Week 7

1.1 Clearly describes how the concepts are connected to & supported by social relationships & contexts

For this weeks reading I have selected one literacy reading “Home Numeracy Experiences and Children's Math Performance in the Early School Years” by Jo-Anne et al(2009) and a numeracy reading called “The Role of Home Literacy Practices in Preschool Children's Language and Emergent Literacy Skills” by Joanne and Margaret (2005). The main reason behind my selection of these two readings was that I wanted to know how home experience develops children's  literacy and numeracy skills and  we have also discussed in our workshop about how parents can develop their children's literacy and numeracy experience which forms  a basis for later development in their learning.

Main Argument:

The reading  on literacy  by Jo Anne et al (2009) claims that the research they did found that, a home  environment was the strongest predictor of children's language and early literacy skills and contributed over and above the specific reading  practice measures in predicting children's early  language and literacy development  and this  reading also states that home literacy practices  such as shared book reading frequency, maternal book reading strategies, child's enjoyment of reading, and maternal sensitivity and also a global measure of the quality and responsiveness of the home environment during the preschool years predicted children's language and emergent literacy  skills between the ages of 3 and 5 years. The research was done on African American children of preschool age and the reading also states that children  who acquire successful initial reading skills tend to remain good readers, while children who experience difficulty in learning to read tend to continue to have problems in reading throughout the school years, a  huge research has shown that children's emergent literacy skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are necessary for the development of reading and writing are important for later reading success and that the experiences, attitudes, and materials pertaining to literacy that a child encounters and interacts with at home  create a child's home literacy environment.

Activities at home is related to children's acquisition of mathematics skills in school and suggests that such activities are valuable when they occur in a variety of contexts. The activities were grouped into those that involved direct instruction in numbers specific skills such as  printing numbers, identifying number names, counting objects and activities that have some quantitative component but are only indirectly related to number such as  board games, card games, being timed, talking about money, me

The other reading was on numeracy and was by Joanne and Margaret (2005) and suggested that experiences at home before schooling are important in understanding how numeracy develops. In this study, the mathematical skills of 146 children in Kindergarten, Grade 1and Grade 2 was connected with the frequency with which parents reported informal activities that have quantitative components such as board and card games, shopping, or cooking. This research supports the claims about the importance of home experiences in children's acquisition of mathematical skills and that participation in mathematics while cooking is useful in development of mathematical knowledge and learning.

Implication for Practice:

As a future teacher I was very curious about how children develop their early literacy and numeracy skills and how home environment effects the development of children's literacy and numeracy concepts, theses two reading provide a very useful insight into how home experiences can affect children's learning of these concepts.  I think that home environment forms the basis of children's learning as these experience form their first understanding of these concepts,  these two readings have given a useful insight into how children’s early home experience by their parents can be made meaningful in developing their emergent literacy and numeracy.

REFERENCES:

1: LEFEVRE, J., SKWARCHUK, S., SMITH-CHANT, B., FAST, L., KAMAWAR, D. and BISANZ, J., 2009. Home Numeracy Experiences and Children's Math Performance in the Early School Years. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 41(2), pp. 55-66.

2: ROBERTS, J., JURGENS, J. and BURCHINAL, M., 2005. The Role of Home Literacy Practices in Preschool Children's Language and Emergent Literacy Skills. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48(2), pp. 345-59.