13 Steps To Teaching Your Child To Read | Spelling And Phonics Easily
it's a chance to carve out a time when we're not on our phones, but we're entirely focused on our kids. Or we pull up alongside them and read and talk together.
Even when they're not three or four, but they're eight, ten, twelve, a teenager and they might not be as inclined to share so much with us anymore.
1. Start Early
Start Early Research has show that it is the early childhood years where a child begins to develop the neurological pathways that they will use for reading for the rest of their life.
Hence I encourage parents to start thinking about ways to engage their children in looking at and listening to books as early as possible.
2. Read to your child
What better way to teach a child to love reading than to read to them. This will teach a child that reading is an enjoyable skill.
It is much more than memorising letters and words, but it is about discovering a new world if interesting things that are contained in the pages of their books!
3. Be a good example by reading in front of your child.
If there is one thing I have noticed about having children it is, if you want your child to do something you have to model it to them. It is amazing how much kids love to copy what their parents do.
If you want your children to value reading, show them that you value reading and they will follow.
If you want your children to value reading, show them that you value reading and they will follow.
4. Make books accessible
Pre-schoolers love to explore just about ANYTHING they can get their hands on!
Why not let them explore their books. Have board books on hand so your child can
play with their books without worrying about tearing pages.
And put the books low on the bookshelf so they can get to them easily.
5. Develop Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work.
Parents can actually begin teaching phonemic awareness at anywhere between 1 and 2 years old.
6. As they say, Learning to hear is the secret
to learning to read! Teach Synthetic Phonics Synthetic phonics (UK) or blended phonics (US), also known as inductive phonics, is a method of teaching reading which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.
- Wiki definition Phonetics is especially important because it builds neurological pathways that promote fluent reading now and into the future.
7. Practice Decoding
Decoding is the process of sounding out new words. When decoding your child uses the skills developed through phonemic awareness and synthetic phonics to break down words into the individual letters and sounds that make up the word.
Teaching your child to read by developing Phonemic Awareness, then Synthetic Phonics followed by practice decoding has been shown by research repeatedly to produce the best long term results.
8. Avoid Using Flash Cards
Flash card can be very tempting for many parents and may even seem like a logical starting point.
However, research has shown that a flashcards approach (also known as sight words) can actually cause reading difficulties in the future.
The reason is simple. It teaches children to memorise words as a whole picture. And does not teach them how to read a word based on the letters that are in it.
When teachers and parents read aloud, we do the decoding work. We deal with the print and the tricky vocabulary and words, and we free kids to think.
So they can use all their brain energy to imagine the story and learn new information. So all children listening have access to the amazing reading party happening inside the building.
And we want kids to get in the building and get to the party and stay there. Even while they're still strengthening their decoding or comprehension or vocabulary muscles in books, they can read on their own.
Because even when kids are reading on their own, reading aloud to them has a tremendous impact on their independent reading lives.
9. Strategies for Reading Aloud to Young Children
reading aloud gives kids a special kind of access to the transformative power of story, and the experience of what real reading is all about, which is to deeply understand, to think, to learn and discuss big ideas about the world, about the lives of others and about ourselves.When teachers and parents read aloud, we do the decoding work. We deal with the print and the tricky vocabulary and words, and we free kids to think.
So they can use all their brain energy to imagine the story and learn new information. So all children listening have access to the amazing reading party happening inside the building.
And we want kids to get in the building and get to the party and stay there. Even while they're still strengthening their decoding or comprehension or vocabulary muscles in books, they can read on their own.
Because even when kids are reading on their own, reading aloud to them has a tremendous impact on their independent reading lives.
10. Rhyming
Rhyming is a great way to develop phonemic awareness as well as a general enjoyment of reading.
The emphasis of word similarities can help teach a child that words need to be read based on the letters that are in it and not based on words shapes (sight words). It is also just FUN!
11. Ask questions about the story
If your child is either reading to you or you are reading to your child make sure you ask questions during and after the story to encourage good comprehension.
This will encourage your child to both read the individual words and also comprehend the wider sentence that they are reading.
This is important for developing a better enjoyment of reading. It is one thing to read a letter and a word but another thing to enjoy a whole story.
12. Find a good reading program!
Often the hardest part of teaching a child to read is just knowing where to start! Finding a reading program that provides you with all the tools and resources you need will give you a great head start.
But be careful because there are some very ordinary programs out there! Check out my “how to choose the right program” resource on my website to make sure you find the right one.
13.HAVE FUN
Finally has fun. We want our children to be able to read as well as value reading now and into their future.
I hope this has been helpful to you. Happy Reading!
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10 Things Every Dad Should Teach His Son
