What do children need to know before learning to read?
On this website, we only advise teaching your child to read by using a systematic phonics programme. Although there is much talk of 'reading readiness', in order for a child to learn to read with phonics, all that is necessary is that a child can match letters.
I suggest starting to teach a child to read as early as you can. If your child can match letter shapes, then try to teach the initial sounds. Many children are able to do this by the age of two, if not earlier. If you perceive your child is not yet ready, wait a bit longer and try again. Some children lack maturity, but it will soon come.
Things your child does not need in order to begin reading
Other things to do to help children enjoy reading
Although little is required in order to teach a child to read, more is needed if a child is to grow to love reading. When a child is surrounded by people who read a lot, who talk about what they have read, is read lots of books, and is given stimulating experiences, then that child is more likely to see reading as a purposeful activity and be more willing to learn.
Read lots of books yourself and to your child
If a child grows up in an environment where the adults read, for different purposes, the child will learn that reading is a purposful activity and will want to read for him/herself.
Make reading a plesaurable acitvity that you both enjoy. Read often to your child. Find books that promote good moral values in children and are beautiful to look at and listen to. Avoid the crude and ugly titles that seem to proliferate in libraries and book stores - many of which are linked to TV programmes. There are plenty of lovely books that you can enjoy with your child. Build a library for your children in your hown homeEncourage your child to play
Play is essential to a child's mental and physical development. Play stimulates the brain and encourages further learning. It is also a child's means of learning about the world.
Children do not play so much these days, as their time is taken up with technological devices and electronic games, or filled with entertaining activites. These are not as valuable as imaginary play through which children learn about the real world and the language associated with it.
No-one is ever too old to learn, but we can stifle the love of learning. Our modern technological world does just that. But it does not need to be this way! Parents hold the key to unlock a world of adventure and knowledge for their children.
Encourage children to play and act out their experiences in their play instead of watching screens. Children will play happily into their teens if the technology is removed. Their games become all absorbing and grow with them, with teens re-enacting battles they’ve learnt about in history for example and all the time learning to make sense of the world – skills they will need as adults. They will grow out of play naturally when the time comes.
Play needn’t be expensive. Some of the simplest toys give maximum play potential. An old cardboard box can become many things – a ship, a dolls house, a cooker, etc…children will more than happily ‘pretend’. In fact – don’t buy lots of plastic for them – as that too will stop them using their imagination. The more ‘pretend’ the better. Avoid toys (and books) linked to Media - Star Wars, Peppa Pig etc. as these are marketing ploys and restrict children's imagination to what they have seen on the screen. Rather buy/make dolls and dolls houses, Playmobil (wonderful for real world play), wooden train sets, vehicles, puzzles... all the old fashioned toys that have stood the test of time. Obviously, as we have already seen, learning to read means recognising shapes of letters. Therefore, shape matching activites and puzzles are good toys to develop readiness for reading in very young babies. Talk to your children
This might seem a strange thing to say, but its actually very easy to go through the day and then realise that you have not communicated much to your children - other than commands and instructions.
If a child is to understand what s/he is reading, then the words that are read must be meaningful. Phonics is powerful. Children will be able to sound out and read many words - even words they do not understand. In order for the child to then make good progress in reading in the early years, the child must have been introduced to a wide vocaulary, or progress will be stunted as the child will not be able to enjoy reading. Every activity has its own vocabulary. The advice here is to take an active interest in your child and enjoy doing things together. Hopefully you will talk with your children as you enjoy time together. Bake, go to the park, scoot, bike, swim, go for lots of muddy puddle walks in the woods/park (dress in waterproofs - I loved these - and there won’t be so many dirty clothes to wash) - boys especially need lots of time outdoors with space - but girls love and need it too ... running, jumping, seeing what their bodies can do now, testing themselves, giving themselves challenges. These are all very important for growing up. Use your eyes, point things out. Don’t be afraid to be ignorant, just look and talk and question. What’s this? Why that? Look things up on the internet when you get home if you have no other reference books. See our nature website for ideas as to how to introduce your young child to the natural world. Develop concentration skills
In order to learn, children need to be able to concentrate and focus on a task - especially for learning to read.
I know it is very tempting to have the television on all the time for background noise, or to stick the young ones in front of the DVD while you cook tea and use media as a baby-sitter - I've done it myself - but do try and limit how often you do it. Try and turn the televeision off for most of the time. When you do allow a DVD, put on one that you know your children can sit and watch through (i.e. not too long so that the children lose concentration and wander off). If possible, sit and watch it with your children so you can talk about what's happening. Your aim is to teach them that they sit and watch what is in front of them - not just learn to ignore it - or they will have a hard job learning how to sit and listen to a teacher. Keep the sessions short - then switch it off at the end. The role of Technology in the teaching of reading
It is thought by many that electronic programmes and apps can be useful in the teaching of reading. I am wary of them and advise against using them. Apart from the fact that apps and games are addictive and it would not be good to train young children to be addicted to them at a young age, they try to make the process of learning to read look 'easy'.
Learning to read is not easy. It requires the utmost concentration and many hours of practice to become a good reader. Many apps teach reading with jingly tunes. Reading real books does not come with jingly entertaining tunes! So if you teach children to read with jingly tunes, then reading books will be very tame by comparison! Be careful what you train your child's brain to like as it will be very difficult to train him/her off it later and you might regret what you have done when s/he doesn't want to learn. Technology can have a good place in our lives but we all need self control to keep it in it's place. Model that to your child. In addition to this, all true learning must take place from books. The internet is great, but it is not a source or reliable information. In days gone by it took a lot of money to publish material, and although not so good things were published, on the whole they were of a more noble quality. Books that said untrue things by and large did not sell and so there was no profit to be made from them. By contrast, anyone can publish anything on the internet - and make a profit, and you need a degreee in every subject to be able to discern fact from opinion and discern what is true and what is not. Error abounds in these days when right is wrong and wrong is right. Therefore, aim that your child will learn to read from real books and the best way of doing this is to teach your child to read using physical books. There is another reason to limit the use of technology when educating your children, be it teaching them to read or leaning maths, and that is that pictures flicking across a screen take no effort to watch and no brain power to think about. When the child is then expected to sit and learn, learning is hard work and children would prefer not to have to think - as it is hard work! Train your child to learn to think early on! Conclusion
Doing these things will help your child to become a successful reader, who not only CAN read, but enjoys reading as well.
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WelcomeHello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor. Categories
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