CHILDHOOD BOOKS - MY EXPERIENCE AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON CLA:

When we take a trip down memory lane and think back to our favourite bedtime stories when we were younger, what's likely to come to mind are tales of adventure and friendship that are summarised with a moral life lesson. We can recall bright colours and characters with unique attributes, mystical lands and protagonists greeted by conflict, tales of wizards, beasts and talking animals. These stories appeal to a child's imagination and teaches them the awe-inspiring universes it's possible to escape to via literature. But these texts play a pivotal role in the language development of the children who are consuming them and act as a blueprint for their debut in the world of language and speech. 

When asked to delve into my childhood I felt welcomed by nostalgia and greeted by my fictional friends I'd experienced a lot with. One of the first set of books I can remember reading when I started school were the Oxford Reading Tree stories featuring Biff, Chip, Kipper and their dog Floppy. These books perfectly fit the conventions for young children's literature as they featured repetition, large pictures and were based on topics that would engage children. They also offer books on phonics, so parents are able to maintain the standard of support in school but at home. The blurb of one of these books reads 'created by reading experts and based on current teaching practise, the lively stories, humorous illustrations and clear progression will ensure your child succeeds'. The stripped back and relaxed nature of these books are what, in my opinion, makes them triumphant. By sticking to the same characters there's familiarity so the child can focus on the language and plot rather than gaining perspective on the characters and their role in the story. 

It's also a common trait, according to Todorov, for any story/narrative to follow the same structure. This structure consists of 5 parts: equilibrium - the happy and normal start, disruption - a problem or dilemma arises, realisation - when the characters acknowledge the problem, restored order - when the conflict is resolved, second equilibrium - when all is set back to normal. Children's books often follow this structure, especially educational books designed for language development. This is because all young children need in order to engage with a story is a basic plot line and any twists or cliff hangers wouldn't be effective. We also have to think back to the primary purpose of the book and that's to evoke language development. 

D-O-G, dog, C-A-T, cat, F-I-SH, fish. This is the simple structure we are familiar with when it comes to children learning pronunciation and it's also the area that requires the most attention. Illustrations can aid this process as children can recognise the image and speak the word it's associated with, however understanding letters and the sounds they produce individually as well as together is a tough lesson. A common confusion that leads children to making mistakes is the similarity between certain letters visually. Letters like, b, d, p and q all feature a circle with a line but the variation between them is where the line is. Lower case f and t look similar and so do j and i. These complications make it very hard for children to distinguish between each letter and thus they mix the sounds they make. In schools this is avoided by teaching little rhymes or phrases such as: b sees d and the word bed looks like a bed.

Source: http://www.theschoolrun.com/common-phonics-problems-sorted

Blends also cause a problem in phonetic development as suddenly the individual sounds make a totally different sound when put with another letter. Even as a teenager, I've noticed when a friend of mine is reading or if I'm reading aloud I slow down before attempting to pronounce a new word and think of it in relation to other similar looking words to make an educated guess at the pronunciation. And this is the same approach young children take. Experience and practise are key to mastering blends and as the child gains confidence in spotting a particular phoneme they will eventually be able to guess blends correctly without any hints.