Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Start early
• Part 2 of 3: Teaching the basics
• Part 3 of 3: Making it harder
• Tips

Teaching a child to read is an educational process that is very satisfying for both parent and child. Whether you're homeschooling your child, or just want to give him / her a head start, you can teach your child to read at home. With the right tools and techniques, your child will be able to read very quickly.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Start early

1. Read to your child regularly. As with so many things, it is difficult to get good at something if you have never been in contact with it. To get your child interested in reading, you should read to him / her regularly. If you can, start with it when he / she is just a baby and continue it throughout school. Read books that he / she could read himself, if he / she knew how to do it; that can be 3-4 thin books per day at a young age.
   • If your child attends primary school, try to read books that are just above his / her level, but that have an interesting and exciting story to help spark interest in reading.
   • Look for books that stimulate other senses in addition to reading so that you can interact with your child as you tell the story. For example, look at books with sound, smell or where you can feel something.
2. Ask interactive questions. Even before your child learns to read, they can develop reading comprehension. As you read aloud, ask questions about the characters in the story and the storylines. With a toddler you can ask questions such as "Do you see the dog?" What's the dog's name? ". The questions can become more complex as the reading level increases.
   • Help children learn to think critically by asking open-ended questions. This may not be desirable if your child is not yet four or five years old.
3. Make sure the books are easy to access. It makes no sense if you put books away in places where children cannot easily reach them. Place the books low to the ground in places where it is allowed to play, so that your child will associate books with playing.
   • Your child will often touch and read the books, so choose books that you can clean the pages with and that you are not emotionally attached to. Pop-up books are often not that useful for small children.
   • A nice bookshelf may be the best option for you, but until your child is at school, you can better focus on ease of use.
   • Create a reading area next to the bookshelf. Put bean bags, cushions, or comfortable chairs nearby to sit while reading. The top of the bookshelf can hold cups and snacks for reading.
4. Set a good example. Show your child that reading is fun and interesting. Read for at least ten minutes a day when your child is around, so that he / she sees that you can enjoy reading. Even if you're not that frequent reader, it's good to find something to read - a magazine, newspaper, or cookbook counts, too. Soon your child will want to read too, simply because you are setting an example.
   • Involve your child in your reading time. If you are reading something suitable for children, share what you are reading. Point out words on the page so that your child will make connections between the signs in the book and the sounds of the word.
5. Make use of a library. This can be done in two ways: create your own mini-library by collecting a lot of books at the level of your child, or go to the public library every week to get new books. Having enough books in stock (especially if your child is a bit older) makes reading more interesting and increases vocabulary considerably.
   • At the same time, don't decline a request to reread a favorite book, not just because it has already been read ten times.
6. Show that there is a relationship between word and sound. Before you start with the alphabet and specific sounds, your child should recognize that the characters in the book are related to words you can pronounce. Point to each word you read as you say it. This helps your child see that the patterns of words and sentences relate to the words you are speaking, in terms of length and sound.
7. Do not use flash cards. There are special flash cards with pictures to teach young children to read. However, it appears that children then link previously drawn lines (the word) to a drawing. Avoid using these cards and replace them with other flash cards or techniques described below.

Part 2 of 3: Teaching the basics

1. Teach your child the alphabet. When your child begins to become aware of words, you can break the words down into letters. Although you can learn the alphabet with the classic alphabet song, it is more fun to be a little more creative. Learn the names of the letters, but don't worry about the sound that goes with each letter just yet.
   • Learn the lowercase letters first. Capital letters make up a very small proportion of all written letters. So pay more attention to the lower case. Lower case letters are much more important when a child is learning to read.
   • Try making letters from clay, have your child throw a bean bag on a letter on the floor, or fish large letters from the bathtub. These are all interactive games that stimulate development on multiple levels.
2. Develop phonetic awareness. One of the most important steps in learning to read is to associate a spoken sound with a letter or letter combination. This process is known as phonetic awareness. There are about 40 sounds in standard Dutch, and each sound must be linked to the letter or combination that goes with it. This includes the long and short sound that each letter can represent, and certain letter combinations such as "ch", "ch" and "oe".
   • Focus on one letter / letter combination at a time. Avoid confusion and lay a good foundation by quietly treating all sounds.
   • Provide real life examples with each sound; say, for example, that the letter "A" sounds like the "a" of apple. You can make guessing games out of this, for example by mentioning a simple word like apple and then asking which letter the child hears first.
   • Use the same kind of games as when teaching the alphabet, also stimulating critical thinking if the sound / letter link has to be determined. Look above for suggestions, but replace it with sounds.
   • It is easier to develop phonetic awareness when the words are broken down into the smallest possible pieces. You can do this by breaking words into pieces (one slap on each syllable), or by dividing words into separate sounds.
3. Teach your child rhymes. By rhyming you develop phonetic awareness, children learn to recognize letters, and you increase vocabulary. Read rhymes to your child and make lists of easy-to-read rhyming words like kip-sees-lip-hip. Your child will then see patterns and will notice that certain letter combinations represent a certain sound, in this case "i-p".
4. Teach your child to read by building words from small pieces. In the past, children learned to read by recognizing a word by its length, the first and last letters, and the overall sound. Nowadays it is known that children learn to read much faster if you do it the other way around: by breaking each word into the smallest possible parts and putting them back together into a whole word. Help your child learn to read by spelling each letter individually without looking at the whole word first.
   • Do not start this method yet if your child does not yet have sufficient phonetic awareness. If he / she is not yet able to easily link the sounds to the letters, this must first be practiced before you continue with words.
5. Have your child practice deciphering. Deciphering - also called spelling - is when a child recites the sounds of each individual letter of a word, rather than the word in its entirety. Reading can be split into two parts: deciphering and then knowing what it means. Do not expect your child to immediately decipher and understand the word; first focus on deciphering and speaking out loud.
   • Don't use whole stories or books yet; have your child read words from a list or a short story (not focusing on the storyline). You can also use rhymes for this.
   • Deciphering out loud makes it easier for the child to learn how to pronounce the word. Have the word smashed into pieces if necessary.
   • Don't be too strict in how the child pronounces the word. Dialect or poor auditory skills can make it difficult to pronounce words correctly. Accept it when your child tries hard. Realize that learning the sounds is only an intermediate step in the learning process, it is not the goal.
6. Don't worry about grammar yet. Toddlers, pre-schoolers and first graders are still very concrete in their way of thinking and cannot yet understand complex abstract concepts. By the age of four, the child usually already has a good grasp of grammar and gradually learns all the grammar rules. At this point, all you need to focus on is the mechanical skill of learning to read, which is deciphering new words and memorizing them in order to learn to read fluently.
7. Build an archive of commonly used words. Certain words are often used in Dutch, but do not follow the phonetic rules. These words are better learned by memorizing their form than the sounds. Examples include "the", "she", "before", "by" and "feather".
   • Display the words on a piece of paper. Have your kids copy the word and tell them what the word is. Then ask them to tell you what the words are again.

Part 3 of 3: Making it harder

1. Start listing entire stories. Chances are that your child will be attending school by the time he / she can read and the teacher will then provide reading material. Help your child read all of these stories by first breaking the words apart into sounds and putting them back together, and by explaining difficult new words. As the word comprehension increases, your child will understand the storylines better and better.
   • Have your child look at the pictures too - that's not cheating. Pictures and associations are very useful parts of building vocabulary.
2. Let your child tell you the story. After the story is read, let your child tell you what it was about. Try to get it told in as much detail as possible, but don't expect an elaborate response. An easy and fun way to stimulate this is with the help of dolls that depict the characters in the story, so that your child can retell the story with them.
3. Ask questions about the story. As with reading aloud, you can ask questions about the story your child just read. At first it will be difficult to think critically about the meaning of the words and the structure of the character development or story, but after a while your child will develop the necessary skills to be able to answer the questions.
   • Make a questionnaire that your child can read for himself; being able to read and understand the questions is just as important as being able to answer the questions themselves.
   • Start with concrete questions, such as "Who was the main character in the story?", And not with abstract questions such as "Why was the main character so sad?".
4. In addition to reading, teach your child to write immediately. Reading is a necessary precursor to writing, but if your child develops reading skills, it is good to start practicing writing right away. Children learn to read faster if they learn to write at the same time. The movement of making the letters helps to imprint them, and if a child hears the sounds while writing the letters, it reinforces learning.
   • You will notice improved reading skills as your child learns to spell by deciphering and pronouncing words out loud. Work calmly and don't expect perfect results.
5. Keep reading to your child. Even now that your child can read for himself, you should continue to instill a love for reading by reading aloud daily. Your child will develop an even stronger phonetic awareness more easily if they can see the words as you read them, than if they are struggling to do both at the same time.
6. Have your child read to you. You will know better how your child is developing if you have it read to you, and they should slow down because they have to pronounce every word correctly. Do not correct your child while reading, as this will interrupt his / her flow of thoughts and make it more difficult for him / her to understand what is being read.
   • Reading aloud doesn't have to be limited to stories; if there are words around you, your child can read them too. Traffic signs are a good example of this, so your child can practice reading to you.

Tips

• Contrary to popular claim today, babies cannot learn to read. They can recognize some shapes and link them to pictures, but that is not really reading. Most children are not sufficiently developed to read before their 3rd or 4th year.
• If your child doesn't have the patience to learn to read and prefers to watch TV, turn on the captions and encourage them to try to follow them.
• Most children start learning to read when they are 4 (at the earliest). You can then start with the sound that belongs to letters. You can also start with simple instructions.