Developmental Differences

 In this article, it is said that from birth to age 8 is the most crucial time in life for literacy development. This means that teachers of Kindergarten through 3rd grade have some of the biggest responsibilities to make sure each child gets a good grasp on being able to read and write. The article states that "the single most important activity for building this understand and skills essential for reading success appears to be reading aloud to children." So in order to teach children how to read, you must first have a good foundation of reading aloud to them so that they will be more able to recognize and recreate the words and stories that they are hearing in the classroom. The IRA and NAEYC also realize that the second most important thing that teachers should focus on is the fact that all children develop at different ages and each developmental stage will be different depending on the child's background. Teachers can do literacy digs and pay attention to literacy histories to be able to understand and cater to each child's needs by adapting their teaching styles for each individual student.

Child Developmental Chart

While this may be a more complicated process and take more time and money, it is so crucial to the children's lives and success so it is definitely worth all of the hard work! My favorite part of the article is when they talk about how students should have plenty of opportunity to write with invented spelling and not be corrected. I think this is a good point because if the kid's are excited about writing and brave enough to try new words out, they should not be immediately corrected because it will decrease their self confidence and creativeness and make them not as willing and excited to practice their writing techniques.