One, two what can we do? Exploring literacy and numeracy with young children

With National Literacy and Numeracy Week (25-31 August) just around the corner, Rhonda Livingstone provides some insights into how we embed literacy and numeracy into early childhood education. National Literacy and Numeracy week (August 25-31) offers an opportunity to consider the rich diversity of experiences and opportunities our early childhood and school age care environments offer to extend children’s thinking, understanding and learning about literacy and numeracy.  As part of this, we need to consider the links with the national learning frameworks and ask ourselves: How do we embed literacy and numeracy into education and practice in a way that is relevant and meaningful for children? Building on real life experiences, as well as being creative in providing opportunities for children to expand their knowledge and skill in understanding and using literacy and numeracy concepts, is important to engage children and prompt their learning and understanding. When discussing literacy and numeracy, what often comes to mind is the ability to read, write and solve mathematical problems. This view is potentially limiting and as educators we need to encompass the variety of ways that we communicate through non-verbal, spoken, print, visual and multimodal literacies as well as considering how mathematical thinking is used in everyday life. Technology now plays a big part in many children’s lives and has the potential to offer a wide array of numeracy and literacy experiences. Both national learning frameworks acknowledge these important concepts, particularly Learning Outcome 5 – Children are confident communicators. The Early Years Learning Framework (p. 38) describes literacy as ‘the capacity, confidence and disposition to use language in all of its forms. Literacy incorporates a range of modes of communication including music, movement, dance, storytelling, visual arts, media and drama, as well as talking, listening, viewing, reading and writing. Contemporary texts include electronic and print based media. In an increasingly technological world, the ability to critically analyse texts is a key component of literacy’. In addition, the Framework for School Age Care (p. 37) acknowledges that ‘In play and leisure children use their literacy and numeracy skills and understandings in practical ways. Children practice their skills and understandings and use a range of tools and media to express themselves, connect with others and extend themselves’. Educators have provided us with examples of experiences and practices in this area. Here are a few relatively simple, but literacy and numeracy rich, examples:

• at an outside school hours care service for children with additional needs, a teenager proudly displayed the sushi shop and cash takings he had made from paper
• at a long day care service, an educator took a group of children into the local community to interview people about how they use numbers in their work
• another outside school hours care educator worked with children on developing and writing the rules of a game, keeping score and keeping track, ensuring everyone had the same number of turns
• young children attending a long day care centre wrote the book for orientation into the service
• another service encouraged children and adults to use wooden blocks to describe and represent quantities and patterns.

There are many resources to help educators promote and extend children’s thinking and learning in this area. Resources Early Literacy and Numeracy Self-Guided Learning Package- Community Child Care Victoria under IPSP program Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework Educators’ Guide to the Framework for School Age Care Zimmer Twins is an online resource allowing children to create animated movies, save their work and share it. It is a great way to engage children in literacy and allow them to explore story telling through technology. Toddlers as mathematicians? by Shiree Lee Early Childhood Australia Australian Journal of Early Childhood Improving Mathematics Learning Outcomes for Young Aboriginal Children by Marina Papic and Judy McKay-Tempest, Gowrie Australia Let’s Read Resources ECA NQS Professional Learning Program - Play-based approaches to literacy and numeracy Finding a balanced approach to early language and literacy learning and development and You can’t put forks in the toilet from Reflections Gowrie Australia Winter 2014 Issue 55 Self-authored e-books: Expanding young children’s literacy experiences and skills from Early Childhood Australia explores using self-authored e-books as a vehicle for helping early childhood professionals to engage young children in new literacy and language experiences. Books, bytes and brains: The implications of new knowledge for children’s early literacy learning Liza Hopkins reviews contemporary literacies and infant brain development to re-examine the foundations of literacy learning in the early years. Playing with maths: Facilitating the learning in play-based learning from the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood highlights the role of play in young children’s mathematics learning and examines the teacher’s role in facilitating and extending this.