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Understanding your child’s progress in reading and numbers

Not every child will be a budding Emily Bronte or Stephen Hawking, but a good grounding in the essentials of early literacy and numeracy can help them on the way. Adele Amorsen discusses how parents can be more certain of their child’s progress as they master the basics of reading, writing and maths in the early years of school.

Be informed
Informing yourself is the number one rule! During the first few years most primary schools provide information about curriculum, academic expectations, new forms of assessment and reporting. Talk regularly with teachers (but avoid an intense conversation at 8.55am) and stay informed and up-to-date with current practice by attending meetings, reading newsletters and asking questions. Many state and national education initiatives, particularly those involving literacy and numeracy, have websites that help parents understand the curriculum expectations of each year level.

Be involved
Get involved with your child’s schooling. You can help out in the canteen, on sports days and excursions – even better, help out with reading groups once a week. Any involvement you can have with your child’s school will help support good communication and relationships. Regular involvement in your child’s classroom will help you understand expectations and progress for that particular year.

Understand how progress is measured
There are many ways for teachers of young children to measure progress:

• carefully observing children’s behaviour and attitude
• looking at work samples
• making notes on their particular strengths, weaknesses and perceived needs.

Teachers often use this basic information to then plan programs and lessons to suit the differing needs of children in the class.

Beyond that, different schools and teachers go about assessment in a variety of ways. In many schools there will be basic class-based regular tests to monitor progress, like weekly spelling or number facts test. Many schools also have school-based testing where children at a particular year level are given the same assessment piece to measure their progress against an agreed acceptable standard for that school.

Most Australian states perform statewide formal testing at certain year levels, again to measure progress against a set of indicators or descriptors which represent some common agreed acceptable standards for a particular area of education. National benchmarks, which are a set of nationally agreed standards in literacy and numeracy, also help teachers to gauge student performance in years three, five and seven.

Understand what is assessed
The aim and focus of assessment has changed considerably in line with modern education practice. Once, a reading test may have involved the child reading from a book or list of words to check accuracy. These days, information on each child is collected over many weeks and could include elements such as:

• a child’s attitude towards reading
• their level of effort
• how fluent they are when reading
• comprehension skills
• level and type of strategies used (eg how do they go about tackling an unknown word with no assistance)
• self correction rate
• use of pictures in the text to help gain meaning.

Similarly, maths is no longer a matter of recalling facts and rules, although this is still taught and assessed. Maths assessments now look at how students apply known information to solve new problems or use facts in new situations, as well as the application of attitude and effort in these situations.

What’s ‘normal’ and when to seek support
In the first few years of school there can be a huge variation in when and how young children master early literacy and numeracy skills (commonly referred to as individual differences). The difference between boys and girls can also be considerable, so the range of ‘normal’ can be quite large!

Understanding what’s normal and knowing when to seek support is important, so make sure you are informed and have a good understanding of what progress reports are telling you.

If you are concerned with your child’s progress, don’t hesitate to speak with the class teacher. If you have particular concerns, ask how your child is progressing in relation to the expected standards for that year level. Use parent-teacher interviews as an interactive discussion – don’t just expect the teacher to tell you how your child is doing. Ask questions, voice any concerns and if helpful, take in some work samples or reading books from home and ask specific questions in relation to these.

If you feel your child has not progressed to the level expected for their age, ask about the support that the school provides. Teachers can provide extra support through a modified program in the classroom. Many schools have specialist support staff who work with the class teacher to design a program to help children develop their skills both in the classroom and, in some cases, in specialist classes. Some schools have ‘recovery’ programs in place (these are often funded by governments to enable the employment of extra staff) where children can attend extra specialist lessons to help them catch up.

You can also enrol your child with a private tutor outside of school. These blocks of 30 minutes or an hour once a week can really make a difference as the tutor is able to focus on your child and her specific learning needs. Ideally the tutor and class teacher should communicate about your child’s strengths and weaknesses in order to avoid confusion or differences in teaching approaches.

Depending on the nature of the problem, sometimes the best support can be extra help from parents at home. If this is the case, it helps to have a good understanding of your child’s difficulties and specifically how to help. Again, you should have a discussion with your child’s teacher so that your support at home complements what is happening at school.

Getting it right
Children who struggle in a particular area usually know it. So the way you and your child’s teacher go about providing that extra support can have an impact on how she perceives herself as a learner. If your child is young, explain briefly and simply why they may need some extra help and how you plan to go about it. Then try to keep any support sessions brief, fun and light. Be careful with timing – extra lessons at the end of a long, frustrating and tiring school day can be very counterproductive. Mornings or brief sessions on the weekend may be more helpful. Parents’ attitude and approach to learning and supporting children through their school years is often a powerful role model that can make all the difference in how children approach the lifetime of learning that is ahead of them.

Physical health checks
Particularly with young children, it is important to rule out any possible physical problems that may be hindering their development. If you suspect some learning difficulties, it may be helpful to approach your doctor or pediatrician for a basic check of your child’s:

• Vision
• Hearing
• Speech and language development
• Cognitive development
• General physical development
  

Interpreting teacher and reporting jargon
Teaching has its own set of phrases and words that often only have meaning for those who use them on a daily basis. If teachers use words that are unfamiliar to you, don’t be afraid to ask specifically what the word means in relation to your child’s progress.
Often report cards for young children use terminology like ‘early emergent’, ‘emergent’, ‘developing’ or ‘proficient’. Many of these terms apply to the way in which children learn.

• When a new concept is introduced, most young children need it revised and reviewed in many different ways over a long time period before they become proficient at using it.
• They need to firstly understand a new concept, then spend some time working out how it fits in with what they already know.
• This needs to be followed up with opportunities to use it over and over again in familiar circumstances before using it in new situations.

The terminology used above is an attempt to indicate where a young child is in this lengthy learning process – its helpful to think of it as a continuum. Again, if you are unsure what it all means for your child, ask specific questions of the class teacher.

National benchmarks
In March 1997 Education Ministers agreed on a new national goal:

‘… that every child leaving primary school should be numerate, and be able to read, write and spell at an appropriate level.’

They also agreed on a sub goal that:

‘every child commencing school from 1998 will achieve a minimum acceptable literacy and numeracy standard within four years.’

Find more information about the national benchmarks at:

>> http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/policy_initiatives_reviews/key_issues/literacy_numeracy/national_literacy_and_numeracy_benchmarks.htm
>> http://online.curriculum.edu.au/litbench/build.asp?pg=0