Children’s learning

How to Choose the Best Tuition Center for Your Child

September 17, 2021By illac_admin

With the myriad of tuition centers out there, what are the few considerations you’ll need to take in order to pick the best tuition center for your child?

Consider these factors:

1. Teacher-Student Ratio

The reason why you are looking for a tuition programme for your child is either because you want your child to get that extra help, or you want your child to reach his/her potential. Either way, you want your child to be given extra attention. Therefore, try looking for classes with not more than 8 students. The bigger the class, the less attention the teacher can render for your child. That being said, a very experienced teacher with excellent classroom management and high energy will definitely be able to handle a larger class.

And that leads us to the next point.

2. Qualifications of Teachers

The experience and qualification of the teachers employed in the center are very important too. The best player may not be the best coach. The same goes for teachers. A scholar may not be the best teacher unless he/she is a scholar in pedagogy (teaching methodology). It is therefore, very important to enrol your child in a center that emphasizes teaching methods and child psychology because such a center will surely produce teachers and a curriculum that really help to develop your child.

However, most centers focus instead, on employing teachers who are MOE-trained and/or scholars. Having experienced teachers who are also trained in child psychology will be the most ideal. ILLAC is one center that focuses on employing not just teachers who are MOE-trained, ILLAC also develops and trains their teachers in child psychology so they are equipped with the knowledge of helping students overcome their weaknesses and develop their strengths.

3. Who Manages The Center

Tuition is a billion-dollar industry in Singapore. It is inevitable that centers are run by profit-oriented people who are inexperienced in education. When looking for a center, pay attention to the management team. A profit-oriented management team will focus more on profiting than on developing your child to reach his/her potential. i.e. A huge classroom is a result of trying to profit rather than teach optimally.

4. Curriculum

Singapore’s curriculum for the primary level is actually very unique. The PSLE is entirely developed locally, unlike the O Levels or A levels that are developed overseas and used internationally. Therefore, when choosing a tuition center for your child, ensure that the curriculum is designed by and developed for locals.

For example, some may think that we should send our children to native speakers of the English language to learn proper English. If the objective is to learn proper pronunciation and intonation, yes, that is agreeable. However, if it is to learn proper grammar and sentence structure, a native speaker will not be the best teacher because they grew up speaking the language without such difficulties. They will never understand why our children cannot understand the difference between “I have done my homework” versus “I had done my homework” because the difference is obvious to them.

Another example will be imported centers. A foreign curriculum, even when translated, will not teach Mathematics the same way we do in Singapore. Singapore’s Mathematics emphasizes a lot on model drawing and these techniques are not commonly learned in other countries. Therefore, a foreign curriculum will unlikely cover model drawing as a problem solving method in their curriculum.

The Best Tuition Center

To summarise, the best tuition center for your child should have a low teacher-student ratio of less than 1-8. Secondly, the teachers should be experienced not just in teaching, but trained in child psychology to be able to develop your child to reach his/her potential. The management team that manages the center should be trained in pedagogy to be able to make the best decisions for their students. Lastly, the curriculum that the center uses should be developed by locals.

Good luck in finding the best tuition center for your child!

How to maximise your child’s online learning

July 7, 2021By illac_admin

Advancements in technology coupled with the pandemic has led to an exponential shift towards online learning. We are increasingly seeing children having Zoom lessons with their teachers and even co-curricular activities being carried out on screen. With more time spent looking at their devices, it is inevitable that children may end up being distracted rather than being focused on their studies.

For you to maximise your child’s online learning, here are tips you can utilise!

1.Set online rules with your child.

Have a talk with your child before online lessons to come up with some rules they can adhere to during their screen time. Have them write it down on paper and even decorate it to leave a positive impression. Afterwards, paste it up somewhere visible. Some rules can include – “Give your teacher your fullest attention”, “Answer questions”, “Listen to teacher’s instructions” etc. Reward your child with praises and even little stickers when they follow the rules they have created! These rules help sharpen their self-regulation and inhibitory control as well!

2. During lessons, be close by.

Being in the vicinity of your child during their online lessons can help you monitor their progress. You do not necessarily have to be constantly supervising them, frequent check-ins on how they are doing should suffice. During the check-ins, observe if they are paying attention and aptly engage them on what they have learnt by asking them questions related to their lesson. Your looming presence will also encourage your child to stay focused.

3. Ask your child questions after the lesson.

Building on the second point, you can also have your child tell you about what they had learnt during their lesson. Add onto it as well with your own knowledge whenever possible to encourage mental flexibility! Displaying a positive interest in your child’s learning will motivate them to wow you every session, guaranteeing heightened attention during their learning.

4. Check if they have additional work on-line or off-line.

After a lesson, your child’s teacher/instructor may give them work to do. Check if they have any and if they do, encourage your child to finish up their work diligently within a given duration (memory of fresh knowledge tend to slip out of mind without practice after the 3rd day). This trains your child to stick to a fixed routine and develop the beneficial habit of completing their work first before partaking in other recreational activities. This can help your child better retain the information during their lesson as they can apply it immediately to their work while the memory is still fresh (within 3 days!).

It can be tough having to juggle between your child’s learning and other pressing commitments. Knowing that you have done the absolute best for both you and your child is the way to go! Moderation is key, pace yourself and your child to avoid burning out while learning or working from home and stop to refresh and energise when needed.

Home Practices to Improve Working Memory of Children Ages 3 to 6

April 28, 2021By illac_admin

With society’s increasingly high standards in education and academics, it is without saying that we are in a relentless rat race to provide the best education for our children. Whilst having enrichment lessons may suffice, why not go the extra mile to practice at home by honing your child’s executive functions.

Executive Functions are mental skills which include Working Memory, Mental Flexibility and Inhibitory Control; which the lack thereof can have detrimental impact on our daily lives and potentially, academic performance. Executive functioning skills develop exponentially in early childhood and into adolescence, therefore it is paramount to prime our young ones early.

To start off, let’s focus on Working Memory, where the brain is engaged to hold multiple information at the same time while simultaneously processing it (Miller, 1960). An active stimulation of working memory helps reduce irrelevant information that interferes with the task at hand (Brogaard, 2020) which will be extremely helpful when your child enters Primary School.

Here are some simple home practices you and your child can do to improve Working Memory:

Games

Memory games such as Spot the Differences can be fun and interactive ways for your child to improve their working memory. Show your child 2 similar looking images side by side and have them describe the differences they saw. Amp up the difficulty level by showing them just one picture for a few seconds, reintroduce both pictures and then have them describe the one they saw.

Why not get creative as well with different items in the house, by removing or swapping items around, ask your child if they see anything out of place.

Another game would be Card Matching! Use any deck of cards you have on hand such as Uno or Old Maid that has pairs of identical cards. Flip them around and have a mini competition with your child to see who can match up all the cards first! For an even greater challenge, have them place the cards back at their original positions after the game ends.

Apply Memorisation Tactics

Such tactics can come in the form of active reading, visualisation, and making connections.

When reading, encourage your child to read out loud and ask questions related to the material to prolong the retention of information.
Prompt your child to create images of what they have read or seen in their head so that they have a mental picture which they can refer to.
Help your child make fun connections to better remember information. This can be done through the use of Mnemonics (e.g., Abbreviating the Colours of the Rainbow into a made-up name Roy. G. Biv) or associating a tune to the spelling of a complex word.

Chores

Yes, you heard me right. Chores are fantastic ways to improve working memory. Do keep in mind that working memory is not just about cognitively solving arithmetical problems, it is also evident in whether one is able to bake a cake without forgetting the steps.

Have your child build up the good habit of writing down what they can do to help at home and guide them in organising this information into smaller pieces. Simpler exercises can include giving them instructions on which of their toys go into the box first and have them pack it in the correct arrangement. You can also have them assist you with preparing meals by reciting the quantity of ingredients without constantly referring to the recipe.

Simple multi-sensory methods like these go a long way and you are also building up a sense of responsibility in them!

At the end of the day, do observe your child and understand what appeals to them and keeps them willing to do more. Every child has their own pace when learning thus as adults, we should provide them with the adequate tools to do so. The list of at-home practices is inexhaustive, like and follow us for many more such recommendations for you.

How to kickstart the love for learning from a young age?

August 28, 2019By illac_admin

You must have heard of the old adage, “If you love your job, you wouldn’t have to work a day in your life” and it applies to children too! The love for learning can make them love every single activity, every single subject, and every single learning opportunity. Imagine your child being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about learning, would you ever need to worry about their academic performance?

What are needed to kickstart the love for learning?

1) Strengthen their working memory

Working memory is used to hold multiple information at the same time. For example, I gave you 3 apples, you ate 1 and bought another 4, how many apples do you have? Your working memory is actively engaged in order to hold and process the information given.

Children who have good working memory are able to handle complicated tasks like “picking up their shoes, putting it onto the shoe rack, before queuing up to enter the classroom” all as per instructed by the teacher. These may sound easy but children with weak working memory might “line up immediately without picking up the shoes”, or, “pick up the shoe and queue up without going to the shoe rack”.

Children with good working memory therefore excel in the classroom and are more motivated for new challenges ahead.

2) Enhance their Mental Flexibility

With so many things to learn and so many stimulants to handle everyday, it is stressful and taxing to the little brain. Enhancing on the mental flexibility of the child can help them learn to handle different situations using different “gears”, therefore, maneuvring safely and confidently around “obstacles”.

A child with poor mental flexibility might find it really hard to share, because he is used to playing with a toy his way. When another child comes along wanting to play together, he gets all uncomfortable, not able to process the new situation nor come out with a new playing method, thus cries out loud.

Mental Flexibility helps a child adapt to new situations and pick up new knowledge readily.

3) Heighten the Inhibitory Control

“Naughty”, “Hyper”, “Not focused”…

If these phrases sound familiar to you, no worries, they are used extensively on most children. It’s not their fault, children are meant to explore, play and be active. All that they need to learn are rules and boundaries. As soon as they are able to self-regulate their behaviour and manage their emotions according to the rules, they will be able to enjoy school and look forward to a great learning journey every day.

A heightened inhibitory control will allow your child to focus in class, capture teacher’s instructions and learn effectively. Imagine the praises they will get because of that.

Want to know more about how to improve your child’s working memory, mental flexibility and inhibitory control? Join us at our parenting workshop!

Date: 12 Oct 2019, Saturday
Time: 3 to 5pm
Venue: Westgate, #04-09 (beside Jurong East MRT station)

GEP or Not?

November 7, 2017By Clarice Lim

Congratulations! Now that your child has been selected for the GEP program, what’s next for him/her?

It might be an extremely straightforward answer for some parents but not so for some others. My opinion is, go for it. Reasons being:

PROS:

It’s a great confidence-booster.
- Your gifted child knows what “gifted” means and there is no better way to inform your child that he/she is really good at what he/she has been doing than being identified as the top 1% of the cohort in Singapore. A generally high self-confidence can lead to higher competency in everything else that the child attempts and an even stronger love for learning.
It’s a label that will follow your child for life (in a good way)
- We are always cautious about having labels put on our children but this is one label you want stuck to your child. With the label of being the top 1% of the cohort, your child can potentially find him/herself in more favourable situations in his/her adult-life, starting with the choice of secondary schools such as Anglo-Chinese School, Dunman High School, Hwa Chong Institution, Nanyang Girls’ High School, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary) and Raffles Institution which offers IP programs for GEP students.
- (Source: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/gifted-education-programme/development-and-growth)
Life is more than English, Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue!
- Not only will your child be changing school (if he/she is not already in one of the assigned GEP school), he/she will be experiencing more than the main-stream curriculum has to offer. The GEP program is administered under an enrichment model where the curriculum:
  - extends beyond the basic syllabus in depth and breadth
  - covers more advanced topics whenever necessary
  - caters more to individual needs and interests
  - makes interdisciplinary connections
  - encourages the investigation of real-life problems
  - promotes the examination of affective issues in the various subject areas

(Source: https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/gifted-education-programme/enrichment-model)

CONS:

GEP students are not necessarily top PSLE students
- GEP students are very busy. Not only do they attend mainstream lessons and continue mainstream work, they have projects, camps and out-of-the-classroom programs to participate in. Their PSLE results may not show their intelligence since PSLE preparation requires much drills and regurgitation which are not in the interest of GEP students.
Danger of complacency
- We all know and have heard of children who think they are too smart for their pants and end up failing in life. And yes, these are true/real stories that will happen if left unguided. Some GEP students end up doing really well but unfortunately, some will slide off the grid and end up in mediocre vocations just like any others. The key that parents need to remind themselves is to psychologically support their children in continuous hard work and effort so as to ground them in thoughts of continuous improvement of themselves.

For those parents who think that the GEP program will be extremely beneficial for their children, they are right. The program will bring children beyond what they are capable of and help them reach their peak potential.

However, you are NOT advised to “train” your child for GEP by signing up for GEP-training classes at centers that claim to “create” GEP students because talent, although can be groomed, cannot be “naturalised” into a child. Meaning, if your child is not naturally prepared for the high demands of the GEP program, you will only do more harm than benefits by artificially fitting your child into the GEP program. Think of the stress the child has to go through just to remain in that GEP class you have planted her/him into. If it works out, good for him/her. If it doesn’t, the poor kid suffers the repercussion for life.

Once again, congratulations for being the parent of a gifted child, embrace the learning journey with your child, support her/him throughout the program and remind them of the importance of effort to achieve great success in life.

Why Shouldn’t You Scold Your Child for Their Bad Results

October 28, 2017By Clarice Lim

It’s easy to blame your child for the bad results he received.

“Why didn’t you pay attention in class?!”

“You don’t know and you didn’t ask?!”

“What were you doing when the teacher was teaching?!”

These might have been your first thoughts but it’s really unfair for you to blame your child for her bad results simply because:

They didn’t mean it! – No child in the right mind will want to do badly in their examination. It is every human being’s instinct to want to excel in life. They may have been careless in their work or in your opinion, not “interested” in ensuring perfection. However, they are still young. They are like “L” plate drivers who are tentative and tend to make mistakes. Be understanding and forgiving, cut them some slack.

They don’t know what they don’t know. – Languages, Mathematics and Sciences are not topics that you can master just because you “pay attention” in class or “ask” when you don’t understand. We have to remind ourselves that not all teachers are made equal and not all learning environment is the same. Even if you pay 100% attention every time the teacher is teaching, you may not understand or be taught what you need to know in order to deal with the examination questions.

Let me give you a simple example, which of the following is correct?

a) An FBI agent

b) A FBI agent

If your answer is “a”, you are wrong. Because “F” is read as /effe/, which is sounded with an /e/ at the beginning thus you use an “an” in front of it (It’s actually not about the spelling but the sounds of the first syllable.).

If you got it right, good for you, you are one of the lucky ones who had gotten a great English teacher when you were young.

Now try this:

____________ more dustbins in school ___________ in reducing littering?

1) does, help 3) do, helps

2) do, help 4) does, helps

The answer is option 1). It is a real examination question picked out from a Primary 6 SA2 examination paper. This kind of question is not something that you will know how to answer without the guidance of a good English teacher and definitely not something that is taught actively in the textbook or even in class. However, they do, somehow, find their way into the test papers.

You will increase their anxiety level. – The only thing that will result from your scolding is their increased stress and anxiety level in dealing with their studies. Stress is defined as “a response that occurs when an individual faces the lack of resources to deal with the situation given”. Screaming at them simply makes them feel inadequate without them feeling like they are receiving the help that they need, this thus results in undue stress, which in turn affects learning.

To help your child, start them young. Be reasonable in your expectations of your child’s results. Right from Primary 1, do not scold them for the bad results. I’ve seen so many children who have tried forging signatures, hiding test papers, crying in school because they didn’t want to go home to their parents with their bad scores. Don’t give your children the undue stress that they are already facing on a daily basis. It’s not their fault to have done badly, they don’t know what they were not taught. Even if they were taught, they are not experts of the topic yet and therefore failure is simply one of the paths they had to walk on in their learning journey.

When you receive your child’s papers, look into it, analyse it, see what the problems are, be understanding and seek help for him/her. That’s only fair for your child.

The Importance of Hugs After Punishments

February 17, 2017By Clarice Lim

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Hugs are forms of affirmation and affection for the child to feel loved. In the Asian context, the words “I love you” might not come out easily therefore making “hugs” even more important as an alternative to show affection especially after a harsh punishment.

No parents enjoy punishing their children, but when the need arises, it is vital it is executed swiftly and with perfect orchestration.

Firstly, it must be pre-warned that a punishment is coming, but when the warning didn’t work, the punishment must be meted out. Once punishment is meted out, the child must always apologise for the misbehaviour and parents MUST hug them to let them know that they are punished because

They are loved and are forgiven
Mummy and Daddy want the best for him/her
Mummy and Daddy still love him/her no matter what

When hugs do not follow a harsh punishment, children will be left thinking

I’m naughty and not forgiven
Mummy and Daddy hate me
Daddy and Mummy don’t love me anymore

Hugging increases the bonding hormone oxytocin, allowing the child to bond back together with the parent again after receiving the punishment. Hugs also help to reduce the stress that they encounter while receiving the punishment. All the crying and begging not to be punished release lots of stress hormones that require the release of hormones like oxytocin to counter the negative effects.

When we hug our child affectionately after a punishment, the child will feel a sense of acceptance by the parent again and not be left to self-doubt and self-blame. This sense of acceptance is very important in affecting their overall growth and development.

A child who feels accepted and loved develops better learning ability as compared to a child who feels unaccepted and unloved. This is because the child is able to boost his self-esteem and confidence from feeling good about himself as well as his environment regardless of the mistakes that he may make. This thus helps the child develop the confidence to tackle the world’s challenges and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Don’t be afraid to mete out punishments, just remember to wrap it up with a warm and affectionate hug to encourage a positive environment for optimal growth and development.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to make my child smarter?

January 11, 2017By Clarice Lim

Don’t most of us want to know that? The answer is, fortunately, easier than we thought. Apart from good genes, we can make our children smarter by using the appropriate praises.

Research has shown that those who believed that ability is fixed, doesn’t feel that they need to put in effort to score in a test, they believe they will get good scores just because they are born smart. Even when they have gotten answers wrong, they won’t bother to find out what went wrong or how to fix it because that will show their disability in being smart.

Whereas those who believed that ability can be improved, will always want to know what the right answer is and how to get the right answer, so that they can become better. Therefore, they will always put in the effort to learn more and remember more. That’s not all, students who believe they can become smarter, are also more persistent in times of failure because, if you believe you can become better, you will naturally not be beaten by a one-off failure and look forward to correcting your failure.

What we can do as parents to instil the correct mindset towards ability/intelligence, will be to always emphasize on the effort, so your child will develop the mindset that it is effort that did the magic, or that it’s the lack of effort, that made one fail.

Praises that you should use will be like “Good effort!”, “Good persistence!”, “Good patience!” etc.

Never, NEVER, say, “So clever!”, “Smart boy!” etc. without injecting elements of ‘effort’ into the praise. The moment your child feels that he is born with it or he is naturally good, he should not need to put in the effort to improve, and he might never want to try again at the first instance of failure because he might have somehow “lost” the ability to be good.

For example, say “Good use of colours! I like your effort in making the picture so colourful.” Instead of “What a beautiful picture! You can draw really well.”

The difference between the 2 types of praises is that one tells specifically what is good, so the next time the child wants to create another picture, he will put in the effort to use more colours. In a way, you are not just encouraging your child to work hard, you are telling your child what exactly he is doing that is right.

In conclusion, in order to ensure your child becomes smarter, be sure to use the right words when praising. Praise the effort, the determination, the decision-making, the choice of level of difficulty, the improvement, the attitude and so on. Your child will thus want to learn more, know more, become more persistent in the face of failure and therefore, become smarter.

Image courtesy of jk1991 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A teacher’s viewpoints of the new PSLE grading system in 2021

July 14, 2016By Clarice Lim

Many websites have written about it, netizens have criticised it, but of course, some defended it as well. As a teacher of 14 years and a private educator of 3 years, I would like to present the changes and the impact it might have on children, their parents and the industry from a teacher’s point of view.

Everyone knows, every child is unique. Each of them have their own learning preferences, cognitive ability and achievement motivation etc. To analyse the new PSLE grading system, I will broadly categorise the children into 3 groups: The High Ability (HA), Middle Ability (MA) and Low Ability (LA). (Every teacher who has been through NIE will find these terms extremely familiar 😉 ).

From 2021 onwards, “pupils’ scores will not be benchmarked against their peers. Instead, they just have to do the best they can in each subject. Their marks will be converted according to the new scoring bands of Achievement Level (AL) 1- AL8.” (Straits Times, 13 Jul 2016)

(Source: MOE Press Release)

My analysis:

HA (AL1-2)

Before 2021, in order to get into a good school like Raffles Institution with cut-off point of 264 in 2015, a HA student can afford to get 85-89 raw score in any two of the subjects (given an average cohort score of 65, a standard deviation of 20 and that the other two subjects are 90 and above) and safely qualify for entry into RI.

After 2021, assuming RI’s cut-off maintains at the same standard which is around 6 (AL1 + AL1 + AL2 + AL2), the child will still need to work extra hard to score that 90 marks.

Conclusion: No difference for the HAs.

Discussion: In fact, the usual gauge parents use to determine if their child is doing well is usually their performance in school, which is not measured using T-scores. Many parents do not know the details of the calculation of T-scores and hardly talks about how the school cohort is performing compared to their own child because such information is not readily available. Therefore, to say that parents are pushing their kids for that one extra mark because T-scores are used is not accurate in my experience. Rather, parents are pushing their kids because they want their HA kids to safely land a spot in the best school and not risk a borderline performance. Thus, removing the T-score would not make a difference to the HA kids and their parents.

MA (AL3-5)

Before 2021, children who are scoring 65-84 are considered ‘A’ and ‘B’ grades in school and are usually treated as potentials for entry into good schools. All they need is a little pushing and they might just fall into the ‘A’ or ‘A*’ category, thus, these are usually the kids who are sent for tuition.

After 2021, these children will no longer be ‘A’ or ‘B’ but AL3, AL4 and AL5. Let’s say they wanted to go into Victoria School (2015 cut-off was 247), if they maintain the standard, and assuming the new established cut-off becomes 8 (using the same assumption as the calculation above for consistency), students scoring 84 will no longer stand a chance to enter schools such as ACS (I), Cedar Girls’, Anderson, Nan Hua, River Valley etc. Because at 84, they are merely an AL3. If they get AL3 for all subjects, they are only a 12, they would have missed the cut-off point by a lot. Unless they can score an AL 1 for 2 subjects and AL3 for the other 2 (=8), they could still make it. Of course, there are many possible combinations that can be tabled, but the point is, an average score of 84 for all subjects will not get you into Victoria under the new system.

Conclusion: More stressful times ahead for the MAs.

Discussion: But what about the lower MAs (those scoring 65-74)? They will be choosing schools with previous cut-offs of around 200 and postings will be based on order of choice rather than by their aggregate score. They were previously at least able to choose schools of a higher cut-off (around 218).

Yes, the range of choice has increased for these lower MAs so in a way it’s a good news and parents can indeed relax a bit if their kids are in this category. However, from the parents whom I have spoken to, “kiasu” and “non-kiasu” ones, the one common thing they talk about is to give their children the best that they can afford. Still holding the mindset that a good secondary school makes a whole lot of difference to the child, none of the parents I know will say “It’s ok, just maintain at this level will do, no need to work so hard.”

Therefore, the group of parents that the new changes are targeted at might just end up giving their children more help by sending them to more tuitions, buy more assessment books etc.

LA (AL 6-7)

Before 2021, scoring 60 would fetch the child a ‘B’ and a T-score of 190 (assuming the same is scored for all 4 subjects with the same calculation assumptions as above). The child is still eligible for Express Stream in 45 schools (according to 2015 cut-off points).

After 2021, scoring 60 would fetch the child an AL6. Assuming the same for all subjects, the child would have accumulated a total of AL24, thus failing the criteria of a minimum of AL22 for the Express Stream in the new system.

Conclusion: An average score of 60-64 will land you in Normal Academic in 2021

Discussion: To some parents, going to the Normal stream is unacceptable. They will do everything they can to prevent that from happening. Without any other changes to the current education system, they will simply have to resort to what had worked for most students in the past, tuition, tuition and more tuition…
*There is no change to the old system for students scoring below 20. Therefore it is not included in the analysis above.

As a caveat, a lot of assumptions had to be made for the analysis above. For e.g., in order to calculate the T-scores and it’s aggregate, the cohort average is assumed to be at 65, the standard deviation is 20. Many other combinations of these numbers can easily fetch many different outcomes.

The above analysis is purely subjective. They are based on my experience as an educator (both government and private) and my day-to-day interactions with parents. Everyone has their rights to their own opinions and do feel free to leave your comments below if you feel otherwise.

Ultimately, it is really up to the parents to decide what is the next best course of action for their children but I personally feel that knowledge is what allows everyone to make informed and wise decisions. Even if tuition is the way forward for at least another 5 years till 2021, please make sure it is a center/tutor that knows how to motivate your child, knows how to bring out the love for learning in your child, and knows how to keep you informed of their progress for your decision-making. Tuition, can make or break your child’s future, just like the school that he/she attends.

Why not teach reading?

July 12, 2016By Clarice Lim

This has to be one of the most common questions asked to me. The answer is quite simple.

Research has shown that children who acquire reading skills at an early age did not have an added advantage in reading comprehension later in life. In fact, those who were late readers (e.g. those who started reading fluently at 7 or later), when compared to early readers who started reading at 4 or earlier, caught up and matched the reading abilities of their earlier-reading counterparts within a few years.

Some studies had even shown that late readers develop much better comprehension than early readers due to the focus on development in other areas;

“Because later starters at reading are still learning through play, language, and interactions with adults, their long-term learning is not disadvantaged. Instead, these activities prepare the soil well for later development of reading.” – Dr Sebastian Suggate, 2009.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that our education system expects the students to be able to read by the time they reach Primary 1. Most schools still practise examinations every 3 months although they use words like “mini-quiz” and “review test” instead of the stress-associated terms like “SA1 Examinations” or “CA2 Test”. What’s worse is that parents are given the feedback during Parents-Teacher Meeting that their child is not performing, can’t read, can’t write etc. These all add to the stress that parents face, thus leading to them seeking help for their children to be able to read at an earlier stage.

Moreover, being able to read later in life doesn’t result in any disadvantage but focusing too much on reading when your child is still not ready will, on the flipside, turn them off from learning altogether.

This is precisely why I had focused my early childhood enrichment programs on enhancing the learning ability (ie. working memory, mental flexibility and inhibitory control), while infusing elements of phonemic awareness into the program as a secondary teaching objective rather than the primary. It is more important to gear the children with a heightened learning ability while developing their reading skills than forcing them to pick up an advanced skill and neglect their general learning ability, thus resulting in a delayed development.

To conclude, do not fret if your child is still not reading, carry on the stimulation of the mind and the training of the general learning ability to ensure that when they are ready to read, they can fly with the newly acquired skill.