The folks at The Hanen Centre kindly sent me a copy of I’m Ready – How to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success and asked me what I thought. Here in the UK advice about how to support literacy skills seems to change frequently, so I was interested to see what Janice Greenberg and Elaine Weitzman suggest.

The book has 6 chapters: Early Literacy, Conversation, Vocabulary, Story Comprehension, Print Knowledge and Sound Awareness. It’s visually appealing; the text is broken up by photographs and drawings. I read it over several days and found it easy to pick up where I’d left off. There’s a comprehensive list of recommended children’s books, coded in terms of how they can be used to support literacy. I think the ‘Try it out!’ checklists and reflection questions look useful.

The book is full of practical examples from real families, so it’s both straight forward to apply and realistic, in terms of what parents can fit into their lives. There are plenty of Hanen’s trademark memory aids, some familiar like OWLing (observe, wait, and listen) and some new (to me) like POP – point out print.

My favourite thing about the book is how clear the authors are about the importance of making reading fun by following the child’s lead. I often worry that parents go in too heavy with the flashcards approach, which can put kids off, so I was relieved that the book stresses reading needs to be fun.

The blurb on the back of the book states that the authors have taken the most current research and broken it down into fun strategies for promoting early literacy. The only thing that frustrated me is that although they’ve provided references for each chapter, these aren’t clearly identified in the text. It simply says: “studies have found….” – so it’s not clear which study they are referring to. I think some parents (and professionals) would like to read more detail from the original research paper, and the format of the book doesn’t support this.

If you’re looking for ideas about how to use books (and conversation!) to prepare a child for reading and writing I’m Ready is packed full of them. It’s easy to read, practical and fun.

If you’re in the UK, the book is currently only available directly from Hanen. Hanen hope their UK distributor will be stocking it soon.

In the practice guidance booklet, on page 6, it states: “Meeting the individual needs of all children lies at the heart of the EYFS. Practitioners should deliver personalised learning… to help children get the best possible start in life.” It goes on to say, “You must plan for each child’s individual care and learning requirements.”

On these occasions, this kind of individual planning seemed to be missing. Perhaps I could refer to the EYFS to make discussions with teachers more constructive?

Something along the lines of: We need to be planning how to meet x’s individual learning requirements, in line with the EYFS. Shall we have a look at the plans you have in place already, and think about how the activities x and I have been doing can be incorporated?

Too confrontational? What do you think?

According to Wikipedia, the Montessori method “is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child.” My colleague was told that her suggestions to comment on a child’s play, play games involving following instructions and ask questions about a book were adult-directed and therefore not appropriate. The colleague left the meeting feeling frustrated and unsure how to move forward with the situation.

In supervision it was suggested that perhaps the Early Years Foundation Stage would provide a common ground. When I searched google I found that the Montessori Schools Association have put together a document (PDF) which demonstrates how their approach shares the underlying principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage. I found a number of examples of Montessori practice in the document which SLTs could use to model ways of extending and developing language. These included farm, hospital or any other “small world” play, using puppets and props to re-tell stories, and role-play such as “shop”.

I think it’s a helpful document—hopefully the ideas in it will make the next meeting with the school more productive! The same colleague also told the supervision group about many positive experiences working with Montessori schools. What is your experience of working with staff in Montessori settings? Any tips you could share? SLT games / activities that are compatible with their ethos? It would be great to hear other people’s ideas!

Rhiannan