Teaching a child to read

rio

I always had a pile of books in the corner of the playroom from when LO was very small. He would pick them up, put them on his head, hold them upside down etc, but they were always around for him to pick up and play with. gradually he got used to the idea of holding them the right way, looking at the pictures and asking me to tell him about them. I then got him an alphabet book of animals as that was a big passion of his. It went from there really, say the name of the letter and the sound so that he associates the two. When reading I used to follow the words along with my finger and sound easy words like cat out for him, after a while he began to pick up on this, and when reading books he would point to a word and say what certain words meant. I agree with eira, your LO needs to know that books are fun, so get them about topics and characters that they enjoy. Let the reading come naturally - don't try to force it.

jo1972

At our school they've just introduced phonics as a way of teaching the kids their letters and beginning to read. As a previous poster said, this is saying 'how' the letter sounds rather than what the letter is for example 'sssssssssss' is for snake rather than 's'. It's the sounds of the letters you need to teach them, as I think this is a national curriculum thing now.

Do a google search for phonic games, I think there are some bits and pieces on the BBC website too which is a good source for homework and stuff.

Curious_George_2

and however you decide to do it, just dont stress about it...
it will all just suddenly 'click' one day and your child will surprise the heck out of you!

cobbingstones

Does a child need to know the alphabet before learning to read?

Thanks

MM

Stargazer_Lily

madsmum wrote: »

Does a child need to know the alphabet before learning to read?

Thanks

MM

As in which order they come in? Nooooo!

Start off one letter at a time, say with the child's initials, and learn the sound that it makes (and maybe it's name too) and focus on finding that one letter in words, on signs etc. Once they have the hang of that and know enough letters, you can start doing all of the "blended phonics" stuff - as far as I can tell it's a fancy term for the "Sesame Street" "smush the sounds together technique"!

IMO trying to tech kids from flash-cards and so on is dull for everyone involved. It's far easier to get kids involved in real life activities.

Lil

dianadors

Start with books that have no words - only pictures and ask your child what is happening in the picture. Then introduce books with pictures and a few words underneath. Still discuss the pictures though. Sharing books is lovely with children. Get them to hold the book and turn the pages themselves.

laurz

try 'jolly phonics' look it up on the internet or the ELC and a few good book shops stock them! i was in the same situation last year and i was told to wait til school by the head mistress but her nursery teacher said that she's bright and would benifit from the extra stimulation! just let her set the pace and if she's had enough don't push it!

Madmel

When I was pg with DD2 and only working half days, every afternoon DD1 and I would sit down together to watch Countdown (I watched, she played with her toys). After a couple of weeks, we noticed that she knew the name of the letter before Carol Vorderman put it up so we started to think of a word beginning with that letter. There are only 20 months between my kids so she must only have been 18 months old. We made her a word book with the capital and lower case letters and a word or picture which meant something to her: Mummy, Daddy, Grandpa, Fizz...!

When she was 2.5 she badgered me to teach her to read so in the end, we started with Ladybird books. I know it's not very fashionable now to do the "look and say" method of reading which is how Ladybird works to begin with, but it constantly reinforces the 100 key words. Once she turned 3, they did Jolly Phonics at nursery, which she adored. She was then reading simple words and road signs.

Once she started school, she flew through the reading scheme. The teacher was very supportive and happy for her to go at her own pace. She has now just turned 8, and devours books!

Each scheme has things to commend it. Jolly Phonics uses sounds as another poster has described, plus an action. However, children still need to learn words which don't fit the phonics pattern, of which English has many. As others have said, it's most important to make it fun. Good luck!