The third myth of education

The third myth:              Pupils are learning spelling by writing in in books and the use of spelling computer programs.

3                   Pupils are learning spelling simply by having a broad and intensive personal reading, developed by their interest.

The educational aids invented the Practice writing book to complete the work with the classroom method Plato and his disciples and the Fake language method. Later they invented special computer programs for learning spelling.

Before these inventions there were posters hanging in the classrooms telling you some rules about writing and grammar.

None of them have any impact on learning spelling or grammar.

Grammar you build by talking the language. By the age of five, normally a kid has learned all about its own language.

You learn spelling by reading. Your spelling is much showing your reading habits. Please also read below about dyslexia!

Working with writing and reading in the pre-school and the school, it´s all about individual work governed by the interest of the children. They can also work in small groups to inspire each other. But basically every child works from the position they start given by their individual skills in language, writing and reading.

You rarely get anything positive from comparing the starting points of the different children. It´s enough to tell them they have many years of work, before they are working as paid authors. Just keep on working, and everyone is reaching the goals. Some run faster than the others, but everyone is getting to the target. No timing.

All knowledge and skill is to be used to be kept. The more you use it, the better position in your brains memory and the other way around if not used and after a while maybe even totally forgotten. The brain doesn´t keep everything forever.

In more than a hundred years we have observed children and their knowledge and all the time they show a growth of intelligence measured with traditional tests. This probably understood as both more advanced requirements from the society and at the same time more resources available for them. Still, there are enormous great resources free by the children for even greater growth of knowledge and skills in the future,

The way they can take part in all activities, will be crucial for their intellectual development and training. When children, who are interested, all the time are told to: “Go out and play!” we cut off their seeking of knowledge. To let the children take part of all activities, both in an intellectual and a practical way, cause a maximum of power in their childhood conditions.

From this will come an early desire of communication together with an early language development. But the children must be let taking part by interest. It will primarily be the child who chooses.

Children, treated right, will always try to do whatever the parents show that they want them to do, and also to learn what they see as important. But children also do what we do, not what we say.

All kids, and normally ex kids, are receptive for what they see as important around them and try hard to learn it. Sometimes you see even new things coming up and make all people focus on it for short time, like a fad or craze.

Even when kids are threatened or shot at, they continue their learning.

Early language training is a way of helping the child’s development of language. At the same time it can give us good picture of the possibilities of the child to learn to write and read.

It´s actually a myth of its own that children must wait with learning to write and read until they start school. In the future, this will be rare. Or maybe never occur.

Early language training like lullabies and other songs, rhymes and reading aloud from very early days, at best from the birth, and up into the years of teens, is of great importance for their further interest of reading and their language development.

Already before one year you can start the learning of writing and reading. If so, put up pieces of paper with very clear print of words for different things around the baby like: bed   table   door   floor   lamp

Names of the family members can be written with plastic magnetic letters on the fridge. Now and then you spell with the baby. Soon the baby will point at the words and try to pronounce them, especially their own name.

Please watch video films on YouTube from all over the world showing reading and writing babies. Look for “baby reads”.

In the future there will be computer programs (apps) training babies with tablets.

Please give your child the first book before on year. You can buy them protected that the baby can have it in its mouth If needed. Read the book with the child and get it used of this reading, like any reading aloud.

Make the bedtime the most happy moment in the day by singing, reading rhymes och reading aloud and talking.

Make rhythmic movements to the songs and rhymes.

It is sad that the human brain still is not prepared enough for learning write and read. We have to tweak and fix with the brain to get it working in the best manners. Add to that, that all our brains are different and that some are learning better in one way and others in another. If now the master uses one method for all his disciples, and to that many too many disciples gather around him, to save money, it´s not working out so good sometimes.

Dyslexia and other difficulties learning write and read

The results from most schools´ beginners reading isn´t good enough. Too many children learn that they can´t learn and are no good. Totally unnecessarily. This make scars for a lifetime.

Difficulties with learning write and read has been known since we started with schools. Despite lots of research and development of training material for these children, the problems seems to increase or at least, be at the same level. One of the most important reasons for this sad situation, is the very late diagnoses. Now and then I meet young persons around the twenty years, who just have got their diagnoses.

To be able to help all these children, the diagnoses must be ready before the age of two years. Then we have enough time to, undramatically, give the extra support they need, to start a good writing and reading process with them.

The simplest way to diagnose difficulties of a child or their lack of interest is to follow the instructions above.

Don´t trust that the society automatic will find all children with problems of learning write and read. It´s not likely to happen, until the day when we diagnose all children very early.

The method in the school of today is to first let the children show under several years that they have problems and then start to find resources for an investigation. That is why they sometimes are at University level before something happens!

Children don´t start to speak at any special time. By birth, has the child, reported by some American researchers I trust, already six different sounds and ways of expressing them, to be able to give us a hint of their needs. Through carefully listen to the baby, and all the time be there when it wants you for your communication, you give it the very best support.

It´s not always necessary to know whether the problem is gas in the belly, pooh in the baby diaper or just the need of contact, that start some crying. The baby wants you and take the chance. They are lovely. Those nannies talking about letting the babies be left in the bed, ought to think of the day they are in bed with diaper themselves and want it to be changed.

Children meeting much communication and close care, will generally be talking earlier. There is no disadvantage with that.

There is no win in at all in correcting the production of speaking by the child. Exactly in the same way when adults start to speak a new language, the child will do a lot of mistakes. Some are always appearing. Just keep on to be the answer for the communication and use the normal adaptations to the children and beginners with a language. We talk slower, articulate extra, and for very small children we raise the treble a bit.

Grammar mistakes are treated in the same manner. They are no problems. The total amount of communication is the key to the developed speech production. We talk of pronunciation accuracy, melody, rhythm and grammatic structure of the language.

Normally all is ready and done before they start school.

The child's own reading governed by their interest

In families with a developed reading culture you see a very early interest of reading. All my children have had it before one years old. By then I could find them sitting on their own looking into some kind of books.

The right time to visit the library with them is when they walk for the selves. Before that, we visited storytelling and rhymes reading groups for babies, baby singing and baby rhythmic. An early focus on reading in all forms will give clear signals to the child, that we find reading and writing important.

By the first books from the library of course it´s you behind the reading. If you started by writing notes and worked with letter types, maybe you will see your child reading before it´s three years old. In theory, it can happen much earlier than that. It´s not at all a question of being the first.

Children who early learn writing and reading, of course get an earlier intellectual development. Some say, they get precocious. I say, they easier can take part and understand. Thereby they get confidence and go for new victory’s.

Some adults misunderstand the writing of young children to be something done with pencils or crayons. By no mean, don´t stop them if they try! But the motor skills are not ready for advanced results with pencils. Here we talk keyboards and tablets for surfing. But also, magnetic letters on the fridge, lose letters in wood or plastic and other pedagogical material you would find in most stores for children today.

Keyboards and tablets, along wit all kind of material with ready made letters, also help the children to faster recognize the shapes of the letters we use.

As the child shows great interest in writing, you should give it access to a complete word program on a computer. It will show mistakes with spelling and grammar and help the child to notice proper ways of writing. It takes some time for them to learn the technique, but later it´s very useful. As your child started at one year, it will never be any problem later to write a letter to grandmother in India or Lasse in France and include the letter in an email to them from their personal email account.

The account must be in your name, but the rest is up to the child. Now you can be very sure the start of the school will be perfect. If then your child will meet a teacher, like my own first teacher, who tells it that they can´t read yet, there are greater possibilities to change school today.

Goa the 8th of February 2017       Lennart Warenius