Education

Jj is for Jottings 94.  Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics. Learning phonics with this book helps with phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills, too. You may have heard the terms “phonological awareness”, “phonemic awareness” and “phonics” and wondered what they mean and whether they are different terms for the same thing.  Let’s sort this […]

Jj is for Jottings 153.  Speech Sound Problems: /k,g/ We have previously learned about /s/ as a speech sound problem.  Let us now focus on speech sound problems: /k,g/.  As always, if your child makes speech errors, you need to know whether the error is actually appropriate for age.  (In which case, is it actually […]

Aa is for Alpacas  – A Book Reading. It is really important to make sure that you are using sounds rather than letter names when reading “Aa is for Alpacas” to children.  After all, that is the whole point of the book.  Many adults were not taught how to sound out words (i.e. phonics) as […]

Jj is for Jottings 76.  Voice Disorders and Vocal Nodules. Manuel is trying to open his mouth as widely as he can so we can see if he has vocal nodules. In my last post I said I’d talk more about voice disorders and how they develop in children.  Vocal nodules, also referred to as […]

Jj is for Jottings 137.  Auditory Processing Disorders. Following on from auditory skills and developing auditory processing skills, we now turn our attention to auditory processing disorders.  There are so many conflicting ideas in the literature as to exactly what constitutes auditory skills. One could really become bogged down by this and therefore any resulting […]

Posture affects mood and cognition. Nina’s posture is upright, and she looks happy and alert as a result. Jj is for Jottings 103.  Posture Affects Mood and Cognition. How many times were you told as a child:  “Sit up straight. Don’t slouch.”  Or in my mother’s case, “You’ll get a dowager’s hump.”  As is so […]

Jj is for Jottings 114.  Digraphs vs. Diphthongs. Digraphs vs. diphthongs – what exactly are they and how do they differ?  They both begin with the same two letters, but then they diverge (get the pun?) THE ROOTS OF DIGRAPHS AND DIPHTHONGS. It is always helpful to understand the roots of words, because then we […]

Jj is for Jottings 142.  Critical Thinking. I was thinking the other day about how the world would be much better if more people applied critical thinking skills in their daily lives.  Also about how we can introduce critical thinking to children.  Funnily enough, the very next morning I read an article in the newspaper […]

Jj is for Jottings 137.  Auditory Processing Disorders. Following on from auditory skills and developing auditory processing skills, we now turn our attention to auditory processing disorders.  There are so many conflicting ideas in the literature as to exactly what constitutes auditory skills. One could really become bogged down by this and therefore any resulting […]

Jj is for Jottings 143.  Mouth Breathing. Mouth breathing – breathing through the mouth instead of through the nose – seems like a harmless enough sort of habit.  But its effects turn out to be quite far-reaching.  I referred to mouth breathing as a potential side effect of tongue tie, but that is only a […]

 KIDS’ BOOK REVIEW, Susan Whelan 0n 21/4/14.  Kids’ Book Review is a book-loving site with a focus on children’s books from babies to young adults.  KIDS-BOOKREVIEW.COM Review: Aa is for Alpacas Aa is for Alpacas and, in this informative and enjoyable alphabet book, B, C, D, E and all the other letters are linked to […]

Jj is for Jottings 87.  Fluctuating Hearing Loss. Fluctuating hearing loss in young children often results in speech and language delays.  (For an explanation of the differences between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ see here.)  Figures quoted by the Audiometry Nurses Association of Australia Inc suggest that 90% of childhood hearing loss is of the fluctuating kind.  […]

A perfect day in the front paddock. Note the crimson rosellas in the tree. Jj is for Jottings 2.  More Repetition. In “the olden days” much time in school was spent rote-learning all sorts of facts and figures – a room full of children standing up chanting the facts over and over. “That’s no way […]

Jj is for Jottings 160.  Creativity in Children, Part 2. Following on from Part 1, we will now go into more activities in greater detail in Creativity in Children, Part 2.  In order for creativity to flourish, it is important for us to slow down and create the time and headspace to allow room for […]