Zone’in Workshops

Hi Deborah,

I’m a pediatric occupational therapist and sensory specialist with expertise on the impact of technology on child development and would like to comment on pre-schoolers making letters. I’ve extensive experience with literacy development, as worked for a decade in schools working with children who had difficulty with printing and reading.

The job of the pre-schooler is to develop foundation skills necessary for eventual letter production, not letter production. Day cares and pre-schools are besieged with parents requesting to teach their young toddlers to print their name, when they’ve not yet achieved the necessary foundation skills. This put undue pressure not only on staff, but also on the child, setting them up for failure.

Children need to engage in 3-4 hours per day of rough and tumble play in order to gain necessary vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile sensory input to achieve a solid foundation. These sensory inputs promote the development of postural tone, coordination of the hands and eyes, and optimal arousal state all needed for eventual leter production. Trying to teach a toddler to print who demonstrates low postural tone, poor coordination and distractability is impossible.

Let me know if you’d like me to explain this further.

Have a GREAT day!

Sincerely,

Cris Rowan, BScOT, BScBi, SIPT, Approved Provider AOTA
CEO Zone’in Programs Inc.
6840 Seaview Rd.
Sechelt, BC V0N3A4
604-885-0986 office, 604-885-0389 fax, 604-740-2264 cell
email crowan@zonein.ca
website www.zonein.ca