Table of Contents

1. Learning to Listen -Discrimination of sounds -Social Listening -Developing aural attention span -Developing auditory memory -Supporting children's listening 2. Time to talk -Compensating for language delay -Talk during child-initiated activities -Vocabulary development -Repetition and innovation -Developing expressive language -Social language skills -Supporting talk during imaginative play 3. Music, movement and memory -Development of steady beat, rhythm and rhyme -Articulation and song -Music and auditory memory -Left-right brain interaction -A musical setting 4. Storytime! -Story-telling: developing listening skills -Story-telling: developing speaking skills -Reading aloud - five a day! -Developing imaginative engagement -Nurturing children's imaginations 5. Learning about print -Awareness of print -Alphabet knowledge -Concepts about literacy -Sight words -Supporting children's involvement with print 6. Tuning into sound -Phonological awareness -Phonemic awareness -Phonics: sound-symbol associations -Supporting the development of phonic knowledge 7. Moving into writing -Handwriting movements -Letter formation -Pencil control -Shared writing -Supporting emergent writing 8. Switching on the searchlights -The Foundations of Literacy curriculum -Fitting it in -Creating the Culture -Smooth transitions Appendices -Language development -PREPARE chart -The phonemes of English -Handwriting groups and jingles for large-scale practice -Stages in emergent writing -Left-handed children -FoL audit sheet for practitioners working with 3-4 year olds -FoL audit sheet for practitioners working with 4-5 year olds -FoL audit sheet for practitioners working with 5-6 year olds -Phonics revisited Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stages and FoL Further reading Recommended resources

Promotional Information

This fully revised fourth edition outlines seven strands of practice for three to six-year old children, designed to develop the skills, concepts and knowledge underpinning literacy in the early years.

About the Author

Sue Palmer, a former primary headteacher, has written more than 200 books and educational television programmes on aspects of literacy.  She writes regularly for the Times Education Supplement and Child Education, provides in-service courses in schools, universities and LEAs throughout the UK and acts as a literacy consultant to the DfES, many educational publishers and the BBC.  She has contributed to several National Literacy Strategy training packages and advised on the CBeebies Razzledazzle programmes and BBC Schools Listen and Play radio series.  Her most recent books, Toxic Childhood: how modern life is damaging our children and what we can do about it and Detoxing Childhood (both Orion Publishing) are aimed at parents as well as teachers.