Is it okay to teach children literacy too early?

Since I gave Manman my first parent-teacher conference since she entered elementary school more than half a month ago, my latest updates have focused on the connection between kindergarten and primary school. I know that this is also a hot topic that parents of 5-6 year olds are most concerned about. The future is unknown, and many parents have various worries and concerns about first grade. And I am a mother to a first-grade kid, and my feelings and thoughts are the most profound at this time. I wish I could tell everyone all my experiences and pitfalls I have encountered. We talk about children\’s concentration, knowledge of textbooks, reading comprehension, literacy and writing, so that everyone can be prepared and don\’t be as busy as I was in first grade. After reading my sharing, many friends said, \”Manma, your content is so practical. After reading it, you probably know what to do, but don\’t feel anxious.\” This is my purpose and hope, so that children can come prepared. However, I have also seen some friends who are very nervous, complaining that now the first grade requires children to have such a large amount of literacy, and they have to quickly let the children who have just entered kindergarten start to read! This message made me feel nervous, oh! Please don’t overdo it (this is also what I fear the most.) It is true that after school, almost all knowledge learning and understanding is based on literacy, and the most important task in early childhood is also literacy, but! The sooner you learn to read, the better. So please don’t misunderstand me. I said that reading before school is very important, but I didn’t say that it should start so early. Parents and friends, please stay calm, this matter is not so urgent. I personally suggest that you wait until your children are in kindergarten at least before starting to teach them how to read in a systematic way. Before, just let nature take its course, don\’t be too deliberate. If the child is interested in the words on the picture book or street sign light box, that’s great. Just tell the child what the words are and guide the child to observe, think and summarize the rules. That’s fine. If you are not very curious about words, then just follow your child. It is not too late to develop the awareness of writing after the age of 5 or even 5 and a half years. Some people may ask, if the literacy requirements for children in first grade are so high, why does Man\’s mother still prevent them from starting early? Don’t forget that I majored in child education and developmental psychology. When taking the two courses of general psychology and brain science, the teacher pointed out that recognizing words too early is not conducive to the growth of children. Children\’s cognitive development and brain development have staged tasks. 0-4 years old is the formal stage for children to develop perceptions, emotions, and emotions. The brain is easier to capture, experience, and understand visual things, such as colors and images—this is also an important stage for the development of imagination and creativity. At this time, children mainly experience the intuitive world through their five senses and form their initial experience. They are still unable to understand abstract logical things. It is not until around age 5 that the brain begins to develop logical abilities. Texts are not pure graphics but rather abstract symbols, and the process of literacy is also a process of brain symbolization. The process of seeing the glyph of a word and associating it into a certain word in the brain uses abstract thinking. If children become literate at a relatively young age, the process of symbolization will advance. If the brain is used to develop logical abilities, it will naturally limit perception and emotion.The development of emotions. It may not be obvious in childhood, but in adolescence, some children who did not develop their emotions well in childhood may have problems such as difficulty in developing and perfecting their emotions, affecting the development of their inner sound personality, and not developing their social skills smoothly. In other words, literacy too early not only does not comply with the development laws of the brain, but also causes developmental compensation. So we only start sending our children to school when they are 6-7 years old! 3-6 years old is called preschool, which is the stage before children learn, and it is not an age suitable for development and learning. Let me give you an example from life: when we take our children to read picture books, should we read the words first or the pictures first? As a left-hander, I think better with images, and I read words first. The same goes for children. If they don\’t know the words, they will look at the pictures. Once they know the words, they won\’t see the pictures. The teacher also said that if children learn words too early, they will be more likely to focus on the pronunciation of the words, which will deprive them of their attention on other things, limit the child\’s cognitive development, and is not conducive to the development of the brain\’s multiple intelligences. Now everyone understands why I didn’t let Manman learn and read more in advance before going to school, right? It’s really not that I’m a Buddhist, or that I don’t have a clear idea, but that I’m thinking more long-term. Although there is a lot of pressure in the first grade, I still hope that he can develop naturally in the early childhood stage. Learning is important, but physical and mental health is also important. Moreover, Manman was already on the younger side in the same class, equivalent to starting school at just 6 years old. He was a little worse physically, mentally, and cognitively. I was even more reluctant to make things difficult for him in advance. It\’s just that the pressure in the first grade is indeed a bit high, and my children and I are quite uncomfortable, so after weighing the pros and cons, I suggest that everyone should connect some young children in the kindergarten class to prepare for literacy and writing. It is also a temporary measure that takes into account both the future and the present, and I sincerely share my experience with everyone. But my educational philosophy is still to adapt to the child\’s development patterns as much as possible and give room for growth. Let me tell you about literacy… The latest and most complete 2023 [Kindergarten, Junior High School, and High School] premium VIP course catalog for all subjects and famous teachers, click to view now! Fortunately, our Chinese characters have the rules of character creation such as pictograms, meanings, meanings, and phonetic sounds. Looking back, most Chinese characters also have radicals, which gradually evolved from a vivid picture. For example, a person is like a side view of the human body, a woman is like a woman sitting with her hands bent and her knees bent, water is like running water, fire is like a burning scene… these are pictograms. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍For example, Cong, like two people following one after another, means to follow; For example, Lin, using two trees means clusters of trees, which means a forest… This is understandable. For example, the root of the tree is pointed out by the horizontal line below the word \”木\”, which is the root of the tree; and the end of the tree is pointed by the horizontal line above the character \”木\” by the end of the tree. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍For example, in the morning, when the sun rises at Chen time, that time is morning, the day is the form side, and Chen is the sound side sound from chen… This is the form sound. If I don’t want my children to become symbols too early, then IWe use pictures to draw out the meaning of words to help children understand the glyphs. This is a good way. It not only conforms to children\’s visual cognition, but also tells children a lot of potential historical and cultural knowledge. I am currently using this method to help Manman learn Chinese characters. The effect is much better than the traditional logical method of talking about stroke structure and radicals, and it is easier for children to accept and remember. There are many books and picture books on the origin and development of Chinese characters on the market now. You can buy some and study them with your children. ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍I have these two sets of Chinese character picture books for children. One set is \”Chinese Characters Are Drawn\” and \”Chinese Characters Are Spelled\” by Little Elephant Chinese Characters. ‍‍‍‍‍‍One has hieroglyphic characters….One has pictographic characters. The other is \”Chinese Characters Are Interesting!\” written by Liu Yong. 》This book starts with oracle bone inscriptions and graphics, and combines different fonts to experience the evolution of characters from ancient times to the present, understand the development of culture, and help children understand the meaning of Chinese characters. You can also find out from the text that there are not many specific explanations…so you can also buy some books to supplement your knowledge of Chinese characters. I bought the whole series of \”Chinese Character Tree\”… The content is quite rich, with many allusions and cultural explanations… I also have a copy of \”Shuowen Jiezi\” by Zhonghua Book Company, but I bought the wrong one, I should have bought 5 books in one set of versions. With this one in my hand, even if I hold the \”Ancient Chinese Dictionary\” I can\’t understand a few sentences. It\’s too difficult. I\’d rather buy the three complete versions with all the annotations and translations. The content is approachable. Of course, if you don’t have much interest in Chinese characters, there is no need to stock up on books. Searching through a lot of information and annotations will be enough to cope with your baby.