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As a child develops, there are two major
learning goals to be achieved:
1. To understand symbols (like colors, pictures, letters in the
alphabet and numbers) and
2. To understand relative quantity (that one thing is more or less than
another).
As parents, talk to your child to help him speak. Show him pictures to
teach the written word. Play games to help him count. With all these,
he will be more than ready for the intellectual and academic pursuits
to come later. Your involvement is very important for motivating his
desire to learn right from infancy. Remember also that praise is one of
the ways to motivate your child to learn.
Successfully attaining these two goals mentioned above is the
foundation for acquiring more sophisticated skills like speaking,
reading, math, art and music. If financially viable, parents should
send their child to pre-school helps in this regard, by teaching him
simple reading, writing and mathematics. But even before learning
these, your child will first need to learn a few important and more
basic skills. For one, he will learn how to think.
Thinking Skills
Good thinking skills are about being able
to process information more effectively. This makes a child a better
learner. Classification is one of the thinking skills your child needs
to acquire. Here, your child learns to group things with similar
characteristics together. As part of this, he also learns to observe
and reason. He will come to know that his explanations are just as
important as his answers. For example, when given a set of pictures
consisting of three fruits and a book, he will have to explain why he
circled the book as the odd one out. His reason could be that the book
can't be eaten, while the fruits can. Even though his explanation is
simple, it still shows how he arrived at his answer, which is an
important aspect of good thinking.
Counting Skills
Besides thinking skills, your child will
also learn counting skills. More than just identifying numbers,
counting abilities teach him how to more accurately differentiate
between concepts like 'big', 'small', 'bigger' and 'smaller'. This
refers to the concept of relativity ('more than' or 'less than'). Using
everyday things (like toys or food) in addition and subtraction
exercises is an effective way for children to grasp basic mathematical
concepts. No expensive toys are required here - old bottle caps or
ice-cream sticks can be used.
Language Skills
Language is another important skill. It
is vital for communicating with others and is believed to help prevent
behavioral problems later on. It is also related to your child's
literacy skills, enhancing his reading, writing and creativity skills
later on. It is vital that you pay attention to your child's language
progress, as delay or failure could be major signs of a learning
disability.
The period for developing language skills is between nine months and 7
years. After that, it becomes more difficult. So, be sure to constantly
talk to your child and make an effort to tell him children's stories,
rhymes and poems. These activities will help him develop an
appreciation for spoken language. Talk to your child in a normal
conversational voice. Do not use baby talk or emulate his speech. When
he is older, having him re-tell the stories, rhymes and poems enables
him to practice listening and memory skills.
Using appropriate reading aids (like books), such language activities
will help your child understand that written words represent language.
Simple reading skills you can teach him include recognizing letters of
the alphabet and their sounds, his written name and a limited number of
written words.
Arts and Music
Drawing is one of the most enjoyable ways
to visually depict objects and ideas. From merely scrawling initially,
your child will begin to explore colors, shapes and textures. In time,
he will come to appreciate art by using various materials to create
different forms. Like art, music promotes child's well-rounded
development. Introduce music by singing to him playing or moving to
rhythms. These are simple activities, yet they are the beginnings for
appreciating music.
The learning skills described above may sound very intense but they are
the basis for more complicated lessons that he will learn in primary
school. So, make the process of learning them a lot of fun.
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