Reading and working with a book for children in pre-primary education

First contact with a book

The purpose of this article is to provide information about the importance and need to read books for children from early childhood, and to emphasize the need to develop reading literacy in children in pre-primary education. This is linked to the development of language communication, the use of verbal speech, listening, thinking, and acquiring grammatically correct pronunciation. The paper is suitable for students of preschool pedagogy and therefore future teachers.

Preschool teaching does not mean learning to write and read, but is understood as a complex of mutually connected and equally important components, including storytelling, listening, reciprocal communication, and encountering print in both written and read form (Lipnická 2009). For the development of the mother tongue, reading books and shared reading best serve us, from which a child can retell the content according to the illustrations in the book, thereby developing verbal speech. In communication the child applies and links three basic language levels: lexical-semantic, morpho-syntactic, and phonetic-phonological (Kikušová, 1997/98), while authors Petrová and Valášková (2007, p. 16) add a fourth, pragmatic level. Time spent with a book helps the child develop imagination and fantasy and therefore greatly aids speech development. According to McKeown and Beck (2006), reading books aloud expands the range and variety of linguistic material mediated to the child and contributes to the development of active and passive vocabulary. Current times offer many options in the form of media and technologies, such as television, computers, and mobile phones, where children become passive recipients of stories and information, which we must correct as both parents and teachers. Already in early childhood it is good to introduce the child to books so that in later life, when entering school, they do not feel fear of verbal expression or text, as they will encounter in reading primers and other textbooks, which are usually also supplemented with illustrations. The acquisition of competencies during preschool education is a prerequisite for successful integration in life. Illustrated books are an excellent tool for developing language and communicative competencies. In preschool settings, the book is an appropriate medium for linking play in all educational areas. The development of the communicative side is outlined in the State Education Program for Pre-primary Education (2016, pp. 10-12), according to which teachers take into account the holistic development of children. The teacher intentionally influences the child through pedagogical action, appropriate method selection, and educational intentions, so that any activity is beneficial for children and can develop the basic competencies on which the child builds during primary education.

Children come into contact with books from a very young age; in the home environment they first encounter their first book, which can be a soft fabric picture book, and later it may be a flipbook, and in the preschool setting children meet books in hard or soft binding.

Book from infancy (1 year) to three years

  • the first book with which a child comes into contact is a soft book and a flipbook, whose content consists of various images, attractively colorful, to engage the child and stimulate their senses,
  • in such a book, the child also encounters visual art, which develops the child’s imagination and first notions about the surrounding world,
  • for the child to properly understand a book’s content, correct reading technique is required, namely fluent reading with comprehension, through which a teacher or parent can make a child into a good reader.

Pre-reading literacy in kindergarten

Reading books strengthens children’s language abilities. It is a stimulation of spoken language at all component levels - vocabulary, grammatically correct, standard, and socially appropriate expression (ŠVP, 2016, p. 10). Children learn short texts by heart, recite them, and the teacher ensures correct pronunciation and articulation. Language games are conducted to practice problematic consonants (fricatives—s, c, z, dz, š, č, ž, dž) and syllable-forming consonants (r, ŕ, l, ĺ) (ŠVP, 2016, p. 25). Children's literature is a source of knowledge and understanding of speech, developing listening and comprehension of the read text, its content, and form. According to Gavora (1992), the child develops processes of perception, understanding, and memorization. Perception of text registers the graphic elements of text, decodes text, and is called reading technique. Understanding text requires mental operations, because it is the process of creating associations between phenomena of objective reality and text, between text elements and the knowledge structure of the reader. Memorizing text is the process of embedding information into memory in the context in which it is placed. Through books, the child gains positive experiences and insights from the read text and thus develops a relationship with reading habits. In work with a read text, where the child is the recipient of information, the teacher explains why the text in a book can be different from the child’s spoken language (whether by dialect use, incorrect expression, bad articulation, etc.)

When reading a book, it is appropriate to create a calm and good atmosphere, undisturbed by anyone or anything. During reading, it is useful to pause so that children retell the content of what has been read, to find out whether they understood all words, and to allow time for them to think about the text. The teacher as well as the parent should guide the child through the book from the title page through the author and illustrator.

Author Zápotočná (2005) argues that knowing letters before entering school cannot hurt, because it corresponds to success in initial reading. The goal of the teacher in kindergarten is to support children’s contact with written text and eliminate non-standard pronunciation and dialect in the child, while at the same time introducing children to encyclopaedias, folk tales where good wins over evil, or stories about life. Developing reading literacy in the child in kindergarten is best done through a suitable stimulating environment, such as appropriately sized colorful letters that are always visible to children in the classroom, materials supporting literacy development such as educational text, but this also can include an interactive whiteboard and use in preschool activities of appropriately selected methods for developing communication skills.

Among the most commonly used methods of developing communication competence, according to Kikušová, 1997/98, Lipnická, 2009, Lopušná, 2008, are: the morning circle, which is one form of the organizational component of pre-primary education, where children talk about their emotions and moods while using cognitive-psychological processes; an appropriate way to connect text and image in reading is the Lona method, where the teacher points to the words being read so that the child becomes aware that text in a book is read from left to right, top to bottom, points to lines and the size of initial letters in the sentence, as well as the beginning and end of the text (books may be created by children, by the teacher, or be ready-made); word bank— the teacher writes a short text in large letters, e.g., from the Red Riding Hood tale on two pieces of paper, one of which is cut apart, and the children’s task is to piece together the cut text according to the model by visual tracking on a puzzle principle. At the same time the teacher reads the text and explains the meanings of words. Shared reading method, in which the teacher reads with the child various stories and fairy tales, about which they discuss together the understanding of the read text (use of so-called predictable books—repetitive text, chorus reading, and guided reading); language-experience method, where the teacher writes children’s statements on various topics into written form and then reads them, which makes it possible to observe the conversion of spoken (verbal) speech into written form; concept map method, by which children assign concepts to a selected theme or tale; class magazine method, into which children contribute with their drawings, writing notices, information for parents, etc. Through creative drama, the child is “brought up to an active, creative approach to life through dramatic play” (A. Škoviera, 1980, p. 201). E. Machková (1992) defines creative drama as art education that can bring children joy, enrich them with their own experiences, induce relaxation, and convey new knowledge and experiences in the area of the child’s personal and social development. It allows a child to adopt practical social roles, develop activity and communicative ability, habits, needs, creativity. Of the methods mentioned, the teacher can choose those that are suitable for the children’s age group.

Principles of text reading

When reading a book, the teacher must pay attention to the different influences that can disrupt the atmosphere, especially ensuring a calm and positive atmosphere in the classroom. While reading and asking questions about the read text it is recommended to leave children a short time to think over an answer, accept all children’s answers and not evaluate them, ask open-ended questions, teach children to respond quickly to images and answers, and involve all children, including the less active ones.

It is important to teach children to listen to a read text with understanding and, through questions, determine whether they understood the text they heard.

The child must remember the content of the read text and retell the story, also being able to tell where the action took place, and name at least three characters mentioned in the story. They should describe the properties belonging to the main character, find the connection between the text and the illustrations in the book. They should talk about good deeds and bad deeds, what won in the fairy tale and why. Discuss the characters, why they acted as they did, put themselves in the character’s role and say how they themselves would have acted. At the end, give them the option to draw the retold story, what they liked or disliked. The teacher gets these answers from children through questions asked during reading and after reading the entire text.

A suitable activity for developing literacy for children in pre-primary education is letter cutting, which the teacher provides children. Using cut-out sounds as templates, children put together short words, or they can arrange letters on a plastic mat, they can sort them. Another playful form is writing in flour or sand.

Richter (2004) formulated the functions of fairy tales as follows:

  • to recognize values, what is good and what is evil,
  • moral education and fulfillment—positive examples offer the possibility of self-identification and negative examples warn us (good is rewarded and evil punished),
  • amusement—the aesthetic pleasure of the text, which departs from reality,
  • creation and reinforcement of ideals—children choose a character that is close to them (whether by action, behavior, ...)
  • emotional experience—the development brought by these situations,
  • language development—the expansion of vocabulary,
  • psychotherapeutic function—through a fairy tale we can know fears, anxieties, and worries, strengthening a positive outcome,
  • metaphorical expression—the ability to express oneself figuratively,
  • development of thinking, intelligence, and cognitive abilities—the tales show how to approach solving problems, but do not suggest a specific procedure,
  • social feeling—the support and helping of the weak,
  • development of imagination and fantasy—the child’s own imagining and shaping of the world,
  • aesthetic experience—the verbal value of fairy tales, aesthetic feeling.

Fairy tales usually end happily, and the child learns to understand and recognize values and rules in relation to other people. Children learn how to deal with even difficult situations.

Strengthening interest in reading should take place through books, encyclopaedias, and magazines that are freely available in the classroom. A visit to the library and shared reading there is appropriate. Enable a meeting with a children’s literature author, who can motivate the child even more. Children may bring to kindergarten books they read at home with parents and introduce their classmates to why this book is their favorite and can also retell a short story from the book.

Conclusion

The main goal of the educational area of language and communication is the development of communication competencies (ŠVP, 2016). The cross-cutting theme according to ŠVP is pre-reading literacy and literacy in general. Literacy, whether pre-reading, graphomotor, writing, science, mathematical, financial, cultural, multicultural, functional, travel, traffic, computer, media, health, legal, and so on, is woven throughout the entire content of care and education in kindergarten. Familiarizing a child with books is also important so that in later life, upon entering school, they are not afraid of verbal expression or text with which they will encounter in primary education. Gaining elementary pre-reading literacy is the natural way of creating a relationship with books, magazines, and other publications. Through purposeful pedagogical influence of the teacher on the child, appropriate methods, and educational intentions develop the child’s foundational competencies, on which the child builds and develops literacy in primary education.

Author: Mgr. Miriama Pačnárová, PhD.

USED LITERATURE

GAVORA, P. 1992. Žiak a text. Bratislava: SPN, 1992. ISBN 80-08-00333-2.

KIKUŠOVÁ, S. 1997/98. Gramotnosť dieťaťa predškolského veku a možnosti jej rozvíjania v materskej škole. In Predškolská výchova, 52, 1997/1998, č. 4. s. 1-2.

LIPNICKÁ, M. 2009. Počiatočné čítanie a písanie detí predškolského veku. Prešov: vydavateľstvo Rokus, 2009. 120 s. ISBN 9788089055814.

LOPUŠNÁ, A. 2008. Rozvíjanie počiatočnej čitateľskej a pisateľskej gramotnosti v podmienkach predprimárnej edukácie. Banská Bystrica: Spoločnosť pre predškolskú výchovu, 2008. ISBN 978-80-969549-8-8.

Mc.KEOWN, M. G. – BECK, I. L. 2006. Encouraging young children´s language interactions with stories. In. ZÁPOTOČNÁ, O. – PETROVÁ, Z. 2010. Jazyková gramotnosť v predškolskom veku. Teoretické východiská a námety k analýze a tvorbe kurikula jazykového vzdelávania detí MŠ. Trnava: Trnavská univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, 2010. 10 s.

MŠVVaŠ SR. 2016. Štátny vzdelávací program. [online]. Bratislava: Štátny pedagogický ústav. 2016. 112 s. [cit. 2019-10-30]. Dostupné na: http://www.statpedu.sk/sk/svp/statny-vzdelavaci-program/svp-materske-skoly/

PETROVA, Z. , VALAŠKOVÁ, M. 2007, s. 16). Jazyková a literárna gramotnosť v materskej škole. Teoretické súvislosti a možnosti jej rozvíjania. Bratislava: Renesans pre PdF TU a ŠPÚ, 2007. s. 16.

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