“Early-Childhood Research Is Out of Touch”—that is the problem or so the aforementioned title in the Education Week article states. What is the answer? PHONICS FOR LATINOS – ABCs in COMMON is interested to know more about this and help solve this problem. Our concern is about the Latino delay in learning familiar Spanish/English letter sounds: ‘B’, ‘N’, ‘T’, etc.
Whereas Spanish/English visual sound clues are also possible such as “B is for BICYCLE/bicicleta” and “T is for TURTLE/tortuga”. Therefore, Latino kindergartners from Spanish speaking homes are prematurely thrust into ABC ambiguities. Using Spanish/English examples supports Latino kindergartners ABC progress.
Currently ABC instruction revolves around ambiguous visual English sound clues such as “B is for BEAR/oso”. A student David may have a difficult time learning the sound for the letter ‘D’ and Maria might also have the same problem for the letter ‘M’. This is discouraging. PHONICS FOR LATINOS – ABCs in COMMON aims to change this by introducing Spanish/English visual examples to ABC literacy classrooms everywhere.
