Positive Teaching

At 17 months now, Ariel is at the stage of speech development. She pronounces a few things rather accurately. Things like Letters 'A' and 'R', the words "Bear", "Boy", "Pear", "Apple". However there are also a few words which she has difficulty pronouncing: things like "prog" (for "Frog"), "Buh" (for "B"), etc.

We were reading Dr Seuss' ABC the other day, and I realised that when we came to the letter 'A', Ariel would loudly and proudly says 'Aye'! However, when it comes to letter 'B', as expected, she pronounces it as "Buh".

I've always believed in positive parenting, and frankly, to me, "Buh" for "B" is technically not wrong, as "Buh" is the phonic sound of "B". So, I went on to say, "That's right! "Bee" (for "B")!" Later on, as we re-read the book again, I decided to go through the same procedure and ask Ariel, "What is this?", pointing to letter "B". What I realised was that from then on, she refuses to utter a single word when I start to ask her, "what is this?", especially pertaining to letters or things she can't really pronounce as yet.

As I read in What to Expect, the Toddler Years, I have come to realise that there is absolutely no need to test your toddler simply because he/she is already soaking it all in. Although when I asked Ariel, "What is this?" I do not have the intention of testing her, on hindsight, it does sound like a 'test' to anyone!

I was pretty horrified at this, as i do understand how constant testing of kids can bring about a lot of stress to them, and may even affect their self esteem ultimately. Yet, in the Asian society or rather in the Singapore education system, parents seem to like testing kids just to know how much they know, and whether they have been corrected. Perhaps it's really time to re-think this notion of 'tests' especially for young kids: Do young children really need to be 'tested' constantly, or rather, do they need to be tested at all?