Recently, my three-year-old was sitting in my lap as I composed an e-mail. I typed my name and without realizing it, didn’t capitalize my first initial. My daughter said, “Mommy, you have to use a big ‘V.'” I was floored. I remember teaching her about capital letters but had not realized how closely she was listening.
Even at such a young age, my daughter was able to learn this critical usage. The same technique can be applied to punctuation.
Punctuation is something that we all take for granted. A missing period here, an omitted comma there and writing that could have been a masterpiece becomes a complete mess. To analyze who is responsible for ensuring proper use of punctuation, we would need a time machine. Since one isn’t readily available, I’d like to assign this responsibility to our early educators and all responsible adults with children in their lives.
At an early age, we are taught to read and write. The basics are taught but not strongly enforced and not much emphasis is placed on the importance of punctuation. I think this happens because it is assumed that if you know how to read, you know how to write. This assumption couldn’t be more wrong. That attitude is a great detriment to the writing skills of our young people and to some extent even middle-aged people.
Writing and its mastery is something that can only be improved through practice. The use of punctuation is no exception to this logic. If one is not taught that a period completes a sentence and a comma gives “pause” to that sentence, they will write without that knowledge, creating a literary mess.
Throughout early development, children are like sponges and it is the best time to teach them anything you’d like them to know. With this in mind, our elementary teachers have an important responsibility.
Once the basics have been taught by the early educators, it is imperative that parents and future teachers enforce the proper use of punctuation.
As with anything, practice is the only way to master the proper use of punctuation. This can be done in many different ways. In the age in which we live, children have many creative ways to practice these important skills. We have the World Wide Web, texting, handheld video games, and various books that are specifically designed to assist with writing skills.
When it comes time to buy gifts for the children in our lives, if we skip over the violent video games and opt for ones with an educational twist, we are aiding them in mastering a life skill that has more value than conquering any villain or vampire.
It really is important that such decisions are made by all the responsible adults. It is great to have fun, but even greater to be educated. No one ever got into Harvard because he or she made it to the final level of “hell raiser.”
If you are dedicated to ensuring that the child in your life has proper knowledge of punctuation, you will definitely not have a hard time helping them. Take the World Wide Web for instance; a lot of children are very Internet savvy. Actually, it is not uncommon to see an eight-year-old teaching his grandmother how to access her e-mails. This is an excellent opportunity for them to become pen pals and help the child practice the proper use of punctuation. With just a little dedication from parents and teachers, our youth will be able to master this very important skill. The proper teaching of punctuation is not a task that can be assigned to one person; rather it has to be a collective effort on the part of parents and teachers alike.