s development, so please contact us at Cooee Speech Pathology for more information.