Why crawling is important
A vital part of my assessments includes establishing when a particular child achieved their developmental milestones (sitting, crawling, walking, talking, etc). And very often I come across cases where children simply went from sitting, to bum shuffling to walking and never crawled. Some parents see this as a sign of advanced development, but crawling is […]
Kids learning – guiding principles for parents
With so many different types of Education programmes, products, philosophies and schools of thought out there it can be incredibly confusing for parents to know how to stimulate a young child’s development or how to approach teaching and learning with older children. Children all learn in different ways, but no matter which school of thought […]
Auditory perception skills and how to support your child in developing these skills
The following aspects are all important in accurate auditory perception: Auditory figure ground Enables one to focus on one sound between a background of other sounds. Children need this ability to be able to hear their teacher’s voice in a noisy classroom. • Play background music, while giving the child different instructions. See if he […]
Kids learning: What is auditory perception?
Kids Learning: What is Auditory Perception? Put simply, auditory perception refers to the interpretation of information sent to the brain via the ears and as such covers much more than just functional hearing. Children experiencing auditory perceptual problems hear words differently from the way other children hear them. They confuse similar sounding words (e.g. train […]
The importance of play in early childhood development
The importance of play in early childhood development: Heidi Britz-Crecelius (Children at play, preparation for life; Floris Books, Edinburgh, 1979) summed up the importance of play in childhood with the words: “There is nothing that human beings do, know, think, hope and fear that has not been attempted, experienced, practiced or at least anticipated in […]
Help: My child doesn’t like puzzles
I recently received the following e-mail from a reader: Q: Hi Anel. I have a four year old boy who just does not like doing puzzles. His teacher keeps telling us how important puzzles are and that we should practice doing them at home. I’ve sat down with him so many times to build […]
Kids learning: The importance of puzzles
Looking to buy an Educational toy but feeling a little overwhelmed by all the options? If in doubt – buy a puzzle. Puzzles are absolutely great (not only because they allow tired parents a few precious moments of respite while they’re little ones are building them) but also because they help to enhance so […]
Pencil grip development and why it matters
As part of my assessments I routinely check fine motor control and pencil grip and often while reporting to a parent that their child’s pencil grip is inferior I am asked: “What does it really matter? What difference does it make how my child holds his / her pencil?” We’ve all heard of the brilliant […]
Kids learning to read: visual figure-ground perception
Visual figure ground perception refers to the ability to distinguish a figure or object from it’s background and is a vital element to reading. This ability enables emerging readers to focus on words and letters and ignore background prints or blots and smudges on a page. Practice this skill by letting your emerging read information […]
More maths concepts for preschoolers
In a previous post (Kids learning to do maths: Early numeracy skills) I mentioned how important is to use mathematical terms as you go about your everyday tasks as a way to introduce maths concepts for preschoolers. Many math and science geniuses maintain that maths is just a language and when you understand the terms and you […]
