Meet the original Literacy Adventurer
Danielle Steendam
Truly an adventurer in life and work, Danielle has always been one to take an unconventional path.
A fully qualified and experienced teacher with an affinity for early childhood teaching, Danielle found herself increasingly frustrated about the disconnected way that literacy skills were being taught, particularly in the formative years when foundational skills significant to the development of fine motor control and therefore, handwriting, were all but overlooked.
Her biggest concern? The way these teaching methods impacted on children. Presenting as an inability to perform basic writing tasks such as ‘writing their own name’ or remembering how to correctly write simple spelling words, she realised many children were expected to demonstrate positive literacy outcomes when they did not have the skills required to succeed in these tasks. The result – children’s efforts were often incorrectly judged by parents and teachers and children were learning all too quickly that they were not successful in their own literacy pursuits!
Compelled by a personal quest to find a better way, Danielle happened upon Barbara Brann, the creator of ‘Casey the Caterpillar Handwriting Process’ and the ‘Magic Caterpillar’s Building Blocks to Literacy’. Discovering Barbara Brann, these tools, and understanding how they all fit together, helped Danielle realise just how big the gap is between what works and what doesn’t.
This realisation was followed by nearly two years of self-funded learning and development, whereby Danielle ‘shadowed’ Barbara as she delivered professional development training, both in workshop and classroom settings. This experience galvanised her view there is a better way and it had to be shared widely and made accessible to others.
With a firm resolve underpinned by her inspired purpose to bring wisdom and sense back to the teaching and learning of literacy skills, Danielle created Literacy Adventure. Through an online shop, delivery of professional development training, and intelligent guidance provided to school decision makers, Literacy Adventure is