Initial Reading and Writing Stage

Children advance to this stage when they are able to reliably connect sounds to their corresponding letters, usually during the first grade. Reading and writing are still confined to simple, common words, but children begin to invent spelling for unfamiliar words and often resort to phonetic guessing.

In and out of school, I enjoyed reading and writing.I drew pictures of my family and labeled them appropriately; I loved to work the connect-the-dots, crossword puzzles, and word searches in the coloring books that my mother bought me.

However, as technology is concerned, I was glued to the television. I watched every Disney and Warner Brothers cartoon. The Disney cartoons really spurred my memorization skills. After watching The Little Mermaid for the consecutive third time, I had memorized the words to “Under the Sea” and could sing it only slightly off pitch.

One cartoon in particular really helped me learn to read: the Sing A-Long. These cartoons were quite ingenious. Along with creative cartoon drawings and narration, songs would play, and the words of the song would appear at the bottom of the screen. To help the viewer follow along, a ball or another symbol would bounce over the words synchronously with the music. Here is an example:



Cartoons like this one were truly amazing; they entertained me as much as they educated me, allowing me to progress into the Transitional Stage.