Dyslexia: Early Literacy and Books |Remastered

25 May 2022 · 2 min

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1:56

In this YouTube monologue, Lois Letchford, accompanied by her cat Mary‑Bella Bennett, introduces the 1986 alphabet picture book Animalia by Graham Base. She highlights the book’s rich, imaginative language and its alphabetic structure, citing vivid examples such as “blue butterflies” for B and “lazy lions” for L. Letchford argues that books like Animalia are especially valuable for early literacy development, particularly for children who struggle with reading or have dyslexia. She explains how the book encourages children to connect oral language with written symbols, listen for sounds, and search for meaning in the illustrations. The video concludes with a friendly invitation to enjoy books with all children, especially those who need extra engagement, and a standard call‑to‑action to like and subscribe.

Chapters

Good morning, I'm Lois Letchford and I'm here with my cat Mary-Bella Bennett and I'm talking about the book Animalia. And Mary-Bella's going to go, she says goodbye very quickly. Animalia is written by Graham Base, published in 1986, so it is an old book, but it is an incredible story, an incredible book, not a story, but an alphabet, because the language he uses is just fantastic. And in the beginning, He says, within the pages of this book, you may discover if you look beyond the spell of written words, a hidden land of beasts and birds. For many things are of kind, and those with the keenest eyes will find a thousand things, or maybe more. It's up to you to keep the score. A final word before you go. There's one more thing you ought to know. In Animalia, you see, It's possible you might find me. So this is a book that shares pictures and incredible language about particular alphabet letters. So we've got beautiful blue butterflies basking by a babbling brook, continuous, and the crimson cats. But my favourite happens to be L. Lazy lions lounging in the local library. So much fun. Thank you. Enjoy, enjoy the books. Enjoy books with all children and particularly with those who struggle the most. Have them engaged in books like this where they are looking, they are thinking, and you're connecting the oral language and the written language. You're looking for meaning as well as listening for Sounds. Thank you. Lois Letchford. Hit like, hit subscribe, and enjoy.