Are you concerned about the large number of people you know who rarely read for pleasure? Do you want your child to love reading and develop a lifelong passion for it? Are you concerned about school reading programs that emphasize phonics and sight words, but not comprehension? You want to know how to help your child read?
If you are nodding your head to these questions, you are the perfect candidate to teach your children to read. In this Psychology-Online article we show you how to teach your child to read.
My child is not learning to read: what do I do?
Unfortunately, too many parents have the misconception that reading must be taught in school and that it requires a lot of materials, worksheets, alphabet cards, special books and other resources. Nothing is further from reality. No one is better prepared to teach their children to read than their own parents. If you like know how to help your child readwe recommend you follow these steps:
Step 1: Pre-reading behaviors
There are activities that are nothing like reading, but that prepare the ground for a child to become a good reader. These pre-reading behaviors can appear spontaneously through the child’s own observation and mimicry or an adult can encourage them.
- Look for and encourage the following: Pay attention to signs, labels, packaging, etc. Children may know that a sign says “Cafeteria” before they can read the letters.
- Rhyme awareness
- Concepts about printing: Does the child know which way is up in a book? Do you have the sensation that the pages turn one at a time and always in the same direction? As he reads, he points to the words so they can see that you are reading from left to right.
When a child demonstrates these behaviors and skills along with others, he or she may be ready to learn to read. If not, he works activities like these into their daily routine to help guide them in the right direction.
Keep going reading aloud. If children learn that reading is an enjoyable experience through reading aloud, they will be motivated to learn the skill themselves.
Step 2: Learn letters to help a child read
Obvious, right? But you may be surprised by the following question about learning letters:
The letters They do not have to be taught in alphabetical order. Think about it: If you taught the letters a, m, t, and s, the child can start reading a few simple words right away and that is very exciting for them. The rapid advances like that they keep children motivated and it is very important at this time of their growth.
Mastering a single letter involves two different skills: Visually identifying the letter and memorizing the sound associated with it. Then there are letters that make more than one sound… but you will learn that later.
Using the senses and movement helps children memorize the letters. Build the letter with clay, draw the letter with your finger on the child’s back, associate a movement with the sound of the letter such as jumping and making the sound of the letter s.
A single exposure is not enough. There has to be a lot of memorization to learn all the letters and sounds. Incorporate a lot of revision and don’t be in a hurry.
Step 3: Mix sounds
To know how to help your child read, it is important to follow this step to mix sounds. Going from knowing individual letters to reading words is all about blending sounds. Try this technique:
- Using a 2 or 3 letter word, point to the letters and say each sound.
- Then it starts again at the beginning of the word. Slowly slide your finger under the letters as you stretch the sounds and put them together.
- Try to get the child to try to do it too.
Advice: Keep it simple here. Stick to words in which each letter makes its “normal” sound. Stay away from words where two letters work together to make a new sound.
Step 4: Start entering keywords
The words in sight are typically short words that appear very frequently in the text and sometimes do not follow predictable spelling rules. In that case it is better to learn them by heart.
Sight word practice can include flash cards, searching for words in books, and playing computer games.
There are many, however, one of my favorite ways to practice sight words is through the use of predictable or patterned text. These are books in which each sentence is the same, except for one word that can be deduced with the help of a drawing. This helps them a lot.
Step 5: Work with word families
You’ll get a lot of benefits from spending time on word families. Teach children that if they can read a word that contains -an, they can read others that contain those two letters. Working with word families you learn better.
Step 6: Phonics Skills
Learning individual letter sounds is just a foundation. When introducing phonetic patterns you can follow this sequence:
- Mixtures: Two letters that are often together in words, both letter sounds can be heard. Ex: bl
- Digraphs: Two letters that make a new sound
- Stuck sounds: These are a mix, but they are 3 letters and come at the end of a word.
There are many more phonetic patterns and rules, but these are some things to work on at first. If you want to know how language is acquired through learning, we recommend the following article about .
Step 7. Give it meaning
It means that as a child begins to read longer sentences and texts, you should be able to get some meaning from it. They should have an idea of what is happening in the story or what the author wants them to know.
Meaning-making should be woven in as soon as the child begins to read sentences. Help the child find meaning:
- asking questions about what they just read.
- Encouraging them to reread if they did not understand what the author was saying.
- Demonstrate your own reactions to the text
What is the point of learning to read if you are not enjoying a storylearning something new, or being exposed to a different way of looking at things?
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.