Children's Literacy And Numeracy In The Early Years

In today’s society, there are a multitude of ways parents and teachers are able to assist in the improvement of children’s’ literacy and numeracy in the early years of their development. Literacy and numeracy skills are important aspects of communication and are vital for successful learning across the field of Education (Early Years Learning Framework, 2009). This essay will explain what literacy and numeracy is as well as why the two subjects are important for children, touch on how children develop literacy and numeracy skills, strategies to assist in the development of the skills and a theory by Piaget that is linked to the development of young children. As the Australian institute for teaching and school leadership (2017) website states,

Children show their development through their enjoyment and interest in subjects as well as through exploration (EYLF, 2009; QKLG, 2010). It is important for educators as well as parents to provide decent numeracy and literacy vocabulary when discussing children’s ideas to support their development (EYLF, 2009). Ways in which the verbal explanation of literacy and numeracy skills can be achieved is by making sure to use words to explain when they are creating something or just by exploring their surroundings as these skills are powerful and contain the necessary foundations for children to become literate and numerate (EYLF, 2009). Children’s involvement in literacy activities with parents or relatives relates directly with literacy knowledge and is important for student to develop the basics of literacy skills (Skwarchuk et al., 2014). These skills can include singing songs, reading books, playing with blocks, doing puzzles, and having visual aids/pictures on certain objects around the house (Skwarchuk et al., 2014). These activities will help support and build the development of literacy skills in children in the early years (Skwarchuk et al., 2014). It has been found that there are significant relations between the quality of the home environment and children’s social and academic developmental outcomes (Skwarchuk et

Piaget created four stages of cognitive development, those being the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and the last stage which is the formal operational stage (Nagel & Scholes, 2016). In the first stage of development, which is birth to two, Piaget believed that children develop the skills to be able to understand the world through their senses and develop object permanence at the later end of this stage, it is also in this stage that children begin to develop their own concept of language (Nagel & Scholes, 2016). Piaget’s theory of cognitive develop states that it is within the preoperational stage, from 2 to 7 years old, that children develop the skills to be able to form language and other symbol systems, and can start thinking logically (Nagel & Scholes, 2016). Children in this stage have the ability to use intuition and problem solving, and use sounds, signals and begin using words within their vocabulary successfully (Nagel & Scholes, 2016). The preoperational stage is the ideal stage for parents to be involved in their children’s literacy and numeracy development (Nagel & Scholes, 2016; Skwarchuk et al.,