Nursery World - From babble to books

Children with good language skills are, say Janet Wood and colleagues, at an advantage when learning to read. Our parents' guide suggests how to help children develop speech Children who have good speech and language skills are at an advantage when they learn to read and spell as the development of both spoken and written language are closely linked. One of the skills that links speaking, reading and spelling is phonological awareness. This is the awareness that spoken words are made up of syllables (for example, snow_man) and individual sounds (m_a_n).

Children who have good speech and language skills are at an advantage when they learn to read and spell as the development of both spoken and written language are closely linked. One of the skills that links speaking, reading and spelling is phonological awareness. This is the awareness that spoken words are made up of syllables (for example, snow_man) and individual sounds (m_a_n).

Phonological awareness is important because children who understand that spoken words are made up of a series of sounds are ready to learn that these sounds can be represented by written letters.

Most children do not learn to split words into individual sounds (for example, 'man' split into m_a_n) until they are about five years old. But younger children can split words into syllables (snow_man) and into onsets - the beginnings and ends of syllables - (sn_ow and m_an).

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