Help Me Read
Three Pointers to Teach Your Child How to Read
Dear parents, teaching your kid how to read at a young age is important for the
development of the child. It not only helps them develop a better understand of their
surroundings, but also allows them to gather information from printed materials, and
provides them with a wonderful source of entertainment when they read stories
and rhymes. It should be noted that children develop at different rates, and some children will develop
reading skills quicker than other children; however, what's important is that
as the parent, you are keenly aware of your child's maturity and reading level
to provide them with appropriate support such as books and activities to help them improve.
As parents, you are by default the most important teacher for your
children. You will need to introduce your child to books and reading. Here are some
tips to help you teach your child to read.
Tip #1 - Teach your child alphabet letters and sounds concurrently
Research has shown that children learn best when they are taught the
letter names and letter sounds simultaneously. In one study, 58 preschool
children were randomly assigned to receive instructions in letter names and
sounds, letter sound only, or numbers (control group). The results of this
study are consistent with past research results in that it found children
receiving letter name and sound instruction were most likely to learn the
sounds of letters whose names included cues to their sounds. When teaching your child the letter sounds, have them slowly
trace the letter, while saying the sound of the letter at the same time. For
example, if you were teaching your child the letter "A", you would
say:
"The letter A makes the /A/ (ah) sound."
Then have your child say the /A/ sound while tracing the
letter with his or her index finger.
Tip #2 - Always emphasize that the proper reading order should be from left to right, and top to bottom
To adults, this may seem so basic that anyone should know it. However, our
children are not born with the knowledge that printed text should be read from
left to right and top to bottom, and this is why you'll sometimes see children
reading from right to left instead - because they were never explicitly taught
to read from left to right. When teaching your child how to read, always
emphasize this point with them.
Tip #3 - Teach final consonant blends first.
Teaching words such
"at" and "and" can lead your child directly to learning
words that rhyme with these. For example, for "at", you can have:
CatLat
Fat
Pat
Mat
Chat
Sat
Bat
Spat
For "and", you can have these rhyming words:
Band
Land
Hand
Stand
Sand
Bland
Band
Brand
Grand
and so on...
As soon as your child has learned the
sounds of some consonants and short vowel sounds, you can start teaching blends. It is not necessary to wait until
your child has mastered the sounds of all the letters before teaching blends.
Unfortunately, learning to read is a very long process, but thank god, it doesn't have to be
a difficult process. Broken down into intuitive and logical steps, a child as
young as two years old can learn to read, and older children can accomplish
even more.
