Patterns are the organising structure in our world, in the way the stripes on a shirt look, the way the beat of a song sounds. To a small child, the skill to identify, generate and generalise patterns is much more than just a matching game; it is a cognitive basic ability which prefigures mathematical thinking, reading adequacy, and scientific theorisation. At Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready, this is the early development milestone that is of deep significance to us. We carefully foster the aspect of pattern recognition because, through the playful and practical activities of Kinder Ready Tutoring, we are not only cultivating an abstract idea but also making it a tangible, fun, and confidence-boosting part of the learning process of a child.
Pattern recognition starts with tangible, physical investigation. To children, the best way to learn is through touching, moving, and arranging things to make them see relationships. During a Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley tutoring session, there are different materials such as colored blocks, beads, counting bears, or nature items given by teachers. The child may be requested to repeat a pattern of mine in a simplistic AB pattern (red, blue, red, blue) or fill in a lacking component in a pattern. This practical manipulation serves to internalise the idea of repetition and predictability in the child. The patterns get more sophisticated with the development of skills up to ABC or AAB sequences. This progressive, scaffold instructional strategy is congruent with the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready mission of introducing children to various learning modes. A visual learner may be good with colored tiles, a kinesthetic learner may be good at building patterns with body movements, and every child will have a successful mode of learning.
Going beyond objects, we incorporate pattern awareness into the field of literacy and routines, which, for children, demonstrates that patterns are all around us. We emphasise the rhyme in nursery rhymes and repetitive phrases in stories in language, and this makes us phonologically aware, an important pre-reading skill. Auditory patterns that facilitate memory and sequencing are the rhythm and beat of the songs and clapping games. A teacher may indicate the regularity of the weekdays or the routine of the morning routine. By making these connections explicit, we can make children understand that patterns are not only an academic activity, but they can also be a means to make sense of the world around them.
Finally, the ability to identify patterns will develop a lot of confidence in logical thinking. The effective discovery and construction of a pattern gives a child a definite, gratifying aha! moment of understanding. It is an intellectual riddle that has a correct solution to it, which strengthens the cause/effect thinking. This success is empowering. At Kinder Ready Tutoring when a child can decode a pattern, they develop a sense of being wise and competent, which has a direct effect on a good self-image as a learner. This mastery gives the children confidence to engage in more complex tasks in mathematics, like being able to foresee what is next in a series of numbers, or in reading, where they will have to be aware of spelling patterns. With this ability nurtured at a young age, happily, Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley helps children secure a high level of cognitive problem-solving framework.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
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