Participant –What does this mean to me?

Participant –What does this mean to me?
How do very young children pragmatically use and apply the purposes, structures and features of
early literacy and numeracy concepts through their play and everyday life experiences?

As young children grow, they draw on their already learned skills, assimilating the knowledge and skills that they already have and adding on to this knowledge, with their newly learned experiences.  The minds of young children are very vivid and open to new possibilities, imaginations and learning.  Experiences that they have already had, are stored in their memory banks unconsciously.  For example, children will better acquire good reading skills by reading and re-reading books that they have already learned to read.  Absorbing the visual illustrations, along  with  sounds and words that are similarly remembered, builds up the children's confidence and learning abilities. Saying words and letters out aloud to children by educators and parents, using repetition also for numbers; is another building block.  Children learn quickly,  especially if they can see and hear the same letters and sounds or numbers being repeated.  Of the five senses, sight is the most important.  It is possible to assume that children will remember well-illustrated words and numbers, well after having been exposed to them over a period of time.  Confidence builds further confidence and as children experience varying play and life experiences, they unconsciously draw on their knowledge already gained.  In this way then, children can continue to grow and gain literary and numerical understanding.  Wherever possible then, it is important that the fundamental reading, writing and arithmetic skills that are learned at an early age, are presented in a highly visual and textual manner that children are able to readily absorb and understand.   In this way, children pragmatically use and apply these skills throughout their play and everyday life experiences.