Teaching children to read fluently isn’t done in a day:  it takes time, patience and the willingness to learn how your child learns.  And while most children learn how to read at school, for them to understand the lessons faster require parents stepping in to assist them in their journey.

As with any end-goal, breaking it down into manageable chunks not only helps the children digest information easier, but helps parents plan out their child’s lessons in a day, week and monthly manner.  This is also how Little Human Scholars preschool, kindergarten, playschool and nursery goes about teaching their students – breaking the information down into manageable chunks.  And the best place to start when teaching your child to read is by teaching them phonetics!

The Benefits of Teaching Phonics to Children

  • Comprehension of the letters in a word and the SOUNDS of the letters in a word is more complete.
  • Sounding out unfamiliar words becomes easier, due to recognition of letters and their respective sounds,
  • Sound and letter recognition is stronger in children who practise phonics,
  • Understanding spelling patterns makes for easier reading of larger more complex words,

While this may sound easy, many challenges are often met when parents begin assisting their child to read.  Parents often notice their child’s attention wavers between lessons, or they would rather play when they get home with mommy and daddy.  Keep in mind this is normal behaviour, especially if they have been in school all day!  One key thing you can do as a parent is find out your child’s learning style. Little Human Scholars School in PJ excels in finding out students’ learning styles and then incorporating them into the lessons.  You can do the same by watching to see how your child plays – after all, children learn through play.

Teach Your Child Phonetics By Seeing What and How They Play

Is your child social?  The minute you put them in a crowded room are they the center of attention and do they make lots of friends easily?  Do they find a quiet corner to play alone in?  Do they sit back and watch the other children play?  Do they like coloring, arts and crafts or are they into building blocks?  The more you watch your child play the easier it is to determine their learning style.

At Little Human Scholars, a preschool, playschool and daycare centre located in Petaling Jaya, near PJ Old Town, University Hospital, PJ New Town and Jaya 33, we use a UK based system called Jolly Phonics to support children in learning how to read.  The cool thing about Jolly Phonics is it utilises auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning styles so more children can learn phonetics in their own way.

Jolly Phonics is an incredible teaching system whereby children first learn to recognise letters, then the sounds of the letters, then blending combinations of letters and so on until reading and comprehension is reached.  It is a multi-sensory form of education, whereby the children use visual, auditory and kinesthetic means to learning.  In other words, instead of sitting down and receiving a data-dump of information (where the children sit quietly and listen for extended periods of time to their teacher), there is a song, a dance and an action for each letter.  This whole-brain learning supports children in retaining more information faster, comprehending this information more fully, and in being able to utilise it over and over again in the future when more complex lessons are taught.

Advantages of using Jolly Phonics

  • Systematic way of learning English as a language
  • Effortless and Correct pronunciation
  • Understanding relationship between sounds and letters
  • Supports to improve your child’s vocabulary
  • Making your child spell a word effortlessly
  • Improvised performance in spelling competitions
  • Improved comprehension skills

We use Jolly Phonics at Little Human Scholars preschool, playschool and daycare centre to support children in learning the basics before learning to read.  This builds a solid foundation of learning, confidence and memorisation which supports them now and later in primary school.

Little Human Scholars preschool, playschool, kindergarten and full daycare centre in PJ provides the best play-based education for children.  After all, we are whole-brained humans who can access and utilise not just the left brain for cognitive functioning, but also the right brain for creativity and problem-solving.  These two in combination make a formidable force in the world, and starting children at a young age to embrace this is invaluable.

The best part is how convenient the location is:  Little Human Scholars School is located in Petaling Jaya near University Hospital, Jaya One, Jaya33, PJ Old Town, and PJ New Town.

We are currently accepting enrolment for the 2017 school year.  If you are interested in visiting our centre and experiencing a walk-through, feel free to call one of the following numbers:

+603 7932 1107

+6017 730 3025

If you are interested in registering your child for playschool or preschool, you are entitled to a free week trial (no strings attached), during any week you prefer, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Jana Moreno,