10 Easy-Peasy Everyday Reading Ideas

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Our last post was about the importance of early reading (if you missed it, go here), and today we’re sharing some simple and inspiring tips that can make practicing reading simple, as long as you recognise the opportunities!

1. Set the scene for Dreamland: Help your child to wind down at bedtime by switching on a dim nightlight and lighting a candle. Read the last story for the day in a quiet tone of voice and end it off with a calming hug and a kiss. Whisper 'goodnight' as you let your child blow out the candle as part of the ritual (only once!)

2. Pack a snack and a book: When you're going someplace that you suspect you'll be waiting for a while (like the doctor’s office), don't only pack a snack, include one or two favourite books to read while you wait! This demonstrates to your child that reading is something worth planning for.

3. Read while you shop: The next time you go shopping with your children, don't forget to look out for and read notices, signs and labels to them. When possible, point to whatever you’re reading to focus your child’s attention on the written word. And while you're in the car, why not make it a fun game to read number plates, road signs, street names and other interesting billboards?

4. Add words to real-life pictures. Print out extra copies of your digital pictures; stick pieces of paper on them and write on it, e.g. “Daddy gives Mommy a hug.” “Stephen brushes his teeth. He gets ready for bed.” “Milo is a happy dog. He wags his tail when he sees us.” Put these pictures in an appropriately sized photo-album or laminate them and ask any printing shop in a shopping mall to ring-bind it into a book for you.

5. Far and Away: The next time you take a long business trip, photocopy one or two of your child’s favourite books ahead of time. Read to your child over the speaker phone at bed time, while your spouse helps your little one to turn the pages of the original book at the right times.

From 3 years onwards:

6. Sit back and relax: Record your (or a grandparent’s) voice as you read a story. If needed, use a video recorder and cover the screen so that you record only the sound. Using a teaspoon, ding on a glass to indicate page turns. On nights when you’re too tired to function you can sit with your child and turn the pages together. These recordings of loved ones sharing of themselves can become priceless family heirlooms.

7. Love those Labels: Label common objects in your home by writing words like ‘door’, ‘bed’, ‘chair’, and ‘bath’ etc. on pieces of paper and attaching the labels to the real objects. Hand-write your labels so that you can make sure the letters look similar to how your child’s Grade One teacher will one day teach him to form his letters. Also, leave the capitals and use only small letters.

8. SOUND it - don’t SPELL it: Children love to discover which sounds are represented by various letters, for example ‘s’ represents the s–sound as in ssssnake. However, keep in mind, when your child asks you to sound a word out for him, you’ll be helping him make the link between the letter and the sound better if you simply break the word up into separate sounds. Steer clear of using the names of the letters of the alphabet to spell the word for your child. For example, instead of spelling the word 'b', 'a', 't', 'h', rather say, 'buh-aa-th'.

9. Stick it in your pocket: Create a 'reading pocket' in your jacket where you collect all the interesting things you've read in the day, a cartoon from your daily newspaper, a fortune cookie message, a greeting card etc. When you get home you can share your wonderfully special 'finds' with your little one!

10. Give them a cooking-clue: The next time you bake cookies or cook with your children, let them see how you read the recipe step-by-step. Then line up all the ingredients before you start, and show your child how he can point to the ingredients from left to right, while naming each one out loud, for example flour, eggs, butter, milk, baking powder, and vanilla. This prepares him for reading words from left to right one day!


We hope this post has inspired in you ideas on how to make reading an everyday (simple) opportunity. It can be fun, it can be silly, and most of all it can be a wonderful opportunity to learn and share.

Just a quick note - our next post on Friday will be all about choosing the right gift for the right age this Christmas. So, if you're planning on doing your Christmas shopping this or next weekend, this post will come in really handy!


Words: Loren Stow

Comments or reading tips? Email lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

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The 3 Secrets of Early Reading

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I remember as a little girl that I loved to read - I would even pretend to read my mother stories that I had learned to memorise. When I learned to write, my love of words was further extended, and I would re-write by hand poems and songs that I loved to listen to.

However, as we get older, we are bombarded wherever we go by the written word whether it be through advertising, logos, memos, emails, sms's, or monthly post... The 'magic' of reading is lost and we can begin to think that reading is just one of many ways to interact with our children.

The benefits of reading are obvious for most parents - increased language, better grades at school, exercising memory and understanding skills etc. - the list goes on and on. However, there are certain benefits of reading that are unique to sitting down and opening a book... irreplaceable with any other experience...

We know that most parents understand the more obvious benefits of reading, so today we want to look at three priceless benefits that you wouldn't necessarily think about when choosing to sit down with your child and a book and open that first page....

It's about Love

Reading to a child communicates love and acceptance to a child primarily in two ways - firstly, through physical touch, and secondly through sharing an experience that fosters emotional closeness.

We've written before on the blog about just how important Love is to learning - it is the 'thing' that makes all learning stick.  And the beauty of reading with your child is that it is about more than just pictures and words on a page - it is about Love.

Imagine a scene where a dad is reading to his son. The son is sitting on his father's lap, enveloped in his arms, and both of them are fixated on the book in front of them. Dad is reading each word with emphasis, his tone and inflection changing, and his facial expressions mimicking what he's reading. He suddenly roars (like a lion...) and his son laughs and curls even closer to his dad... Can you see it? Can you see what we're trying to describe?

As parents, we can sometimes see reading a chore... But for a child, reading is about Love.  It is a time when his mom or dad physically and emotionally 'comes down' to his level and there is a closeness. He comes to anticipate the funny monkey sounds or the knock-knock-knocking that are coming on the next page... his excitement and joy are barely contained...

Reading fosters Love - it is about sharing, one-on-one with your child. It is about opening up a world of fairy tales, or dinosaurs, or farm animals or whatever it is... It is about taking your child's hand and guiding them through a door into a world where they will be given anything their heart desires...

Teaching your child to associate love and closeness with reading is possibly the best foundation you could ever lay for your child in terms of academics, social skills, and increasing language and therefore intellectual development. This is because the pleasant memories create in a child a hunger for more... But more than that, reading gives you an opportunity to be close, to share a moment, to laugh together and Love together.

Its about finding a familiar place in the world

As parents, we assume that children get bored of reading the same book over and over again, but contrary to this popular belief, children actually thrive on this predictability. To a child, being able to predict what is going to happen on the next page is equal to being able to predict his world and understand his place in it, making him feel safe and secure. Predictability is one of the most fundamental emotional and intellectual needs of a child, and reading is the easiest way for a parent to almost exactly recreate an entire 20 minute experience over and over again, day after day.

Repetition is of course also a strong foundation of learning - because children learn through seeing, hearing and experiencing the same thing over and over again.

It's about doing what works

Another common misconception is that books are often seen as 'old fashioned' and parents are tempted to replace them with seemingly more modern stimulation, such as television, dvd's, video games, computers, and battery-operated toys with moving parts and flashing lights...

The difference between these 'new and improved' types of stimulation and reading, is that reading (and story-telling) will always be the number one activity that requires of a child to actively use his brain to make it fun. In order for reading to 'make sense' and be enjoyable, your child needs to use various parts of his brain to process the activity. As opposed to other more 'modern' stimulation, where a lot less is asked of his brain...

Finally it is important to understand that reading is a really high-functioning skill and nothing else, definitely not television, not educational games, not flash cards, not even something as precious as talking to your child or singing songs till the cows come home... nothing stimulates phonetic and phonological awareness (which is absolutely crucial for reading readiness) quite as much as reading age-appropriate children's books with loads of rhyme and repetition, over and over again. Therefore, reading to a child not only fosters a love for reading, it actually wires a child's brain to be able to learn to read later on...

With this said, we hope that the next time you buy your child a book, or the next time you reorganise their book-shelf, you stop for a second and see a book for what it is... It is not only the best foundation for future reading abilities with all the good things that go along with that, but it is also a magical key to demonstrating your love for your child, and creating a safe and predictable place for him in our fast-paced world that can at times be so scary for little souls...

A book really is more than just the sum total of it's pages and colourful pictures - it is a gift; for you, for your child, for the future.

Words: Loren Stow
when we know better... we do better

Comments? Please email lizette@practicaprogam.co.za

If you would like to be notified of all new posts via email, please send an email to lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

Middle Ear Infection Emergeny Kit

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In our last post, we discussed how middle ear infection can affect your child. The effects are often overlooked or unknown, and so we really felt passionate about sharing this with you, as a parent - if you missed the post, go here.

Today, we're looking at a communication 'Emergency Kit' - ways in which you can communicate with your child while they have this kind of infection, to ensure that you are maximising their ability to understand you. Please remember that fluid can remain on the ear for up to six weeks after the cold or allergy has been treated.

Sourced from an article written by Shannan H. Vines and Jo Rosenthal-Tanzer, both speech therapists, entitled Otitis Media and Speech and Language Development:

Structure the environment to help your child listen and learn by doing the following things:

• Get your child's attention before you begin talking. Call your child's name, tap your child's shoulder, or say "Look at me".
• Use gestures and facial expressions to help convey your meaning.
• Get down to your child's eye level.
• Emphasize word endings that may be difficult for your child to hear.
• Reduce background noise. Turn off the television and radio. Quiet other children playing in the room.
• Reduce physical activities during the communication process.

By doing these things, you are creating the ideal environment for your child to understand you and you will be minimising the possible negative effects that this kind of infection will have on your child's language development.


Words: Loren Stow
when we know better... we do better

Comments? Please email lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

If you would like to be notified of all new posts via email, please send an email to lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

How Hearing Impacts Learning

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According to Dr Vincent Iannelli of the American Association of Paediatrics,
50% of children under the age of 12 months will experience at least one episode of middle ear infection (otitis media), and between the ages of one and three, 35% of children will have repeated episodes.

When we consider how important hearing is to language development and learning, it is staggering to imagine that many children will spend months of their formative years in a murky silence... not understanding clearly what is being said to them...

What is Middle Ear Infection?

Middle ear infection is caused by fluid build up on the middle ear, which affects the ear's ability to process sound properly. It's one thing to know this and another to understand what this actually means for your child.

To get an idea of how a child with middle ear-infection hears, put your hands over your ears tightly and ask another adult to read to you. It is really difficult to hear that person, especially if they aren't facing you and even more when there are background noises or other distractions occurring. 

Middle ear infection can be caused by a common cold, allergies or irritants such as cigarette smoke - and it can happen to any child.


How Middle Ear Infection Impacts Language Development

Middle ear infections affect your child's ability to hear high-frequency sounds such as consonants, and especially those consonants at the end of words. So, for example, you might say 'bat' but your child hears 'back'. He or she will also struggle to hear short words such as 'to', 'but' or 'and'.

Living in this murky and muffled world is obviously frustrating for children, and they can often become tired or just plain bored with trying to understand what on earth you're trying to say. It just becomes too difficult, or even impossible, to focus on the finer details and nuances that makes language what it is. And of course, these finer details are so important because they can change the whole meaning of a sentence.

This has obvious and serious affects on language development, resulting in speech delays, problems with focusing attention, poor self-esteem, social problems, reading problems, and inability to follow instructions.

The real life implications of these delays is a child who is often 'left behind' in social settings. Older children (over the age of three years) who have experienced frequent episodes of these infections when they were younger often don't add the detail at the end of words, such as final consonants, past tense or plurals.

These infections often go 'unheard'

What often happens with middle ear infections is that sometimes it doesn't present with pain, so your child will not even indicate that there is something wrong. Your child cannot hear properly, but they don't have a big enough frame of reference to understand that they're not hearing properly...

Another misconception is that once it a cold or allergy is treated, the infection goes away. The truth of the matter is that the fluid can remain in the ear, affecting hearing, for up to six weeks after an infection or cold clears.

Because of this, it is important to know and look out for the signs that your child may have middle ear infection or still has fluid on the ear.

Symptoms of Middle Ear Infection

• Ear aches or draining of the ears
• Fever
• Partial loss of hearing
• Different responses to speech and everyday sounds
• Changes in sleeping or eating habits
• Irritability
• Rubbing or pulling on ears
• Having difficulty with balance
• Turning the TV or radio up louder than usual
• Frequent need to have directions and information repeated
• Talking less than usual
• Unclear speech
• Using gestures rather than talking
• Delayed speech and language development

How to prevent Middle Ear Infection

• Avoid irritants such as cigarette smoke and allergens
• Consider a day care solution with fewer than six children
• Always wash hands and keep toys (especially those that are put in a child's mouth) clean
• Breastfeeding, even if only for a few weeks, makes a baby less prone to these infections
• Don't overuse antibiotics, since this can breed ever-resistant bacteria
• Allow plenty of fresh air in the home to avoid air-borne germs
• Consult a nurse or doctor about available vaccines
• Don't put your child to bed with a bottle because the liquid can leak out and go into the small tube leading to the middle ear

The reason we believe this post is so important is because middle ear infection can often go unoticed - or when it is noticed, it is considered to be 'just one of those things'. It really important to ensure that your child is treated, and that as a parent, you know that recurrent infections can have a major impact on your child's ability to hear for long periods of time.

In our next post, we will be looking at an 'emergency kit' should your child have middle ear infection. What you can do maximise his ability to hear and ensure that he's not left behind in a 'murky' and silent world.


Words: Loren Stow
when we know better... we do better

Comments? Please email lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

*Practica Parents: We learn a great deal about typical development from those children who do not develop typically... Creating an ideal environment for development entails a 'recipe' with certain key ingredients - and we know which ingredients play which role when we look at what happens when one of them is missing. We hope that this post motivates our Practica Parents to have a new appreciation for the Group 4 Activities in the Parents' Guide, which are focused on developing listening skills in children.

If you would like to be notified of all new posts via email, please send an email to lizette@practicaprogram.co.za

How to Talk to Build Your Child's Spirit

Photography: Loren Stow

The words we choose to use when communicating with our loved ones have a profound impact on them and the atmosphere in your home. But sometimes it is difficult to know the 'best' way to phrase something, or how to give constructive criticism without hurting those we love.

When it comes to our children, so much of our communication is in the form of giving instructions or direction, and this can be tricky, because we want to build our little ones up, instead of having them feel as though their efforts are not good enough.

We also want to teach our children how to communicate in a caring and respectful way - and they are going to learn this from the way in which we talk to them day in and day out.



With this in mind, we thought it would be helpful to remember the following tips to encourage loving communication.

In general communication with your child, remember the following two points:

1. Validate your child's emotions - "I understand you are frustrated. but we don't hit other children," rather than "Why did you hit Johnny?" or "I know that your head must hurt after falling," rather than "You're a big boy, and big boys don't cry."

2. Avoid making negative statements - "Can I help you get that?", rather than "You're too small to reach that". It is unnecessary to mention anything to your child that is not encouraging.

When correcting your child, remember the following three points:

 1. Make statements instead of giving instructions - "We eat with our spoons", rather than "I want you to use your spoon" or "we don't hit others", rather than "don't hit others". This kind of instruction is a neutral statement of the 'how things are done in the world' and not a judgement or demand.

2. Give reasons for your rules, rather than demand unquestioned obedience - "Share your toys with your brother because he'd like to play too," rather than "Share your toys," or "we don't hit the dog because it hurts him," rather than "Don't hit the dog."

3. Explain what to do instead of what not to do - "Lets tidy your toys," rather than "Stop making a mess" or "Let's touch the cat softly (demonstrate)," rather than "Stop hitting the cat."

When giving your child directions or instructions, remember the following two points:

1. Be specific and share the details - "Finish all your food please," rather than "I want you to eat dinner nicely" or "I love the colours you used in your picture," rather than "Pretty picture."

2. Demonstrate what you're trying to say - "We hold our cup with both hands (demonstrate) so that we don't spill", rather than "Hold your cup nicely."

When we communicate in a way that doesn't judge or make demands, we are teaching our children a more loving and more peaceful way to be in the world. All the tips may seem too much to remember, so try applying one a week and slowly work your way through all of them - pretty soon it will become second nature!

These tips, if applied, can make a real difference to the atmosphere and energy in your home and family - building your child's spirit along the way.

Words: Loren Stow

when we know better... we do better

*Practica Parents: Since you are spending so much valuable time with your children with all the Practica Activities that you have available - it is especially important to give attention to the way in which you communicate with your child when you give instructions and feedback. The key is to build your child's self esteem.

If you would like to receive email updates please email lizette@practicaprogram.co.za