To help your child become an expert at dictation, there are some very fun techniques you can use at home! Advice from Sylvain Grandserre, primary school teacher.
Here are some homemade tips from primary school teacher Sylvain Grandserre to help your child become an ace at dictation :
Prepare for dictation at 5-6 years old:
Having your child spell words helps them recognize the names of letters. Although children learn to sing the alphabet very quickly in school, picking up isolated letters and recognizing them is an interesting challenge to put up on a regular basis.
When it is time to go shopping, parents can ask their children to write up the shopping list . The bread, the milk, the bottle … All these words which are not necessarily obvious to him from a spelling point of view. These small daily writings will allow him to recognize words little by little and to integrate them more easily for use in class.
Prepare for dictation at 6-7 years old
Every evening, work out a sentence of the day with your child about what he has experienced during the day , an event or a sentence of his choice. The idea? Allow him to build a clear thought and spell it as best he can. You don’t need to be demanding and push him to write a long sentence, but rather to write something simple and understandable, easily appropriate.
In the digital age, parents can think of printing photos and having their child comment on them in writing . It’s fun and very rewarding for him. Do not hesitate to suggest that he type his little sentence on the computer.
Reading stories together in the evening will allow him to have a good visual recognition of the spelling, it is important not to hesitate to practice reading together. It is also a pleasant moment to share with the family!
To send invitations, do not hesitate to ask children to write them themselves and make small personalized texts. It is necessary to include the learning of writing in a social practice, it is the most important.
Prepare for dictation at 8-9 years old:
Why not offer a diary to your child so that he can put there – even with a few spelling mistakes – his thoughts? He will thus get into the habit of transforming what he has in his head into a written sentence.