Teaching a child to read

madison's_mum

Looking for tips/advice/comments.

Thanks

sugaJen

This is what my daughter has done in the last year at school (reception class)

flash cards, start with high frequency words ie. the, in, go... only show and teach one or two at a time, when the child has learnt them add another word to the deck and so on, also noticed the books she was bringing home were very repetitive.

All my kids have been taught to sound the word out, dont think i can explain this?? suppose its like saying the letters in small case instead of capitals, hopefully you will understand what i mean :rotfl:

emmaroids

we were told by our kids school to leave the teaching to the school and when the kids are at home you do the fun stuff with them.

and its worked cos our 5 year old is very literate.

Rachie_B

I agree.The best thing you can do is share books with a child,encourage them to tell the story ( even if they cant read the words !) and have a love for story time

once a child starts school then you can work with them and go for the more formal ( but still fun!) approach

my son has learned to read this yr ,in reception class.as mentioned above they get words to learn and these get added to ,then he went onto reading books and has whizzed through them !

i wouldnt worry about "teaching" a child to read .thats what the teachers are for

just have fun with labelling things round the home,pointing out different words ec and looking at books together

olgadapolga

Rachie_B wrote: »

i wouldnt worry about "teaching" a child to read .thats what the teachers are for

I actually disagree with this. Children should be taught to read when they want to learn how to read, not put off until school - I think that this could discourage a child. And how do you know that the child in question is going to go to school anyway? They might be taught at home!

When I wanted to teach my DD to read (she expressed an interest at the age of three) I asked the library if there were any books available to help me and was told that "surely you should wait until she starts school". What a load of rubbish, if a child is ready to learn, then the child should be encouraged not discouraged.

We developed our own system in the end as I had no idea where or how to begin! I started out by teaching her one very simple word, such as "a" or "I" from her favourite story. I would then read the story, and let her fill in the gap when we got to that particular word in the story. Once that word had been mastered, we learned another word and then she would have two words in the story that she could say and so on. It worked really well, and within a few weeks she would be reading most of the story to me.

She is now aged 7 and can read absolutely anything, it's quite amazing. She can break words down in order to pronounce them and will try her best to master a word before asking for help.

My DS is now three and has also expressed an interest in learning how to read so we will be starting using the same method as my DD and see how he takes to it. If it doesn't work, then we shall try some other way.

Rachie_B

Oh no,I agree if the child shows an earlier interest and desire to want to read read ( my eldest son self taught himself to read age 2.5 and by age 5 had the reading age of 11 .......... !!) then of course encourage this

but IMO it can do more harm than good ,with parents not knowing what method / scheme used in school and thus could confuse the child if they arent goin g to be home educated of course .........

but the simple method you describe is a good one

andyrules

I'm assuming your child is pre-school.

focus on pre-reading skills, play 'I-spy', look at signs, what letter does it begin with? alphabet jigsaws and most of all share picture books (with or without writing) at quiet times. Get him/her to tell you what is happening in the pictures then read the words. Don't worry about the mechanics of teaching to read, as others have said, schools do that, but it's a good start if they know their way around a book, recognise some letters, just understand that a letter has a meaning. in the end, you know, most children will read the words, but the important thing is the understanding.

Ticklemouse

My DS2 never really liked having a bedtime story when he was 2, like his brother did, so I never read to him the same. However, he started getting interested about a year later so I just let him choose which books we read and read them over and over (and over and over ) again. Simple ones with lots of pics with the words to describe them worked for us. In fact, both my boys absolutely adored a set of cheapo books we got, which had sliders over the picture/word so they soon recognised the word by the pic and vice versa.

I never "tried" to teach my boys - the basically self taught. However, DS2 has a speech problem and went to speech therapy from around his 3rd birthday. As part of his therapy, he had cards which started out with just letters and partial words on and as he learned to say them, he went onto full words. I suppose they were like flash cards in a way. However, DS2 has just turned 5 and now has an amazing reading ability and if he doesn't know a word he can break it down and generally work out what it says.

Just have fun - if you try and "force" a child, they will rebel and just not do it. Go at their pace - even if they appear to be slower than their peers, as long as they don't think they have a problem with it, then they will catch up soon enough.

Becles

As well as the tips above, get the child to try and read words when you are out and about - labels in supermarket, shop signs, road signs etc. It's a fun game that way, and they learn words without really trying.

eira

Agree with Olgadapolga-get kids into books as soon as possible. Don't worry about the letters- get them involved in books-looking at them ,knowing that they are fun. Some kids pick up the words (mine did).Discount bookshops have a good range and libraries sell off books for pennies. A trip round the supermarket 'finding' their favourite beans/cereals etc by colour/picture/graphics helps. READ to them sharing the books as you read the story, track the story with your finger/talk about the pictures Even a trip in the car /on the bus can be made a 'find the sign' game.
Games recognising letters also can be made fun.

A vital starting point is -let them know that books are fun and print is meaningful-there's time for the rest to come. Having been involved in literacy teaching for decades at the end of the day that is the initial starting point

hardpressed

Make sure there are plenty of books in the house, and let your child see mum and dad reading. Take them to a library if possible and let them choose their own books when you choose yours. When you're out and about point out letters on shop fronts and car number plates and say them phoniticaly (sp), say things like there's a 'm' for mummy or the begining letter of their name. Mine always enjoyed books which had rhyming lines, like the Ladybird books. Have fun.