READING AND NUMERACY SKILLS IN THE KTO3

JENILEE B. CAMATA

We learn, know Child development is a process of change in which the child learns to handle more complex levels of moving, thinking, feeling, and interacting with people and objects in the environment Development is holistic. Every child is a unique person with a unique temperament, learning style, family background, and pattern and timing growth. A child’s development begins in the womb, but learning begins at birth. Knowledge and skills on early language, literacy, and numeracy, to gain understanding on child development principles vis-à-vis developmentally appropriately practices and to enhance knowledge on the different classroom-based assessments as tools for reporting and documenting the learner’s progress.

Development and learning occur because of the child interacting with people and objects in his or her environment. Children live within a context- family, community, culture, and their needs are most effectively addressed in relation to that context. Every child has basic needs that have to be met: food, health care, protection from harm or injury, affection, interaction, stimulation and learning through exploration and discovery. achieved.

In Language, Literacy Reading is not a natural ability. Speaking is innate, reading is not.

Learning to read starts with the AWARENESS that speech is composed of individual sounds (phonemes) and recognition that written spellings represent those sounds. (Alphabetic Principle) Before children learn to read, they acquire vocabulary by LISTENING TO OTHERS and PRACTICING HOW TO SAY AND USE those words Because ability to read is strongly dependent on the word forms learned during this period, a child’s beginning reading will be successful if most of the reading materials contain words the child is already using. The phoneme-grapheme connection is made easier if most of the reading materials he is exposed to at the early stages of reading contain words the child is already using.

These are the essential components for literacy learning: Early Literacy Concepts, Letter Knowledge Letter-Sound Relationships, Vocabulary , High Frequency Words

In Numeracy understanding of arithmetic evolves from children’s early counting experiences. Informal concept of addition (adding more) and subtraction (taking away something) guide children’s efforts to construct informal arithmetic procedures. When addition (or subtraction) is an objective in a child’s daily play activities, he uses his logic and eventually remembers results. When knowing ‘facts’ is the objective, children are taught techniques to get ‘facts’ and are drilled to internalize them (traditional addition and subtraction). When a child learns to add (or subtract) quantities by using his own logic, repeats the same action every day in interaction with other people (while at play for instance), he will inevitably remember the result, without adult pressure. The understanding of addition and subtraction involves: the logic of inclusion, reversibility of thought

Learning environment plays an important role in the child’s learning and wholistic development. It should be developmentally appropriate, age appropriate and culturally appropriate to suit the age, individuality, and the social and cultural backgrounds of each learner. This practice allows teachers to modify their teaching strategies to respond to diverse learner needs. Researchers say that it is the early years experiences where the young minds absorptive capacity is at its sharpest, hence, we should create or provide a positive learning environment to our young learners. In addition, we should communicate and collaborate not only with our learners but also with the parents and community to get their full support in the effective implementation of the different activities of the school. We understand our own learning, the better we can be as practitioners who design and facilitate learning activities as adults. Adult learning is at the heart of our practice as adult educators. Our practice is enhanced by knowing who our learners are as well as how they learn.

-oOoThe author is Teacher I at San Vicente Elementary School