Literacy Support
What is ‘literacy’?
“Literacy is the skills of reading, writing, and spelling.
Literacy is important for everyday activities like learning, working and communicating.
Reading is essential for children and adults to participate fully in life, education and learning.”
Pre-school literacy
Preschool-aged children develop critical literacy skills that form the foundation for future academic success. During the preschool years (typically ages 3-5), children begin to acquire fundamental literacy abilities such as:
Recognising letters and letter sounds.
Understanding that print carries meaning.
Knowing about the structure of words.
Developing print awareness, including understanding how books are read (left to right, top to bottom) and differentiating between letters, words, and sentences.
Understanding story structure, identifying main characters and events, and expressing themselves through storytelling and retelling.
Developing fine motor skills through activities like drawing, tracing, and colouring which later supports writing abilities.
Preschool literacy skills are crucial because they lay the groundwork for later academic achievement. Research shows that children who enter kindergarten with strong literacy skills are more likely to excel in reading and writing throughout school. Furthermore, early literacy skills contribute to cognitive development, language proficiency, and social-emotional well-being.
Preschool is an ideal time to nurture literacy skills because young children are naturally curious and eager to learn. Quality early childhood education programs that emphasise literacy-rich environments, interactive storytelling, and hands-on literacy activities can significantly enhance children's readiness for formal schooling. Investing in preschool literacy not only promotes academic success but also fosters a lifelong love of reading and learning.
School-age literacy
School-age children (typically 6-12 years old) continue to build upon their literacy skills acquired during preschool, transitioning to more advanced reading, writing, and communication abilities. The importance of literacy skills at this stage cannot be overstated, as they directly impact academic achievement across most subjects. School age children are working to develop the following skills:
The ability to decode and recognise words accurately, including phonics knowledge for unfamiliar words.
Competence in spelling words correctly and understanding spelling patterns and rules.
The ability to read with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression
Understanding and interpreting texts, including identifying main ideas and drawing conclusions.
Proficiency in expressing thoughts and ideas through writing, including proper grammar, punctuation, and organisation of text.
Strong literacy skills in school-age children contribute to improved academic performance, increased confidence, and a lifelong passion for learning. Educators play a vital role in promoting literacy by providing engaging and challenging literacy instruction, offering a variety of reading materials, and fostering a supportive environment that encourages reading and writing. Parents can also support literacy development by encouraging reading at home, discussing books, and modeling positive reading behaviors. By prioritizing literacy skills during the school years, children are better equipped to succeed academically and thrive in an increasingly literate world.
Literacy Assessment and Intervention at Ready Steady Speech
At Ready Steady Speech, Madi offers literacy assessment and intervention for children under 8.
Children under 8
Literacy Intervention with the Sounds-Write Program.
The Sounds-Write program is a comprehensive and evidence-based literacy intervention offered at Ready Steady Speech for primary school-aged children struggling with reading and spelling. This structured program focuses on developing essential phonics and phonological awareness skills to build a strong foundation for literacy success.
The Sounds-Write program is based on a structured and systematic phonics approach, emphasizing the importance of explicit and sequential teaching of phoneme-grapheme correspondences. It follows a synthetic phonics framework, where children are taught to recognize and use letter-sound relationships (phonics) to decode and spell words accurately.
This program incorporates the principles of multisensory learning, engaging children in activities that involve auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities to enhance memory and understanding of phonetic concepts. Sounds-Write teaches children to blend individual sounds to form words (synthetic phonics) and segment words into their component sounds (analytic phonics), enabling them to develop strong phonemic awareness skills.
The Sounds-Write approach is highly structured, breaking down the English alphabetic code into manageable units and providing explicit instruction on how to apply phonics knowledge in reading and spelling tasks. By teaching phonics systematically and sequentially, Sounds-Write aims to ensure that children master foundational literacy skills and become confident, fluent readers and spellers.
At Ready Steady Speech, we tailor the Sounds-Write program to meet the specific needs of each child, starting with thorough assessments to identify areas of difficulty and target intervention goals. The program emphasises explicit teaching of letter-sound correspondences, blending, segmenting, and manipulation of sounds in words—skills critical for accurate decoding and spelling.
The Sounds-Write program is designed to address various literacy challenges, including dyslexia, decoding difficulties, and phonological processing deficits. By systematically teaching the alphabetic code and phonemic awareness, children develop the skills necessary to become proficient readers and spellers.
