The Workshop Reading Centre

Time for lift off into 2024

The beginning of the school year can be an exciting but daunting experience, especially for those starting a new school. Even more so, for those who have difficulty in communicating and interacting with other children.

School can be hard so keep in mind your child’s well-being and allow them to discuss their feelings, help them to label their emotions and ensure they feel reassured and supported.

Here are some tips and tricks to build on important areas of development and skills needed to succeed at school.

Play simple games such as Simon Says, sound recognition games (e.g. I Spy) can aid development of attention, listening skills and phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words. All of these skills are vital in learning to read and write which is one of the more important skills learnt in the early school years.

Other ways to develop phonological awareness is to clap syllables in words, singing nursery rhymes

and sounding out new words. When sounding out words it is vital to use the letter sounds (e.g. a for apple), instead of the letter name (e.g. a in ape). Pre-literacy skills can be encouraged before even going to school by reading bed time stories with your children, letting them turn the page and talkingabout characters or what’s happened in the book. Talking about what they think will happen before reading the book encourages imaginative thinking. This is a fun bonding activity that you can do, no matter what age your child is!

Children are required to sit and listen, and to follow instructions for longer periods of time. You can help your child to focus on listening by calling their name to get their attention and getting down to their level when giving them instructions. It can also be helpful to give your child rules for good listening, such as staying quiet when someone is talking to you, looking at the person talking and listening to all the words. Social skills are vital in making friends and developing connections. Set up play dates with other children, engage in turn taking games and board games with your child or cooperative tasks such as baking a cake.

Your child needs your support in order to feel nurtured and allow them to grow and learn to their best ability! We are here to help along the way.

If you notice your child is having difficulty with communicating their feelings, needs and wants, as well as speech and language difficulties or preliteracy, reading and writing skills are difficult, please get in touch with us!

We have the following services on offer:

Remedial reading: assessment and intervention on solidifying foundational reading skills and fluency, as well as comprehension skills and developing confidence in reading and writing
Speech Therapy: assessment and intervention for speech, language, fluency and voice difficulties.
Cellfield Reading Program: focusing specifically on the treatment of reading disorders
Counselling: supporting individuals of all ages on their journey to well-being and personal development.

-Caitlin Sassen