Early childhood care and education (ECCE) aims at the holistic development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a strong foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. ECCE is the pathway to nurture caring, capable and responsible future citizens.
Research shows us that the critical period of brain development, almost 85%, happens before young learners reach the age of six. To build a better foundation for future success, these early years need to be supported by a stimulating and enabling environment.
For the well-rounded development of each child across the heartland of India, we need to recognise and acknowledge the various key stakeholders of this environment or ecosystem:
– The Anganwadi workers, who prepare the child. – The primary and pre-primary educators, impart this new age education – The children themselves *Read our article on Anganwadis, here.
Square Panda India is looking to bring about a systemic change in the ECCE landscape in India by introducing Aarambh, an early learning initiative to holistically impact the ECCE ecosystem in India, which comprises the Anganwadi workers who prepare the children for schooling, the ECCE educators who impart new age education, and the children themselves. As a part of this commitment, we have created NEP 2020-aligned foundational learning and educator empowerment programs that holistically empower each part of this ecosystem. We believe empowering anganwadi and balwadi workers, along with ECCE educators, will drive early childhood education in India to new heights, creating a truly self-reliant nation. To spread awareness about various crucial topics related to early education, we have planned a series of round table discussions with early childhood education experts, on the theme—EarlyLearningMatters.
Watch our 2nd panel on the ‘The literacy & numeracy conversation must begin from Anganwadis and Balwadis’, right here, and stay tuned to our social media for news on upcoming discussions.
India has always been ahead of the curve, setting up schemes for early childhood development while the rest of the world was just talking about it, says Arjan de Wagt, UNICEF India’s cross-sectoral coordinator for early childhood development. The Indian government’s department of social welfare launched the National Policy for Children in 1974, which highlighted India’s commitment to “provide adequate services to children, both before and after birth and through the period of growth, to ensure their full physical, mental and social development.” A year later, in 1975, India launched its Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, with the help of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). One of the largest and most unique integrated early childhood programs in the world, the goal of ICDS was to help feed, educate, and care for vulnerable kids and their mothers.
ICDS services were offered through a network of anganwadis spread out across every region in India. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, every urban or rural community of 400 to 800 people has at least one anganwadi center. In each anganwadi centre, an anganwadi worker takes care of women and children, educates the community, and collects health and nutrition data on women and children. Data from 2017 states that anganwadis delivered preschool services to close to 33 million children.
Presently, official government data shows there are 13.77 lakh anganwadi centres operational in India, with a strength of 12.8 lakh workers and 11.6 lakh helpers. Each anganwadi worker is assigned to approximately 250 homes; this worker knows everything about her community-which family requires prenatal help, which household requires a supply of vitamins, how many homes have young learners, and how old each of them is. These are the people taking care of early education, nutrition, and health in rural areas. Anganwadi workers are connected to the community, to the parents, the children, in a way no other educator is.
Anganwadi centres face a host of challenges-multiple responsibilities of which early childhood education is only one, overpopulation leading to an unfavourable teacher-pupil ratio, crumbling infrastructure, among other problems-and still, anganwadi workers find ways to beat the odds and support their charges at all costs. *Read examples of how anganwadi workers (and other educators) are helping prevent a learning loss during the pandemic, here.
Anganwadi centres are the lifeblood of the rural educational landscape in India and can sometimes be the only foundation for learning these children will ever get.
Acknowledging the worth these centres bring to early education, food, and nutrition, The Women and Child Development Ministry, under whose jurisprudence the anganwadis fall under, plans to upgrade services and facilities at 2.5 lakh anganwadi centres over five years under the Saksham Anganwadi Scheme, according to an Economic Times report dated December 2019.
The NEP 2020 too, recognised the anganwadi’s contribution, mentioning, “To prepare an initial cadre of high-quality ECCE teachers in Anganwadis, current Anganwadi workers/teachers will be trained through a systematic effort in accordance with the curricular/pedagogical framework developed by NCERT.“
Teacher training in session
What Can We Do To Support Anganwadis To Improve The Quality Of Education?
Support from multiple levels/stakeholders: The anganwadi centres don’t exist in silos; they are an intrinsic part of the community and must be treated as such. Strong guidance and backing are required across all levels, starting from the homes and moving up to the policymakers. There is a need to understand each problem these centres face, address each one, and work on plans and schemes to improve the quality in each anganwadi.
Develop their skills through training programs: To ensure better outcomes across anganwadi centres, it is imperative that these catalysts of change are exposed to holistic development programs. Take Square Panda‘s Anganwadi Workers Upskilling Program, for instance, which empowers them with knowledge of ECCE and methods to create a conducive learning environment, to make children school ready and transform the anganwadi centre to their fullest potential. Our trainers can even teach in multiple vernacular languages for optimal understanding.
Create a more comprehensive support system using AI and ML: Technology can be wielded to develop tools and aids to reduce anganwadi workers’ burden. Problems and queries can be dealt with quickly and expertly, using multilingual applications that connect anganwadi workers with early learning experts.
Develop the centres themselves: A positive experience in these centres could translate into a journey into formal schooling, thereby improving their futures. At present, many anganwadis suffer from a lack of essential architecture and resources, making them less inviting to impressionable young minds. Recognising the worth of developing these centres, the NEP 2020 has mentioned in its policy a plan to strengthen anganwadis with “high-quality infrastructure, play equipment, and well-trained Anganwadi workers/teachers.“
Anganwadis nourish our children in the most crucial period of their lives, a period when their brain develops the most; to ensure universal access to ECCE, these centres need all-round support and training in pedagogy, digital literacy, and foundational literacy and numeracy.
See how Square Panda works to upskill anganwadi workers, here.
The continued growth in information processing, and the advent of technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in education, is a game-changer for education, and consequently, the educators. The people we entrust with our children’s education have a very important role to play in their futures and the future of the country as a whole; to accomplish this crucial task, they need to be empowered with thorough guidance and training, with complete assistance in developing 21st century-appropriate skills. To directly quote research studies conducted over the years, “Students succeed when intensive, comprehensive, and high-quality prevention and early intervention instruction is provided by well-trained and well-supported teachers”*.
At present, the traditional method of learning in India involves a blackboard and reading from the textbook, a method of rote learning that is outdated for the changing educational landscape. To enable the well-rounded development of children, educators (especially ECCE educators), not only have to function as high-quality content creators but also have to understand the neuroscience behind early learning and the ecosystem that comes into play when a young child begins to learn.
Unfortunately, the teaching profession in India is faced with a multitude of challenges:
A basic level of proficiency: Currently, educators across India only have basic skills needed to impart education and train young minds to be future-ready. The onus at present is on developing high-quality educators who help mould a stronger generation of future citizens.
One-teacher-fits-all: Students across different grade levels study together in one classroom or Anganwadi, with only one teacher explaining all the subjects. Here, subject matter expertise is a problem, along with the appropriateness of curriculum as per the individual learning needs for every child.
Administrative duties: An already burgeoning workload is further burdened by a host of administrative tasks. For example, teachers are required to handle extracurricular activities, data collation to help with the creation of physical reports, and more, along with teaching their young charges.
Availability: A less than optimal pupil-teacher ratio, existing training curriculum that requires an overhaul as per the changing needs, and more challenges, see many opting out of choosing teaching as a profession. NEP 2020 has allowed for multiple provisions and considerations in its approach to teacher education, but finding and retaining a high calibre of educators remains a challenge.
Other problems: Those in the education profession are also bogged down by limited resources (hardware and funding), a vast geographical area with many remote places, a lack of support, and, due to COVID, a drastic and sudden shift of the traditional classroom towards a more blended approach, which sees educators struggle to embrace technology like never before.
The Department of Education, in its latest National Education policy, states, “In all stages, experiential learning will be adopted, including hands-on learning, arts-integrated and sports-integrated education, story-telling-based pedagogy, among others, as standard pedagogy within each subject, and with explorations of relations among different subjects. To close the gap in achievement of learning outcomes, classroom teaching learning methodologies transactions will shift, towards competency-based learning and education”.
This policy reiterates adopting new-age skills into the existing teaching framework, adding important experiential methods including gamification, storytelling, art, music, and more. The new education sector as envisioned by the policy aims for holistic, all-round development of young learners by qualified and trained educators.
To see a substantial positive shift in the Indian education sector, particularly in ECCE, educators existing and new will have to be trained in the pedagogy of today’s changing world while also gaining an in-depth understanding of a child’s neurological development as learning is imparted. And, as the coronavirus pandemic has taught us, to adapt to the changing educational ecosystem, educators across India must develop a strong understanding of digital literacy.
The Impact Of empowering the Educators On Indian Education:
Impact On ECCE: Robust educator training and empowerment programs have a strong impact on early childhood education. A deep understanding of subject knowledge coupled with an awareness of the neuroscience behind early learning results in powerful skill development in the young learners, building a strong foundation for lifelong learning, setting them on a path for success. For example, an English language teacher who knows their subject can easily explain topics ranging from phonological awareness to idioms and puns, without any loss of understanding on the part of their students.
Developing New-Age Methodologies Of Teaching: The National Educational Policy 2020 describes a whole new way of teaching, including a host of 21st century skills like ‘experiential learning via gamification and apps’, ‘holistic learning’, and more. These new techniques will entice learners more, enabling an improved attitude towards education, which results in an improved and enhanced academic performance.
Subject Matter Knowledge Improves: A stronger grasp of the subject in question will see educators being able to explain concepts and ideas better, increasing the comprehension by students.
Improved Performance Of Students: Studies have correlated teacher training to stronger student test scores, adding that the main reason for the improved performance was because the teacher had a better grip on the subject matter.
Contribution To Economic Prosperity: High calibre educators who are trained, professionally developed, and dedicated, form the backbone of society, transferring knowledge and culture to batch after batch of learners. Forming an essential part of the radical changes we wish to see in our nation, these educators contribute a lot to the economic prosperity of a country.
“The quality of teacher education, recruitment, deployment, service conditions, and empowerment of teachers is not where it should be, and consequently the quality and motivation of teachers does not reach the desired standards. The high respect for teachers and the high status of the teaching profession must be restored so as to inspire the best to enter the teaching profession. The motivation and empowerment of teachers is required to ensure the best possible future for our children and our nation.” -NEP, 2020
A well-trained educator can not only mould a child’s entire future from the early years itself, but they also enhance their talents, helping them thrive in tomorrow’s world of work.
Square Panda is working towards the empowerment of educators via robust and innovative empowerment programs.
The 2011 Census states that anyone over the age of 11 who can read and write is ‘literate’. Literacy has been marked as a strong factor in employment, with a study by Bynner, J. and Parsons, S. in 2001, citing, ‘both literacy and numeracy skills have been shown to be crucial in gaining employment and retaining it (…)’. Literacy is the backbone of developing nations like India, and foundational literacy is its base.
Research attributes 80% of brain development to the early childhood period. This fertile period is also when the precursors to language learning are developed. These foundations later become predictors of a child’s reading ability in later grades. Unfortunately, many children (in India and worldwide) are consistently unable to read at their grade level. That is a problem because these children then fall further and further behind with every grade i.e. it becomes tremendously difficult for them to catch up. Not being able to read has grave implications ranging from not getting into college to unemployment.
The current educational policy has refrained from highlighting any particular mode of instruction as the ‘primary’ mode, choosing instead to leave the decision up to the respective administrations. What is a game-changer for the Indian education system is the addition of ECCE into the new policy. Where once early childhood education was not looked upon as formal education, it is now being given a rightful place in the educational landscape of India. Early education is also at the core of Square Panda’s multisensory platform, with a focus on early literacy.
Square Panda’s mission is to empower all children to reach their full potential by launching their educational journey with the power of literacy and languages and we support that journey through our unique, personalised learning system.
Square Panda wants to drive development and education in India to be on par with our global counterparts, using a platform that enables foundational English language learning, from the grassroots level itself, starting as deep inside the educational system as Anganwadis and Balwadis.With a strong educational team to back the constantly evolving programs developed by Square Panda, we are turning the focus towards training Anganwadi workers to handle early education, work with our systems, and skill themselves, to enable a better learning environment for children at the very heart of India.
The Square Panda multisensory early literacy system is especially designed for young children between the ages of 2 and 8.
The disparity of educational resources across India sees an imbalance in the distribution of basic amenities like teachers, educational materials, and even study books. The gap further widens, due to factors like high pupil to teacher ratios, a lack of appropriate curriculum, infrastructure shortages, poor quality of teaching staff, and declining monetary resources. While there is a facility for free education, especially in the younger years, enforcing this is difficult. Educational technology reaches the places these resources cannot, making edtech companies like ours the perfect collaborators to the government, to enhance foundational literacy across the educational landscape in India.
“In a country like India, where we find children of different learning levels and capabilities, edtech is a valuable resource to cater to different needs, allowing for a greater personalising and adaptiveness,” opines Mr. Jhalani.
Square Panda’s self-guided adaptive platform allows for an enhanced and holistic early learning experience; the teachers and educators can operate our system with a minimal amount of technical knowledge.
“The goals Square Panda has is to make education and literacy affordable and reachable to the masses across the world, may it be in China, may it be in India. We want to make sure that every child gets an opportunity to be literate, learn the language of English—which is a primary language across the world—and find better jobs as they grow up.” – Mr. Ashish Jhalani.
Square Panda believes in the need for a robust early education system, along with efficient teacher training programs to enhance quality of education across India, and the globe.
Technology is growing by leaps and bounds, becoming more commonplace in our daily lives as the years go by. In fact, Artificial Intelligence has the potential to add $957 billion, or 15% of current gross value added, to India’s economy by 2035, according to an estimate in a study by a tech giant.
One sector benefiting from technology-the education sector-is yet to see positive results in a country like India. Globally, private investment in educational technology, broadly defined as the use of computers or other technology to enhance teaching, grew 32% annually from 2011 through 2015, rising to $4.5 billion globally.
We’re seeing terms like Artificial Intelligence (or AI) and Machine Learning (or ML) being used very frequently in conjunction with education. We’re decoding these terms, and what changes they can bring to the Indian education landscape, in this article:
What Is ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI)’: It’s also called ‘Machine Intelligence’, and describes the artificial simulation of human intelligence, by machines. Examples of AI include Apple’s SIRI, self-driving cars, Presentation Translator for PowerPoint (it creates real-time subtitles for what the teacher is saying), and more.
What Is ‘Machine Learning (ML)’: A branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ML helps systems and software analyze and interpret patterns, by experience and exposure to repeated tasks. ML gets computers to perform tasks without being explicitly programmed for them. Apart from Siri, Alexa, and all the others, ML is used in GPS navigation services, social media platforms (Facebook can recognize a photo of your friend the instant you upload it), the spam filter in your email inbox, and even language learning apps like Square Panda and Duolingo, who use the games and exercises played on their system to calibrate and cater learning as per each individual learner’s level of learning.
“India will have the highest population of young people in the world over the next decade, and our ability to provide high-quality educational opportunities to them will determine the future of our country.” – (NEP, 2020)
We think the new policy by the Ministry of Education perfectly sums up our nation’s future requirements, to create a globally competitive, employable workforce of citizens. For this reason, AI and ML will need to be an intrinsic part of education, right from the early years.
Here’s what we think the future of education will look like, with AI and ML:
Smart Content Will Be Everywhere: Smart learning and smart content include any type of learning that is studied online, including video lessons and recorded classes. Textbooks as we know it will change, with parts or even whole chapters being converted into digital lessons. These new syllabuses will help children of all ages and academic levels, increasing their engagement to a greater extent.
Learning Will Get More Personalized: What we will see as the education landscape changes, is more adaptive learning methods adopted by schools and states as a whole. AI and ML have the unique ability to ‘read’ a child’s data in real-time, and adjust the curriculum to cater to that learner’s particular learning needs. Children coming in the invisible ‘middle strata’ (those who don’t attract attention by being at the top OR the bottom), will not fall through the cracks. Educators will see the benefits of adaptive curriculum, with having to put in extra efforts, which thereby frees up their time for other tasks. Not just learning, but each child’s response and feedback to learning will be personalized too, allowing parents and educators to understand individual children’s performance in detail. Multi-level classrooms, with children of different grades packed into one class with just one teacher, like those seen in rural areas, can make the best use of this personalized approach to learning.
Technology To Support Teachers And Educators: There are multiple instances of AI and ML being used in classrooms across the globe, with varying degrees of success. Not only does the technology get more affordable as time goes by, but it even allows teachers more time to work on lessons and plans, by taking care of all mundane administrative tasks like note making, collating data, etc. that is, for now, a task most Indian teachers have to do manually. For instance, our early education platform at Square Panda has a ‘Portal’, to help monitor learning in schools and at home, in real-time. Read all about it, here. All the evidence points towards AI and ML being a strong source of support and aid to educators, and are not to be taken as replacements. After all, education wouldn’t be the same without a ‘human touch’.
An Unbiased Assessment And Tracking System: On account of providing real-time traceability and trackability, AI and ML systems have started to flourish in the edTech segment. Grading and checking will soon be done via a programmed system, removing the possibility of human error and bias with it. Negative feedback will be done away with, increasing a child’s enjoyment of learning, without fear of repercussions.
Increased Reach: India has a vast geography, with multiple remote, hard-to-reach areas; these make equal learning opportunities harder for children in such areas. Technology enables children all over India, especially in the remote areas, to access quality education right from the early years. To make up for the intermittent internet connectivity in such areas, the tech can even be customized to work offline for long periods of time. AI can enable easier access to offline content, and even provide automated tutoring and mentoring programs for different learning styles. The near future could see a greater degree of interlinking and connection between the schools and students, allowing students to take courses and classes that were otherwise out of reach for them.
Skilling: The performance matrix in AI algorithms helps the machine determine what the child is likely to excel in, while enhancing skills that are applicable in the real world. AI and ML can also help train teachers, skilling them to solve quality issues in the education sector. The enhanced skill set children develop can help them compete on a global level as well.
The education sector in India has predominantly been ruled by human-to-human interaction. With the recent pandemic, this rule is slowly changing, and moving towards a slightly more digital learning landscape. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Intelligence advances are here to stay; educators need to plan for involving digital methods alongside traditional learning, gradually preparing the next generation to leverage the global AI revolution to our country’s advantage.
Interested in adding AI and ML to your teaching? Check out our Square Panda early literacy platform, which uses an adaptive engine to develop early English literacy in young children aged 2-8. As a child plays with our educational games, our software runs in the background, analysing patterns of play, frequency of words played, challenges faced, to suggest letters/words that the child should be focussing on next, inside the games themselves. This data also reflects in our ‘Portal’, allowing educators and parents the ability to monitor progress in real-time.
Stay tuned for our next post, on how we intend to spread early literacy even at the heart of India, and later, another upcoming post where we’ll be talking about how Square Panda is building a safe and kid-friendly ecosystem inside our platform, along with tips to keep every young learner safe while online.
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Mahatma Gandhi (full name, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), who is also known as the Father of the Nation, was born 151 years ago today, October 2nd, in 1869.
His contribution to India’s freedom struggle is well-known, but did you know he was equally invested in education in India?
Mahatma Gandhi On Education In India
Seeing more merit in an education system that was free from British influence, Mahatma Gandhi proposed that schools should begin generating their own income via saleable handicrafts, to become more financially stable. He also believed teachers should have freedom in curricula matters, so they could impart originality to students, rather than sticking to a set format and guidelines. He counted the great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, as one of his major influences.
Did You Know?
Mahatma Gandhi was an avid reader, with a collection amassing more than 11,000 books (a figure he mentions during his interview conducted on July 27, 1933). This collection was later housed at Sabarmati Ashram, as Mahatma Gandhi had relinquished all claim over his books, allowing them to become ashram property.
Statue of Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, India (Source: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons
In 1933, this entire collection was then donated to the municipal library of Ahmedabad, a gesture he made to commiserate with all those satyagrahis whose properties were confiscated by the British Government, as punishment for participating in the salt satyagraha under the leadership of Gandhi.
Gandhi’s eclectic book collection consisted of works from authors like Charles Darwin (Descent of Man), William Shakespeare and Jonathan Swift, to Assyrian satirist Lucian of Samosata (Trips to the Moon), to mathematician James Jeans (Mysterious Universe). Poetry in English, Hindi, and Gujarati also had a space on his bookshelf, including Goethe’s Faust and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. His collection also lists multiple translations in English, Hindi, and his native tongue, Gujarati, of the Bible, Quran, Mahabharata, and Ramayana. Apart from this, Mahatma Gandhi also devoured books that taught him about Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Vedanta, among others.
Not only was reading books a way to enrich his mind and philosophies, he also read to become more independent and self-reliant; he read books on childbirth and obstetrics in order to aid his wife Kasturba, when she was to deliver their son Devdas! Other similar books in the quest to prepare himself for varied situations include a guide titled ‘How to Launder‘ and a book called ‘Finger Impressions‘ written by a police officer.
His lifelong reading habit, his attitude of self-reflection, and his writing (he authored many famous books during his lifetime), is what Mahatma Gandhi credits as helping him along the path of self-growth.
To Commemorate This Great Thinker’s Birthday, We’ll Leave You With Some Of His Quotes On Education:
What have these thoughts by Mahatma Gandhi taught you? Comment below.
Multiple articles and research show just how important acquisition of reading skills is, particularly for very young learners. Development of these skills turns emerging readers into independent and fluent readers for life, adding to their global competency, future job prospects, and overall quality of life. Every parent/teacher chooses to introduce the reading habit to the child/student in their life. What happens, though, if an otherwise enthusiastic child suddenly shows a definite reluctance to read? How do you entice young children to make an effort to pick up a book?
Take help from the below tried-and-tested steps, to help you inculcate a reading habit in your little learners:
#1: Create The Perfect Reading Spot.
Finding the perfect book for emerging readers will take experimentation and time, but as adults, you can ensure they are prepared for this experience by setting aside a dedicated reading space to call their own, inside homes and classrooms. Add comfortable pillows, blankets, and bright lighting. Fit in a desk full of books at a height they can easily reach, and voilà, you have a junior reader’s paradise!
Little boy enjoying his story time in his reading corner.
#2: Teach By Example.
Your kids look to the closest adults to teach them things, which, more often than not, is you. So pick up a book, and show your kids how much fun reading can be. When they see you reading, it will automatically encourage them to try it themselves.
Mom reciting a tale of victory to her little learner
#3: Take Reading To The Next Level.
Forcing your kids to read can make them view the reading habit, which is already hard enough to acquire, as a major chore. Use various tricks and activities to show them that the reading habit is more than just reading, it is exploring new worlds, meeting new characters, and learning new things. Introduce a new story using life-like images and sound effects (you can get these on the internet; just check the terms of usage). Encourage more interaction by reading through live-action ‘stage shows’ with your kids acting out their favourite part of a book. Change up their reading routine slightly; make them read the story aloud to you. Their pronunciation gets a huge boost, along with their confidence level. Host storytelling competitions amongst the children; the winner gets an extra half hour of playtime with Square Panda, or gets a snack of their choice.
Father teaching his son to read, via fun educational games.
#4: Get A Daily Dose Of Reading In With Square Panda.
Even the most resistant learners will never say no to Square Panda play-learn time! With educational games and an early reading app that is perfect for kids as young as 2 till the age of 8, combined with adaptive technology that personalises according to an individual child’s learning level, you could not ask for more! Additionally, our educational screen time is backed by a curriculum that is completely research-based.
Little girl playing early education games with Square Panda
Little child learning to read with Square Panda
#5: Ease Up On The Pressure.
Children shouldn’t like reading just because the adults in their life do, nor do they have to read the same books you favour. In fact, the more choice they feel they have in choosing how, when, and which books to read, the more likely they are to turn into fluent and confident readers for life. Let them discover their own likes and dislikes. Children will be more inclined to become lifelong readers if they are not forced into it. Give them as many different reading options as you can, like, different genres of books, special reading apps, kid-friendly podcasts, and more.
Little girl engrossed in a world of stories.
#Bonus Point: Discuss What You’ve Read.
Take a minute to chat about what you just read, whether it was the label on a toy box, or a magazine cover, or even a picture book. Have an open conversation with much structure, so it doesn’t resemble a lesson in any way. Open-ended questions like ‘Why do you think Pan sat on the mat?’ can encourage children to reason with you, asking them to recall a certain page can help their memory. This task has the added benefit of helping develop vocabulary skills, further leading down the path to reading success.
Remember that each child learns to read differently. Let them set their own pace. Provide all the support you can so your child/student feels less self-conscious about coming to you for help.
Want more educational tips and articles just like this? Watch this space for more… Until then, grab a SquareBox (our very own multisensory educational kit for kindergarten), which not only has the Square Panda phonics early literacy playset, it also boasts loads of additional fun learning materials to make schooling at home a breeze during the lockdown.
Written by Sanjana Shukla (Content Writer, Square Panda India)
Each time you crack open that book and read to your child, they are getting better and better at building essential reading skills. In fact, children actually acquire their reading skills through repeated exposure and practice.
*For a more in-depth look at how a child’s brain works as they try to develop their reading skill, check out this blog post.
With this in mind, Square Panda is introducing SquareTales, a unique set of digital and printable PDF books, to help develop an early reading habit in children, and promote independent reading. Additionally, each set also contains additional learning materials (rhymes, songs, and fun learning activities), absolutely free of cost, available to download from our Kids’ Library.
A subscription to SquareTales gets you (from left to right, clockwise): Printable PDF books, printable activity sheets, digital books, additional practice activities on the app, and rhymes and songs.
The SquareTales curriculum follows Square Panda‘s custom-made, research-based curriculum, introducing letters in small groups (around 4-8 new letters are introduced with each book). SquareTales engages students through endearing Square Panda characters–like Panda and Cameo, a friendly pair consisting of a little panda and an enthusiastic chameleon–and compelling storylines.
Additionally, the books are divided into groups or sets, where each book focuses only on a particular area of study (For example, Set 1, which is available for a FREE preview , focuses on word families).
Word families are groups of words that share a common pattern, such as “hat“, “mat“, and “cat“. In SquareTales, this is how we classify words into word families, making it easy for children to learn and understand them, and identify these common patterns. This gives young learners a strong grasp of the rules that make the English language.
Child learning through play, with activities based on the word family ‘AP’.
SquareTales For Parents: We know you are very invested in your child’s future. Which is why SquareTales has a ‘Parent Portal’, to help you monitor your child’s progress as they start reading. A ‘Parent Guide’ to help you navigate your way through our early reading app, complete with expected learning milestones, can also be found on our website.
How SquareTales Works: Step 1: Students learn letter-sounds. Step 2: Then they learn to blend these letter-sounds to form words (e.g. c-a-t). Step 3: They practice each word and letter for as long as they want. Step 4: They start reading connected text, and later, full sentences. Step 5: They can now read a whole book! Step 6: They practice what they learnt through instructional activities. Step 7: They learn to read the printable PDF book corresponding to the ebook.
This is a systematic, easy-to-grasp, and effective way to learn English in a fun and engaging manner, beginning with easy letters and simple words, and graduating to the ‘book-reading’ stage very quickly!
What Children Learn With SquareTales:
Knowledge of letter sounds and how to blend them, with guided practice.
See how our proprietary blending engine works.
Learners learn to use the knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words.
Builds vocabulary, comprehension skills, and knowledge about written conventions.
Learners will be exposed to various CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words from each word family, for example, ‘tap’, ‘nap’, ‘sap’, from the word family ‘ap’. This teaches them to not only sound out, read, and spell these words, but also identify the phonetic pattern that marks them as a part of a specific word family.
Learners will also be introduced to common sight words (i.e. words that don’t follow the rules of blending) like ‘the’, ‘is’, and more.
Additional Skills Developed By SquareTale’s Instructional Activities: – Vocabulary building – Sight word identification – Story sequencing
For best results, make sure you use all our learning resources as recommended.
The Benefits Of Teaching With Square Tales
To make reading and learning easier, all the books (of initial sets) are arranged in terms of word families. The learning level gradually increases, book by book, to help learners stay challenged and engaged.
Similarly, in terms of a roadmap, each book series deals with a different, slightly more challenging theme, for example, the first series deals with word families, the next one deals with a more challenging theme, and so on.
SquareTales builds the essential components of reading we focus on— phonemic awareness, phonics, listening comprehension, and vocabulary.
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– By Sanjana Shukla, Content Writer, Square Panda India
Learning comes naturally to kids, but when it comes to reading, the process slows down. Reading is an important element for early learners with a structured process which needs to be taught. It gradually seeps inside a young mind. Mostly, Educators have extensive concern for the achievement in initial reading experiences in kids. Today’s educators need the ingredients of effective educational programs to teach kids to read.
Yes, the teachers’ require to place reading instruction on solid footing. Reading is subsumed by early literacy. Here, a few substantial approaches have shed light on the reading acquisition processes and effective instructional approaches.
WHAT IS READING READINESS?
Reading readiness is the first step a child takes towards understanding early reading skills. It is the stage in development when, through the learning experience and maturation, they learn to read effectively.
According to the Ontario Government (2003), the acquisition of language is natural, but the process of learning to read is not—reading must be taught.
Did you know, that there are multiple methods and skills to determine when trying to build reading readiness capabilities in kids? Let us help you identify that the child is reading ready.
Learn Early Reading Readiness Skills
YOUNG MIND NEEDS TO LEARN THESE READING READINESS SKILLS:
Kids should be well-versed with these six critical skills before they attempt to master formal reading.
Improve Print Awareness Concepts: Kids know that the text represents spoken words. They become aware of the directions, left or right. Do kids know, how to hold a book or pen? Foster their fascination with book reading, developing a sense of rhythm and rhyme, analyse patterns. Their reading skills are emerging and they learn to predict word patterns.
Understand using Phonological Awareness: It is sensitivity to the sound structure of language. Phonological awareness has an ability to listen and identify special sounds (syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes) and letters in spoken words. Kids understand letters, vowels, constants, and two letters words to make new sounds. Phonological awareness increases their skills by playing with words; changing sounds or syllables. Little learners will eventually stump us with their literacy achievement.
Explore with Phonemic Awareness: Having phonemic awareness helps to create reading readiness skills in early learners. It is the first thread in the tapestry of reading. Here, the child’s ability evolves, as they listen and know how to manipulate the smallest mental units of sound—phonemes in the spoken language. For example: When a child plays Lagoon Game, in its exploratory mode; they identify familiar sounds across a group of words, like color, cake, candy. Even can create a new word, recognise all individual phonemes in a single word, like a dog -> d,o,g.
How Does Phonics Instructions Improve Reading?
Reading fluency will foster confidence in the students. The main focus of phonics is to make children aware of the relationship between the letters of written language (graphemes) and the individual sounds of spoken language (phonemes). These instructions can be given systematically or incidentally. Children will learn to recognise words accurately and decode new words.
Discover the Alphabetic Principle (Letter Knowledge): It is an abstract concept where students receives clarity about the symbols i.e. letters and combinations of letters to represent the speech sounds in their elemental forms. The sounds are anchored to letters or strings of letters is known as the ‘Alphabetic Principle.’ In the reading development, children learn to use the alphabetic principle fluently. Using explicit phonics instruction—they understand the primary purpose of reading. The students’ grows and gains knowledge using the phonogram techniques further, they are shown, how to blend phonograms into words. After that, they’re trained to create blending practice using one-syllable consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Systematically, they learn how to read by recognition and naming of letter names and letter sounds. For instance, Little learners can touch, feel and lay the ‘Smart Letters’ in the Square Panda Playset. It even engages kids in an ergonomically important ‘look-away’ time-span. Kid’s are placed in the optimally learning zone, to challenge their potential.
Motivation is the Key: There are various signs which reflects the kids are more interested in reading. If they frequently request for more read-aloud time and show enthusiasm for books or worksheets. Teachers and Parents can include various activities in kids daily routine to develop their interest in reading. Make reading an interactive and fun learning experience, which sparks their attention. Kids have short attention span- so read short story books with illustrative elements like bright colors, flags or different textures are good for keeping them engaged and motivated.
Display Listening Comprehension: Kid’s should be able to retell the story, answer the simple questions and ask more questions during the read-aloud. For instance: In the mid-story section, a Child asked the Teacher; Why did the Panda laugh? It gives us an insight that child was paying attention and listening to the story.
Learn Reading Readiness Skills With Square Panda
After following the quick analyses, determine how the child is moving from learning to read and slowly towards the goal of reading to learn. Be sure your students are getting comfortable with these concepts before beginning the actual reading instructions. Reading readiness isn’t just about early literacy skills. It covers a set of four major competencies such as social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of the child. Build a culture at school and home, which evokes their interest in effective reading. Focus on making enjoyable reading activities rather than it being only academic centric.
QUICK TIPS TO RAISE STRONG READERS:
Prepare your students well, make them aware of the sounds of the phonograms, letter names, etc. They should be able to:
Recite the alphabets, rhymes, etc.
Recognise the alphabetic letters
Re-tell a story
Make them familiar with blends
Place the letters
Read there name
Practice reading words aloud
Use correct sounds when speaking the letters
Understand the progression of text is placed left to right and top to bottom
Tips To Raise Strong Readers: Mother and Daughter Reading Time Together
Young minds are going through major development changes, in such a situation grasping reading skills quickly might seem impossible. Understanding reading readiness will enable you to teach more calmly and successfully turn your reluctant learners into avid readers for life. Most kid’s don’t develop the basic foundation of reading skills by themselves, Square Panda’s multisensory reading platform strikes a good balance here. With our tailor-made curriculum, now every child can learn to read well.
Phonics Instructions For Early Learners
Learn more about how to augment reading readiness into your child’s play. Square Panda can help you access using the multisensory techniques. Take a look at our library of games to engage early learners.
If we’ve hit your nerve and you require more insight about how to develop reading skills in your kids, leave us a comment below. Connect with us on our Facebook and LinkedIn to know more.
–Nidhi Parikh, SEO Content Writer, Square Panda India
