PALS: Giving children a head-start to reading
Hi, I’m Taryn Hawke. Welcome to PALS Learning Together!
I am determined to find ways to improve children’s learning experiences and promote their learning success.
I have been working with children between the ages of 4-13 years in various settings since 2002. I started my teaching career as a Foundation Phase class teacher. It wasn’t long before I specialised in special needs education with a focus on learning difficulties. I shifted from class teaching to a learning support position, supporting children from Grade R – 7.
In 2016, another shift took place when I created a little educational company called PALS Learning Together (Pty) Ltd. – PALS for short. PALS and I are on a journey to make learning support measures pro-active, rather than reactive. Our passion is to build solid foundations for reading and writing.
After lots of reading and conversations with colleagues and other educational professionals, it became clear that there is a direct relationship between awareness of sounds in words (phonological awareness) and success in reading and spelling. Wouldn’t it be best to explicitly teach these skills before children are required to engage with print? Equipping pre-school children with foundation skills for reading and writing would provide a solid base for learning and give them a head-start rather than being on the back foot.
PALS at School was the starting point – a supplementary Literacy programme for Grade R. After a successful first year, a pre-R programme was developed.
In 2018 the PALS at Home activity and games book was published. The intention of the book is to empower parents with tools to engage with their children in ways that promote reading success. It is game-based and playful – the best way for children to learn!
Continued research, reading, webinar-watching, expert-following and information gathering has led me to the Science of Reading and a structured literacy approach.
Having good phonological awareness skills is just the beginning. Children must also develop sound-symbol relationships – another key building block of literacy. Linking the sounds of spoken language to the letters or letter combinations that represent the sounds is how we crack the code to reading and spelling.
PALS Word Makers were developed in 2022. The magnetic tiles are easy to manipulate and when used with word chaining and other sound manipulating activities, children will be better able to crack the literacy code.
We are striving to ensure children’s learning success by empowering schools, therapists and families with fun programmes, resources and games. I hope that you are inspired to join us.