Four Pillars of Learning

Strengthen the Four Pillars of learning.

The four pillars which actually distinguish a successful person from a mediocre or average performing person are Reading, Vocabulary, Comprehension and Mathematics.

Not only are they essential for learning, but they are a part of everyday activities, whether it is learning, working, planning, strategising, sports, business, entrance examinations, you name the activity and a person with good reading, vocabulary, comprehension and math always has an advantage.

During my 32 years of work experience, I met thousands of  students, assessed them, profiled them and am in touch with many. I discovered that the ones who had a natural liking for reading ended up with a good vocabulary and even if they are not into careers like engineering or medicine, they are very successful because of their abilities to communicate and express. In these years I also interacted with many individuals, who have engineering degrees, but are average performers as they obtained marks by attending classes and rote learning. They scored well due to the ability to memorise and put it on paper, but had not actually comprehended much of the material learnt. They have taken time to rise in their positions as their organisations are now spending more time and money on training them.

I have also worked with children with learning difficulty for the last 20 years and have seen that children come to us are struggling as their reading, vocabulary, math and comprehension is way behind the current grade level, and therefore they struggle to cope up with the current syllabus. My years of experience has resulted in children not only getting stronger with their concepts, but have also learnt to apply it to their studies and their lives. They enjoy the reading now, they excel and their intelligence and emotional quotients have gone higher.

One may ask what has mathematics got to do with Reading, Vocabulary and comprehension. Well, mathematics or any other subject which involves statements and words which are to be comprehended requires Reading and Comprehension skills.

Many parents send their children for phonics or handwriting class, however children often get bored and do not carry the habit for a lifetime. One needs to enjoy reading, one must feel confidence dealing with words, one must feel at ease to use vocabulary and that happens when the child is taught these skills with love, encouragement and humor.

How Reading can be encouraged.

Reading needs to start at a very early age. Parents can actually start reading to the child when he/she is in the womb.

Generally parents start reading story books which the parents feel are good. In fact children must be allowed to select the story books they like. Inculcate the habit of visiting bookstore and letting children select their books. 

You can also encourage children to buy books from second hand book sellers.

The next step is to read to them with animation and interest. When they see that the parent is enjoying, they role model and learn to enjoy.

They also role model if they see parents reading as well.

It is not always necessary to read only in english. You as a parent can read any language you are comfortable with. The idea is to put a habit of reading

Telling children to read newspapers is the biggest mistake parents make. They must be encouraged to read what ever they like.

Reading to a child can be done at any time, before sleeping, while eating, while waiting at the doctor's clinic, while waiting to board a train or a plane, while sitting in the garden.

I am aware 

Besides books encourage the habit of doing word puzzles, crosswords, scrabble, dictionary, guessing games etc.