There is a great deal of concern across the UK about older children who have not learned to read, or whose skills in this area are shaky. Within the family for whom you work, parents may be anxious, perhaps asking when you will start even their youngest children on 'proper reading and writing'.
For example, Ellie is a nanny facing an uphill task in the family she joined this month. Three-year-old Jessica and six-year-old Sam have been under pressure to follow very structured activities that claim to promote literacy. Sam is able to read but shows no independent interest in books.
Jessica is willing to complete handwriting 'homework' from her nursery, but has no understanding of what she has 'written'.
Five doors away in the same road, Leanna works for a more relaxed household. Heather and Gary, four-year-old twins, are enthusiastic about story books, but they have also learned that some books tell them information. There is plenty of paper with pencils and crayons, and the children regularly inform Leanna 'I've done my shopping list' or dictate what they want her to write on their drawings. Leanna's support was welcome to the twins' mother, since she had felt out of step with some other local families.
Supportive adults need to understand that genuine and secure literacy rests upon firm foundations in oral communication. There is evidence that anxious adults, including some early years professionals, have lost sight of the importance of speaking and listening skills. English is an especially complicated language for spelling and grammar. Children do need an approach through phonics, when they are poised to decode the written language. The key word is 'when'. An appropriate age to begin a structured approach to literacy is certainly no earlier than five years old. Some children really are not ready until closer to six years and many other European countries do not start formal literacy instruction until this later age.
However, literacy starts from the earliest days. Young English speakers need a secure knowledge basis built on being confident talkers and creators of stories. Children benefit from developing a large vocabulary of words they choose to use in spontaneous conversation and in voicing their thoughts aloud. Well-informed nannies can provide experiences to generate plenty of reasons for young children later to want to learn reading and writing - and for themselves, not solely to please parents and teachers.
D Sam can read, but as his nanny, Ellie, can observe all too clearly, he does not feel as if he is a reader. Jessica has been drilled in the technical skills of handwriting, but she already sees writing as a task she only completes for adults. Sam and Jessica have been put under such pressure at home and in their nursery and school that they are neither keen talkers nor listeners with adults.
D In contrast, Heather and Gary understand how books work and express personal opinions to their nanny, Leanna, about story characters and plots.
Their weekly selection from the library also includes non-fiction books.
Heather and Gary both distinguish their writing-style marks from their drawings. They have progressed from meaningful mark-making into emergent writing.
Your professional role will be crucial for ensuring the children in your care have rich and appropriate early literacy experiences. Be ready to explain to your employers what you are doing day by day and how ordinary conversation and relaxed play is the developmentally right approach for early literacy, with experiences like the following.
CHATTING MATTERS
Allow time for relaxed conversation, just talking and listening to each other, by which young children build the skills to organise and express their thoughts. Later writing is only partly about the ability to write letters and struggle through the English spelling maze. Children need plenty of ideas for content, and the motivation to talk their plans out, before putting pencil to paper.
D Show you are interested in the content of young children's spontaneous language. Those who experience respectful attention are willing to listen in their turn. They learn about the social basis for full language and manage the give-and-take of proper conversation - very different from answering a stream of questions from a directive adult.
D Remind parents how important it is for children to be keen talkers. You can all hear the sounds of children's thinking represented by their spoken language. Children describe events they wish to recount to you, share interesting nuggets of information or use their words to plan ahead or recall 'what you promised we'd do today'. All these uses of spoken language are also potential reasons for the child to want to write something down.
GIVE TIME FOR STORIES
You can show how you enjoy different kinds of stories and include information books to tell about and picture the world.
D Make sure that books are easily available for children to access. They may like a special time in the day when you always share a story or two.
But ensure that you respond to spontaneous requests to share a book at other times as well.
D Keep reading out loud to children as long as they enjoy the experience.
Children of school age, who are learning to read, will find it hard work.
It is crucial that reading and books do not become narrowed down just to their literacy book from school. You can select a longer book (perhaps one for older fluent readers) and read it aloud in episodes.
D Be an effective role model to children and let them see you use your reading and writing skills in everyday life. You can make a diary note of a teatime visit later in the week, or keep a shopping list updated. Let children see and hear you read instructions or signs out loud.
PRETEND, SING AND DRAW
Many simple play experiences support the skills of early literacy, with no need for adults to persuade children to get involved.
D Give children time, space and generous props for pretend play. When young children stretch their imaginative muscles, they also create narratives through words and actions. A happy experience of pretend play links with rich sources from story books, so that slightly older children are able to construct a narrative and are motivated to want to write out the story themselves.
D Value the time you give to singing songs and nursery rhymes. This experience enables young children to practise the sounds of their own language(s), in an enjoyable and repetitive way. Be ready to join in any playful use of language, simply larking about with words and sounds.
English is a difficult language because the same sound or sound blend is created in different words by different letters. Young children need to build rich experiences of sounds and 'sounds like...'.
D Let children draw, paint and play with all kinds of mark-making.
Handwriting is more than learning to create the shapes of letters. Children need plenty of relaxed practice in deliberate mark-making, through painting and pattern-making on paper and also in playdough, wet sand or earth. They will benefit from creating and re-creating their own swirls, lines and repeated patterns.
The best early literacy experiences are simple and perhaps the most important item of equipment is a well-informed adult. You may need to stand firm, professionally, to support children in the face of outside pressures.
You will see developmentally ill-informed messages from commercial suppliers keen to sell electronic learning pads and toys covered with letters and numbers, even on play items intended for under-twos.
Unfortunately, some books and magazine articles suggest cluttering up daily life with single written letters or numbers. This advice often comes under a label of 'getting children ready for school'. Sadly, it can push out time for relaxed conversation and genuinely useful early literacy experiences.
Any written letters, words or numbers should mean something in context. If they do not communicate a message to you, then single letters on a mobile or toy bus are meaningless for young children.
FINDING OUT MORE
D Attenborough, Liz and Fahey, Rachel, 2005. 'Why do many young children lack basic language skills?' Discussion paper for National Literacy Trust (www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk)
D Lindon, Jennie 2005. Understanding child development: linking theory and practice (Hodder Arnold)
