As children become familiar with letters and their sounds, the next step is putting them together, in other words, learning to read. There are many things a parent can do from their child's earliest years on to help him or her master this important skill, and also to instill a love of books in the child. These pointers explain how to teach your kid to read in a way that matches his or her stage of development.
Children can enjoy hearing stories and looking at the pictures in a bright and colorful book from as early as six months of age. There are even special books for young children which incorporate the senses and feature textures, noises, and scents, which can further stimulate their curiosity and development. Although the child won't respond, it can also help encourage critical thinking if the parent asks open-ended questions when reading.
As the child becomes a toddler, it's important to make sure that books are among his or her playthings. Sturdy, washable books that the child can easily look through on their own are recommended. Having a home book collection, or visiting the library every week teaches kids that books are something good to have around.
The best place to start in terms of word and sound association awareness is to simply point out the words while reading. The child cannot yet sound out the word, but it does help him or her recognize the connection to the arrangement of lines on the pages and what is being spoken. This lays a basic foundation upon which the parent can continue to build on by next teaching the alphabet.
Lower case letters are used more often in words than upper case letters, and are more visible, so it's best to teach the child about them first, and then move on to capitals. Besides learning the name of each letter and how to recognize its unique shape, the child needs to learn the sound it makes. The best way to teach sounds of letters is to point out physical objects or pictures of words that start with the letter.
Using rhymes for teaching letter recognition and phonetic awareness can also help children learn. Children start to pick out the sound patterns and letter combinations that make them. Parents should work on implicit phonics with the child first, that being, learning to recognize a word by its first and last letters, size, and sound, and then progress to explicit phonics, or splitting words into sounds, once the child demonstrates competency in sound/letter matching.
One of the first steps to learning to read is called decoding, which involves the child sounding out each letter in a word and blending them together. Rhyming can be useful in this respect as well. Vocabularies are built as the child matches pictures to words. This must be done before moving on to word comprehension.
Comprehension refers to an understanding of the events described in a story. When children have a reasonable grasp on word use and meaning, this is the next aspect of reading to approach. An easy way to develop reading comprehension skills is to simply ask the child to describe what happened in the story, and ask questions about the actions and feelings of the characters.
Children can enjoy hearing stories and looking at the pictures in a bright and colorful book from as early as six months of age. There are even special books for young children which incorporate the senses and feature textures, noises, and scents, which can further stimulate their curiosity and development. Although the child won't respond, it can also help encourage critical thinking if the parent asks open-ended questions when reading.
As the child becomes a toddler, it's important to make sure that books are among his or her playthings. Sturdy, washable books that the child can easily look through on their own are recommended. Having a home book collection, or visiting the library every week teaches kids that books are something good to have around.
The best place to start in terms of word and sound association awareness is to simply point out the words while reading. The child cannot yet sound out the word, but it does help him or her recognize the connection to the arrangement of lines on the pages and what is being spoken. This lays a basic foundation upon which the parent can continue to build on by next teaching the alphabet.
Lower case letters are used more often in words than upper case letters, and are more visible, so it's best to teach the child about them first, and then move on to capitals. Besides learning the name of each letter and how to recognize its unique shape, the child needs to learn the sound it makes. The best way to teach sounds of letters is to point out physical objects or pictures of words that start with the letter.
Using rhymes for teaching letter recognition and phonetic awareness can also help children learn. Children start to pick out the sound patterns and letter combinations that make them. Parents should work on implicit phonics with the child first, that being, learning to recognize a word by its first and last letters, size, and sound, and then progress to explicit phonics, or splitting words into sounds, once the child demonstrates competency in sound/letter matching.
One of the first steps to learning to read is called decoding, which involves the child sounding out each letter in a word and blending them together. Rhyming can be useful in this respect as well. Vocabularies are built as the child matches pictures to words. This must be done before moving on to word comprehension.
Comprehension refers to an understanding of the events described in a story. When children have a reasonable grasp on word use and meaning, this is the next aspect of reading to approach. An easy way to develop reading comprehension skills is to simply ask the child to describe what happened in the story, and ask questions about the actions and feelings of the characters.