Page 97 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Learning to know letters

It is sometimes thought that children

should first learn to read and learning
to write follows later. In reality

development of various parts of
literacy runs in parallel and some

children learn to read via writing.
Research by David K. Dickinson and

Lori Lyman DiGisi (1998) showed that

in classes where reading and writing
where integrated, results of literacy

tests were higher.

Tähtede õppimine algab enamasti oma nimetähtedest,
mitte tervest tähestikust.
Foto Pexels, conntobro.

In the case of the Estonian language the following skills can be determined and similarly
to phonemic awareness they are not strictly hierarchical:

• the concept that some symbols exist for reading;

• scribbling and ‘reading’ in pretence of letter-like forms;
• recognising singular letters (first letter of one's name, M for mummy);

• recognising one’s name in full, recognising some other words (e.g. a brand name)

in full;
• knowing and writing letters in one’s name (also in a random order);

• recognising some well-known (capital) letters, an ability to name them by sound

and letter name, ability to find a letter in text or on keyboard;
• a skill in writing some well-known letters understandably;

• knowledge of correct letter forms and how to write them;

• recognising all letters (including foreign ones);
• knowledge of lower-case letters (printed);

• knowing the alphabet;

• knowledge of different fonts and logotypes (block capitals, computer fonts, Gothic
letters).