The First Goal of Education.

The First Goal of Education.
The acquisition of reading proficiency is the first goal of education. Print and phonemic awareness are the first stages of literacy and it doesn’t really matter if our children are in or out of school. What matters is that we find a way to keep them learning.
It is a sad truth that we can’t stop our children from advancing chronologically. So why should we allow some environmental factor hinder their intellectual advancement?
Children need to learn and continue learning for as long as they live. But I get asked this question, at what age do children start developing print and phonemic awareness? Others would ask about the age at which children start learning. And my answer…
Children start to develop cognitive skills from the day they are born. It may take a couple of months for their cognitive skills to reach a critical mass, at what level we begin to notice and appreciate it, but the truth is that children start to develop their cognitive skills from day one. Within their first few weeks, they know their mothers voice, then her face. 
So does that mean we can start teaching them the alphabets from day one? My answer is yes and no. You can not directly teach babies, but you can welcome them into a world of prints and phonetics from day one.
How? When you buy wall papers, make sure they contain prints or relevant images. When you offer them a toy, be sure to call it by name. Frequently pointing to alphabets on the wall and calling the alphabets by name also do little babies a whole world of good.
It doesn’t matter if the baby is a day old or a year old. If you repeatedly say to a baby, “look at the apple” over time the baby will associate the world apple with that picture. Cognitive development is not as difficult to develop as it sounds. And that is the first step towards achieving the first goal of education.

Author: Early Phonics

Learn to Read, Write and Build a Strong Vocabulary.