Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Start Young
• Part 2 of 3: Teach Your Child the Basics
• Part 3 of 3: Build Difficulty
• Tips

Teaching a child to read is a full-fledged and educational process, both for the child himself and for his parents. Whether your kids are homeschooled or you just want to give your child a head start, you can start teaching him to read at home. With the right techniques and approach, your child will learn to read in no time.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Start Young

1. 1 Read to your child regularly. It’s hard to get good at anything without making an effort. To keep your little one interested in reading, you should read it regularly. If possible, start with infancy and continue through your school years. Read books of the level that they themselves could read if they knew how. At an early age, you can read 3-4 small books a day to them.
   • Books that use the senses other than hearing and toy books can help your little one better understand the story they tell. For example, you can read books with beautiful pictures or tactile pages, books that play sounds or even emit aromas.
   • Try reading your child slightly more difficult books than their level suggests, but with an interesting and engaging storyline.
2. 2 Build a dialogue. Even before your child learns to read, they can learn to understand what they read. As you read the stories aloud, ask questions about the characters or plot. For a toddler, such questions may be: “Do you see the dog? What is her name?" The questions can get more difficult as the reading gets harder.
   • Help your child develop critical analysis skills by asking long-distance questions about history. This cannot be achieved if the child is less than 4 or 5 years old.
3. 3 Make books readily available. What is the point of having a lot of books in your house if they are all in a place where it is difficult for a child to get them? Keep books low and mostly in places where the child likes to play: this way he will begin to associate them with play and entertainment.
   • A child can often touch and read the same books, so be sure to choose ones that can wipe the pages, and the plot is not too sentimental. Three-dimensional clamshell books may not be the best option for the little ones, as their parts are easily torn.
   • A smart bookshelf may seem like the most attractive option, but before your child reaches school age, think more about practical ways of storing books, rather than beauty.
   • Set up a reading nook next to the bookshelf. Place comfortable chairs, ottomans or pillows on the floor. It's good if there is a place nearby to put a cup of tea or put something tasty.
4. 4 Set a good example. The best way to show your child how exciting and valuable reading is is to read it yourself. Spend at least 10 minutes a day reading something while your child is around you so he can see your enjoyment of reading. Even if you are not an avid reader, find something - a magazine, a newspaper, or even a cookbook. Soon the child will be interested in reading himself, simply because he saw you doing this activity.
   • Have your child participate in your reading. If you are reading something to tell the children about, do it. Simultaneously with your story, you can show the child the words on the page so that he correlates what he hears with what he sees.
5. 5 Access the library. There are two ways to do this: create your own mini-library at home by collecting dozens of books for your child, or take a trip to your local public library every week to pick up books. Having a variety of books on hand for a child (especially an older child) will add interest in reading and help expand his vocabulary.
   • Do not refuse if the child asks to reread his favorite book, even for the fifteenth time.
6. 6 Start by building word-to-sound associations. Before you start learning the alphabet and sound features, help your child understand that the lines on the page relate to the words you speak. As you read the word aloud, point to it at the same time. This will help your child understand that the length and sound of the words you speak are related to the appearance of the words / lines on the page.
7. 7 Don't use flashcards. In the recent past, some companies have advertised flashcards for babies, toddlers, and toddlers to help them learn to read. However, they do not train reading skills, but only teach children to draw associations between a specific line (word) and an image associated with it. In general, flashcards are not the most useful or effective method for developing reading skills. Better to spend this time reading interesting stories. “Reading aloud to children, especially in an engaging manner, contributes to the subsequent development of literacy and language skills, and also strengthens the relationship between the child and the parent. In addition, it can grow a love of reading, and this is even more important than the development of individual skills. "

Part 2 of 3: Teach Your Child the Basics

1. 1 Learn the alphabet with your child. When your child understands what a word is, start splitting words into letters. Although chanting the alphabet is the most classic technique, try to get creative with it. Explain each letter, but don’t worry about combining sounds and letters already.
   • Learn the lowercase letters first.Whatever we read and write, capital letters make up no more than 5 percent of all letters. So pay more attention to memorizing lowercase letters - they are much more important for developing reading skills.
   • Try sculpting each letter from plasticine, playing with a ball (you lay sheets of letters on the floor, and the child throws the ball at the letter you named), catching letters cut from foam in the bath, or laying out cubes with letters. These interactive games promote development on many levels.
2. 2 Develop phonetic awareness. One of the most important steps in learning to read is associating the spoken sound with a letter, or pair of letters. This process is known as phonetic perception. Do not forget that sometimes one letter corresponds to two sounds (for example, I, Yu), and sometimes two letters form one sound (consonant plus b).
   • Concentrate on an individual letter / syllable / sound at a time. Avoid confusion and build a solid foundation by working at a steady pace with all speech sounds.
   • Give real examples for each speech sound; for example, the statement that the letter I corresponds to the sound "ya", as at the beginning of the word "apple". This can turn into an entertaining game when you say an easy word, and the child guesses which letter it starts with.
   • To memorize the alphabet, use similar games in which the child will be involved in the analysis process to determine the sound / letter relationship. Check out the above list for ideas, but use them for sounds.
   • It is easier for children to develop phonetic perception when words are divided into their constituent parts. This can be done by playing with claps (clap your hands for each syllable in a word) or spell the words.
3. 3 Learn poetry with your child. Poems teach phonetic perception and letter recognition, in addition to the most basic words. Read nursery rhymes to your child, and end up making a list of easy-to-read rhymes such as "top, clap, stop." The child will begin to see the structure of sounds that are produced with certain combinations of letters - in our case, this is a combination of "op".
4. 4 Teach your child to read using accurate phonetic methods. Typically, children learn to recognize a word by its length, first and last letter, and overall sound. This method of learning is known as implicit phonetics - it works from the general to the specific. However, research has shown that available vocabulary increases dramatically (from 900 to 30,000 words in third grade) when learning is done in the opposite way: a word is broken down and put together - explicit phonetics. Help your child start reading by getting them to pronounce each letter separately without looking at the whole word in front of it.
   • Don't move on to explicit phonetics until your child develops adequate phonetic awareness. If they cannot quickly associate sounds with letters or words, then they need more practice before moving on to whole words.
5. 5 Let the child practice decoding. The classic, known as word recognition, decryption is when a child reads a word one by one, rather than trying to read the whole word at once. Reading is broken down into two main parts: decoding / reading a word, and understanding its meaning. Don't expect your child to immediately recognize and understand the meaning of the word; make him focus on decoding and recognizing parts of a word.
   • Don't use whole stories or books just yet; Let your child learn from a list of words, phrases, or a simple story (not focusing on the plot). This is a great time to use poetry.
   • It is usually easier for both your child and you to transcribe aloud to learn how to pronounce a word. Get them to break the word apart by clapping your hands if necessary.
   • Do not judge strictly how your child makes sounds.The child's hearing is not yet so well developed, besides, he can hear the local dialect in kindergarten or in the yard, so do not expect academically accurate pronunciation from him. Make a reasonable effort. Understand that learning sounds is just an intermediate step in the beginning of learning to read, not a goal.
6. 6 Don't worry about grammar. Preschoolers, kindergarteners and first graders think very concretely and do not know how to cope with complex concepts. By the age of four, most children already have excellent grammar, and in due time they will have learned the compulsory grammar rules. For now, you only need to focus on mechanical reading skill, which will give you the ability to decipher words and memorize them so that speech becomes fluent.
7. 7 Do not forget about words that cannot be clearly explained. Words such as "I", "you", "this", "these", "there", "here" should also be included in your studies.

Part 3 of 3: Build Difficulty

1. 1 Start giving your child stories and stories. It is likely that by the time a child learns to read, it will be time for him to go to school, where teachers will give him reading assignments. Help him read entire stories, develop speaking and word recognition skills. As the child learns to better recognize words, the child will be able to more fully understand the plot and its meaning.
   • Let your child look at the illustrations - if they do this, it cannot be considered cheating. Word and picture associations are a useful aspect of vocabulary building.
2. 2 Ask your child to retell the story to you. After each reading, have him retell you the story he read. Try to get them to describe them in detail, but don't expect a complicated description. To make the process easier and more fun, you can use puppets. They will portray the characters of the story, and the child will be able to tell everything with their help.
3. 3 Ask questions about the book. In the past, you read books to your child and discussed them together. Now, every time your child reads, ask him questions about what he just read. At first it will be difficult for him to think and analyze the meanings of words, the actions of the characters and the development of the plot, but over time he will develop the necessary skills to answer questions.
   • Make a list of questions your child can read. The ability to read and understand the questions asked is almost as useful as if he was answering the questions himself.
   • Start with direct questions like "who is the main character in the book?" Instead of more vague questions like "why was the main character upset?"
4. 4 Combine writing and reading. Reading is a necessary precursor to writing, but as a child develops his reading skills, he must practice them in conjunction with writing. Children learn faster and easier if they learn to write at the same time. Motor memory for letters, listening to their sounds and viewing them in writing will strengthen new knowledge. So, teach your child to write letters and words.
   • You will notice an increased reading ability in your child as he learns to pronounce and decipher words. Take your time and demand perfection.
5. 5 Read on to your child. While the child still did not know how to read, you managed to instill in him a love of books. Continue what you started by reading to him or with him every day. Your child develops better phonetic perception when he sees the words that you read aloud than when he sees them and says aloud himself. SPECIALIST'S ADVICE

   

   Soren Rosier, PhD

   
   
   Educational researcher Soren Rosier is a PhD student at Stanford Graduate School of Education. Explores how children teach each other and how to prepare them for effective peer education. Prior to graduate school, he was a high school teacher in Oakland, California, and a researcher at SRI International. Received his BA from Haward University in 2010.

   Soren Rosier, PhD
   Researcher in Pedagogy

   Try reading more complex books with your child. Graduate student and former teacher Soren Rosier says: “A child's reading level with someone's help is often higher than his level of independent reading. When reading together, try reading books that are slightly above their independent reading level. Then, when the child reads alone, switch back to a little simpler books. "

   
   
6. 6 Have your child read aloud to you. You will get a better understanding of how your child reads when he reads aloud, and he has to slow down his reading in order to pronounce the words correctly. Do not stop your child to correct pronunciation while reading, as this will interrupt the train of thought and it will become more difficult for him to understand what he is reading.
   • Don't limit yourself to telling stories while reading aloud. Whenever you see words, say while walking, ask your child to read them. Road signs and signs are great examples, which your child sees every day and can practice reading them to you.

Tips

• Contrary to modern advertisements, babies cannot learn to read. They can recognize certain shapes and associate them with pictures, but this is not real reading. Most children are not mentally ready to read until 3-4 years old.
• If your child doesn't have the patience to learn to read, but loves to watch TV, switch to subtitles and get them to read them.
• Most children can start learning to read at the age of 4 (the earliest). You can start teaching them sounds by the age of four. Simple reading instructions can be started at the same time.
• Do not hurry! Give your child time. Read to him at least three times a week.