Preparatory reading and spelling skills in preschool education

First research project

Preparatory reading and spelling skills at the level of basic preventive care and increased care

In this project we inventoried which observation scales, tests and tests are used in Flemish pre-primary education. This showed that mainly the Toetertest and the CITO test are taken. We observed in third kindergarten classes to study implicit and explicit effects on preparatory reading and spelling skills. We also compared the curriculum goals with what kindergarten teachers think preschoolers should be able to do in terms of preparatory reading and spelling skills in the third kindergarten.

We also wanted to know whether the Dutch Protocol for Dyslexia Group 2 (= 3rd kindergarten class) is usable and can be implemented in Flemish nursery education. This protocol maps the most important preparatory reading and spelling skills: phonological awareness, letter knowledge, naming speed and invented spelling. In the Netherlands this protocol is used to detect vulnerable children at an early stage and to subsequently intervene playfully at an early stage if necessary.

We compared the results of Flemish toddlers with those of Dutch toddlers. This showed that the results of the Flemish toddlers studied were lower than in the Netherlands, both in January and in June third kindergarten. We cannot simply adopt the Dutch standards.
As a group, the Flemish pre-schoolers scored better at the end of the school year than in January for all subtests of the protocol. This shows that the Flemish group evolves positively during the school year. At the end of the school year, however, there are large individual differences between preschoolers from the third kindergarten.

Follow-up project

ABC. All toddlers participate!

Ayoub Bryan Charlot. Everyone participates!

In Flanders, preparatory reading and spelling skills are worked on daily in kindergarten. However, this is not done in a targeted manner and many learning opportunities in the daily classroom and play situation are not yet used with vulnerable toddlers who just need more support . For children from families with a less rich language offer, early and targeted actions at school are necessary to avoid a lifelong disadvantage (Vernooy, 2012).

In this project we want to make the kindergarten teachers in their crucial role, supported by the care teacher, aware of their actions. We start from what we observe and from the opportunities on the shop floor.

After an activity, kindergarten teachers reflect on how they have stimulated early literacy in vulnerable preschoolers. For this we use a self-reflection list that maps the playful activities, the immediate feedback and the use of the powerful learning environment around reading and spelling skills.

By comparing the completed self-reflection list with the observations of the researcher and by discussing this with the kindergarten teacher on the work floor, we stimulate the kindergarten teacher's insight into a stronger development of early literacy in the vulnerable toddlers and a more targeted approach. We examined the effect of this intervention.

Valorisation

Effectively promote preparatory reading and spelling skills in all preschoolers from the third kindergarten

In Flanders, preparatory reading and spelling skills are worked on daily in kindergarten. During the PWO project 'ABC, everyone participates!' we collected a lot of good practice examples to playfully yet effectively stimulate the most important preparatory reading and spelling skills, namely phonological awareness, preparatory reading and preparatory writing .

On our website 'Preparatory reading and spelling skills' we provide examples of play, high-quality interactions and how the learning environment can be used to playfully stimulate these preparatory skills. We do this via photos as well as text, in the form of written interactions. This website is the result of a valorisation study.