What parents can do at home if a child’s literacy tasks lack lustre

Parents have a pivotal part to play in helping children master the building blocks of language. Spelling is a skill for life – here are five ways to keep those ABCs fresh without costing families a cent

There’s more to learning to spell than memorising the word lists many parents would remember bringing home from school when they were kids.

While teaching methods might be changing, parents still have an important role to play in helping their child master this building block skill. Here are five fresh ways to help improve your child’s spelling:

1. TALK THE TALK

Forget trying to teach your kids the alphabet before their first day of school; talking to them is far more beneficial, according to teacher and mum of four Samantha Taylor.

Taylor, the director of Andrell Education, says exposure to oral language should come before teaching kids the “phonic code” of spelling.

Samantha Taylor has introduced Perfectly Posh Fridays in her home to improve her children’s spelling through exposure to conversation and oral language awareness. Ms Taylor is with husband Stuart Taylor and children Oscar, 10, Bella, 4, Charlie, 7, and Jazmine, 8. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“Not many parents understand the importance of oral language for literacy success – reading, writing, spelling, speaking and listening,” she says.

“We need to expose children to as much varied language as we can. We need to use correct pronunciation of words, and correct children when they say it incorrectly.

“No matter how cute it is when they say ‘lellow’, we need to correct them with ‘yellow’ to model how it is supposed to be said.

“If we don’t, they will go to school and spell yellow with a L, as that is the sound they hear when they say the word.

“Their speech and articulation plays a big part in their spelling choices.”

Taylor loves hosting “Frightfully Posh Fridays” with her children – Bella, 4, Charlie, 6, Jazmine, 8, and Oscar, 10 – when they dress up in their finery of gowns, gloves and suits and talk in their poshest voices to encourage conversation and expose them to new words.

Finding new ways to encourage vocabulary development and spelling skills helps engage children’s imagination and interest while allowing parents to avoid reliving their own days of rote learning. Mum Samantha Taylor and dad Stuart Taylor host high tea at home with their four kids Oscar, 10, Bella, 4, Charlie, 7, and Jazmine, 8. Picture: Alex Coppel.

2. EMBRACE MISTAKES

Don’t dismay if your school-aged child is making mistakes with spelling. Mistakes are a valuable tool that can actually help them become better spellers in the long run.

Spelling expert Dr Tessa Daffern, from the University of Canberra, has developed a “spelling error analysis” system that looks at whether kids understand how to spell different parts of a word, for example using the suffix “ed” in jumped even though it sounds more like a “t”.

“It’s not necessarily assessing whether the whole word is correctly written or not, but certain parts of the word,” Daffern explains.

Looking at the types of errors children make can reveal where the gaps are in their learning of spelling.

While this analysis is designed for teachers, Daffern says parents can play their part by “unpacking” new words. “Parents can ask ‘I wonder why this word is spelt this way’ or ‘how many other words can you make out of this word’. This can encourage vocabulary building.”

Older siblings can be fantastic helpers when it comes to building better literacy at home – especially by modelling behaviour that embraces mistakes. Siblings Oscar, 10, Bella, 4, Charlie, 7, and Jazmine, 8, have been taught by their mum Samantha Taylor to play with language rather than learn it by rote. Picture: Alex Coppel.

3. GO GREEN

Dry and dead vegetation around homes is linked to poor academic performance, according to new Australian research. The study found a link between a lack of greenery within 500m of a home and below average reading, writing, grammar and punctuation in NAPLAN tests in kids in Years 3 and 5.

Study author Salma Ahmed, from The University of Queensland’s school of public health, says researchers are still investigating the vegetation link but green spaces are known to help a child’s development by increasing physical activity, reducing exposure to noise and air pollution, reducing stress, and improving concentration.

A new University of Queensland study has found a link between a lack of greenery within 500m of a home and below average reading, writing, grammar and punctuation in NAPLAN tests in kids in Years 3 and 5. Keeping the spelling scene green from left to right are Maeve Sullivan, Finlay Pogson, Bodhi Tobin, Violet Sullivan and Anton Andrews. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

4. READ TO THEM

This might sound obvious, but new research shows reading to your child when they’re as young as one pays off when they get to primary school.

A study of 3547 children and their caregivers by Charles Sturt University found children who were read to by their parents when they were 1-2 years old had superior reading, spelling and grammar skills when they got to grades 3 and 5.

Registrations for the free, online Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee for years 3-8 are open until 5pm (AEST) on August 19.

5. SPELLING BEE

The Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee is a fantastic way to hone spelling skills.

The free, online competition, run by Kids News and News Corp Australia, has three competition levels: Green for Years 3-4; Orange for Years 5-6; and Red for Years 7-8. Students get 30 random words from their competition level word list and have 25 seconds to spell each word.

The school round runs from August 15-26, with state/territory finals on September 1-2 and the national final on September 8.

The national champion in each age group wins a trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister, an iPad and a HarperCollins book pack. Each national winner’s school gets a $1000 voucher for books or equipment.

Teacher registrations are open until 5pm (AEST) on August 19.

Visit Kids News for more information and to register. kidsnews.com.au/spelling-bee

Originally published as What parents can do at home if a child’s literacy tasks lack lustre