Jj is for Jottings 165.  Motor Skills and Screen Time in Preschoolers. We will now look at the topic of motor skills and screen time in preschoolers in some detail.  In Creativity in Children, Part 1 I noted a deterioration in young children’s fine motor skills over the last few years.  I suggested that creative […]

Help Your Child Learn to Read Easily with the Help of Cute and Cuddly Alpacas. See shy April in her smart red halter. See two of the boys having a fight. Look right into Geisha’s mouth as she yawns. Find out what happens to their toenails…..The alpacas are fascinating and engaging Learn how to teach […]

Jj is for Jottings 156.  Speech Sound Problems: /th/ The speech sound problem /th/ is more complicated than many other sounds.  This is because in some parts of the English-speaking world, substituting /f/ for /th/ is normal, part of a dialect.  In this case it is not a speech sound problem. Continue reading Jj is […]

Jj is for Jottings 52.  Reading to Children – Some Statistics. Even the alpacas are worried about current trends. Here are some disquieting (but not unexpected) statistics and comments quoted by the guest, who is very experienced in education, at the launch of “Aa is for Alpacas”: Research by Angela Emher in 2013 of 1263 […]

Jj is for Jottings 154.  How Smartphones Affect the Brain. In this article we will cover some of the latest research on how smartphones affect the brain.  We have previously discussed  the effects of screen time on children.  Amongst other aspects, this included language delay in children exposed to screens at an early age.  We […]

Jj is for Jottings 156.  Speech Sound Problems: /th/ The speech sound problem /th/ is more complicated than many other sounds.  This is because in some parts of the English-speaking world, substituting /f/ for /th/ is normal, part of a dialect.  In this case it is not a speech sound problem. I am speaking from […]

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 […]

educatingalpacas.com supports the book “Aa is for Alpacas”.  See Why This Book? Welcome to my blog – Educating Alpacas.  Does this mean that we are educating the alpacas – teaching them to count and so on – or are the alpacas helping to educate people?  Although we do a little bit of educating the alpacas […]

Jj is for Jottings 162.  The Connection Between Literacy and Music. There is a strong connection between literacy and music. Here, music includes learning a musical instrument and/or singing.  It actually goes further: children who learn and practise music also have improved performance in executive function, arts and mathematics. (The core areas of executive function […]

Jj is for Jottings 128.  Hard and Soft ‘C’ and ‘G’. The great thing about spelling rules – such as the bossy ‘e’ rule – is that, once you learn a particular rule, you can read (and hopefully spell) many different words.  In other words, rules give you lots of bang for your buck.  When […]

Jj is for Jottings 125.  Nonsense Words. Nonsense words are letter sequences which follow regular phonetic rules and are pronounceable, but which have no meaning.  Examples are ‘bof’, ‘zim’, ‘chog’.  They can also be called nonwords or pseudowords.  There are stages in children’s development where nonsense words may play a part.  These are: babbling, early […]

Jj is for Jottings 83.  Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds. Droofus, the bearded dragon, is not practising auditory discrimination of vowel sounds – she’s looking at April shaking off all the dust in “Aa is for Alpacas”. Auditory discrimination of vowel sounds, especially some short vowels, can be quite difficult for some children.  Very common […]

Jj is for Jottings 118.  Hearing versus Listening. Consider hearing versus listening: hearing and listening both involve the ears, but hearing is just the first step in the listening process.  Let’s compare the two. HEARING. Hearing is one of the senses, i.e. the ability to perceive sounds by receiving vibrations through ears.  It is an […]

Jj is for Jottings 162.  The Connection Between Literacy and Music. There is a strong connection between literacy and music. Here, music includes learning a musical instrument and/or singing.  It actually goes further: children who learn and practise music also have improved performance in executive function, arts and mathematics. (The core areas of executive function […]