2 year old reading sight words

8 Easy Ways to Teach Sight Words to Preschoolers

Learning sight words is a critical skill for kids to learn how to read!

Teaching children how to learn sight words can be a challenge.

Why?

Because it all comes down to memorization. There is not a way to sound out these words. In case you are unfamiliar, sight words are words like that don’t follow the traditional rules of spelling or can’t be sounded out phonetically. Some examples of sight words are who, does, and come.

To give your preschooler a great jump start to reading, I have come up with 8 EASY ways that you can teach your preschooler sight words!

#1. Start With TWO Letter Sight Words

Does anyone have a toddler that says no to absolutely everything?

You’ll be hearing it all over again when you start teaching sight words because the word “no” is one of the easiest ones to recognize!

When you start out teaching a child sight words, it’s important to start small and build up to longer words. Starting with TWO letter words for them to memorize is going to be a lot easier than FOUR letter words.

Here are some two-letter sight words that you can start with: of, to, is, in, it, he, on, as, at, be, or, by, we, an, do, if, up, so, no, go

Once your little one has mastered the two-letter words, you can move onto three or more letter words!

While some of the words on this list can be sounded out and others can not, I think it’s easier to have your child just memorize the words so they can say it at a glance.

I use the above sight word checklist when I am deciding what new words to teach my daughter!

#2. Choose Sight Words In Your Child’s Favorite Books

I have a quiz for you.

How many sight words can you find in this sentence below from the book, Where the Wild Things Are?

“His mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything. ”

• (his, him, wild, and, said, eat, you, up, so, he, was, to)

Sight words are referred to as high-frequency words because some of them are the most common words in the English language! 

When you are reading to a child, and they are starting to learn sight words, make sure to point out the words in their favorite books. They will be more interested in learning the sight words if it’s in a context they enjoy! We have a subscription to Highlights Magazine, and my daughter loves pointing out which words she recognizes.

Your kids will feel so proud when they can read a few words in their favorite stories. It will encourage them to want to learn more!

#3. Practice Daily

Just like teaching your kids the alphabet, numbers, and shapes, it takes repetition for them to understand the material!

At least a few minutes of work on sight words each day will help them immensely when it comes to memorizing sight words.

Here is what works best for my daughter:

I write the sight words that we have previously learned on a small dry erase board, which I limit to about 25 max.

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We take some time and review those words plus add one or two new words depending on how well she does during the review.

Check out this short video of how I review the sight words with my daughter!

To ensure that she remembers the sight words we learned, I make sure to include ones that we learned in the past.

Tip#4: Make Reading Fun!

If I just focused on the above activity over and over again, I think I would struggle badly getting my kids to learn how to read.

It’s essential to come up with EXCITING ways to teach your kids how to read!

Here are FOUR ways to make learning sight words engaging!

Shaving cream is such an amazing sensory activity! Your kids will be so excited to use shaving cream for a learning activity, it won’t even feel like they are learning!

I use men’s foaming shaving cream because I think it works the best! But other types can be used as well.

How to do this activity:

1. Spray foam shaving cream on an art tray.

2. Spread it out so the shaving cream is all over the tray!

3. Write a sight word that you are working on in the shaving cream and ask your child if they know what it is.

4. Repeat this process over and over again! Let your child erase the words so they get a chance to play in the shaving cream!

Activity #2. Do-A-Dot Painting Activity

Do-A-Dot painters are one of my MUST-HAVE supplies to have on hand at your house.

They are so much fun to play with and they are pretty much MESS FREE! Can’t beat that right?

Do-A-Dot markers can be used for so many fun and learning activities. This specific activity was great because it worked recognizing a specific sight word while getting to paint!

GRAB YOUR FREE Pre-K Sight Word Do-A-Dot WORKSHEETS HERE!

(Each grade level coming soon!)

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Want to check out my other MUST-HAVE Supplies? Take a look at my list HERE!

My new thing is trying to turn games into a learning activity!

My kids love to play board games, so why not add a little bit of learning into the mix while getting to play?

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Don’t Break the Ice Game, dot stickers, and a marker.

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2. On white dot stickers, write some sight words that you are working on with your little one. I wrote one that my daughter already knew so she could play the game and be successful!

3. Explain to your kids that they have to tap lightly on the ice with the hammer instead of trying to hit it as hard as they can because a lot falls at once that way. Tell them they can play the regular way after you practice the sight words. 🙂

4. Ask them to find a specific word and tap on it with the hammer or they can tap on a word of their choice and tell you what it says!

5. After they say or find all the words, then you can play the normal way!

My daughter loves to color, so I created this Popsicle themed Color by Sight Word Worksheet for her to do.

Here are some excellent workbooks available on Amazon that have activities ready to go!

• 100 Write and Learn Sight Word Practice Pages

• Wipe Clean: Learning Sight Words

• The Best Sight Word Book Ever!

Don’t want to buy an entire workbook? I am constantly working on new FREE resources to make available for you.

Click here to grab your FREE Popsicle Color by Sight Word WORKSHEET!

Also, take a look at the other FREE RESOURCES that I have while you are there!

#5. Build Sentences with Sight Words

Building sentences using sight words is a GREAT way to show your child how the specific word is used in real life.

You can do this by verbally saying sentences or you can also do it in an interactive way.

We have a bunch of Thomas the Train, train tracks at home, so I thought it would be fun to work on sentence building with sight words with them!

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Thomas the Train tracks, labels, and a marker.

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2. On labels, write some sight words that make sense in a sentence that you kids know or you want them to learn!

3. Spread them all apart so they have to work on building the sentence so it makes sense. They will have to read each word then create the sentence!

#6. Add A New Word Each Day

Once your child can recognize words, you can start introducing at least one new sight word each day. In the beginning, you want to start slow.

Since sight words are based on memorization, that’s why learning one word a day is perfect for this age level.

While you should introduce one new word a day, remember to review past sight words that you practiced with them before. It’s crucial to go over these sight words so they won’t forget them.

Remember they are still preschoolers, repetition is key! 

#7.

You never want to rush the learning process.

Forcing preschoolers to sit and complete work when they are not ready may cause the child to think negatively about learning.

Don’t get frustrated if they don’t catch on right away or if it takes them a few days to master a word. It will happen with time, and they will feel successful if you encourage them!

There are times that my daughter can just not grasp on to a word.

For example, she had trouble memorizing the word “find.” I asked her every day for TWO weeks about this word, and she still wasn’t getting it. I decided I was going to take a break and come back to it later. I introduced the word to her again after about a month, and now she has no problem with it!

As parents, we have to be patient with our children while they are learning.

We are supposed to be their biggest cheerleaders! Tell your child how proud you are when they learn a new word. They will feel your excitement and, in return, be more excited to keep on learning new material!

#8. Join An Online Learning Program

One great website that works on early reading skills is Kickstart Reading.

Kickstart Reading– This is such a fantastic reading program! I also have a promo code that you can use to get some money off of your subscription! You will receive a FOREVER plan for $39.00(normally $57.00). This is a program that focuses solely on reading, which I think is better than anything else out there. Your little ones will learn about phonetics, sight words, vowel sounds, digraphs and MORE!

PROMO CODE: ABCDEE

Here is a short demonstration of just one of the segments included on Kickstart Reading. This is my 5-year-old daughter working on word blends.

Deciding when to start your preschooler’s journey into reading is a fun but challenging adventure!

It’s important to start slow, begin with two letter sight words, and stay positive with them! Try to mix up the activities that you do with them to learn sight words to keep them engaged and excited to learn!

I would love to help you on your journey to teaching your preschooler sight words. Whether you need some creative ideas or you need more helpful suggestions, please leave a comment below.

If you have any great ideas that you would like to share as well on what helped you teach sight words to a preschooler, please share them with us!

Sight Words FAQs | Sight Words: Teach Your Child to Read

It is much better for a child to have solid knowledge of 50 words than to kind of know 300 words.

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My child does not want to read - what if he has dyslexia?

Olga Azova, Director of Logomed Prognosis Medical Center, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences.

– What is dyslexia?

– Dyslexia is a partial impairment of the reading process caused by various reasons, including those caused by the immaturity or impairment of higher mental functions.

Often dyslexia is mixed, when the child has different types of reading disorders. This happens if the child before school had severe speech disorders, or he was silent for a long time, or these are combined disorders in the structure of other defects (with cerebral palsy, various syndromes).

If the child is physiologically and mentally healthy, studies according to the general education program, the school speech therapist deals with the problem. If dyslexia is associated with problems of the physical and mental health of the child, then other specialists should be involved in the work - a child neurologist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, massage therapist.

– Very often on various sites dedicated to dyslexia, you can see translations of foreign articles or materials based on a foreign approach to the problem. How does the foreign approach differ from the Russian one?

- This question is very important. For example, I tell students about this at lectures and even included this question in the exam papers. Moreover, participating in international conferences on dyslexia, I am more and more convinced of the importance and correctness of the domestic approach in interpreting the mechanisms of dyslexia.

Speaking about the diagnosis of dyslexia, the Russian school of speech therapy very consistently paints the mechanism of disorders, which we spoke about above. Among these disorders there is a special type - "optical dyslexia": difficulties in mastering the image of a letter, mixing graphically similar letters, their interchanges (Z-V, Z-E, P-V, T-G, etc.). Letters and lines “dance” in a child, as if he does not see letters, he may not perceive some font, spaces, transition from one line to another, letters merge, stick together, look in different directions, and other similar problems.

Foreign specialists, speaking about dyslexia, most often have in mind only this, its optical variety. And here we must understand: the condition of children with such a problem, even with all its complexity, is generally much easier, because they have no problems with the development of speech and the associated mental retardation.

Sometimes, on the contrary, they even begin to talk about the peculiarities and genius of such children: they are bad with optics, and everything else, perhaps, is compensatory - perfect. Some of it is a myth, but some of it is true. Among the children who underwent correction with me, there were those who had a great penchant for drawing and music.

As a rule, children with optical dyslexia, in addition to working with a speech therapist, need consultation with both a psychologist and a neuropsychologist.

You may need to consult a neurologist, who can offer both massage and exercise therapy, cerebellar stimulation in rehabilitation activities to help develop basic reading functions.

Russian - great, powerful, terribly complex

Also, regarding the difference between domestic and foreign approaches, we must remember that we are the owners of a very beautiful language, which is included in the top three most difficult languages ​​in the world . Many languages ​​of the world are not so complex, there is not such a multi-stage grammar, a limited number of cases and genders, which means there is no variability in endings. And what about our participles and gerunds, phonemic language processes that gave us the beauty of the language, but at the same time problems!

We have paronyms, synonyms, quasi-homonyms - a lot of words that differ from each other by one sound. Many languages ​​in the world simply do not know this problem, they do not divide sounds according to deafness-voicedness, hardness-softness, hissing-whistling and various sonoras.

Therefore, our domestic approach to dyslexia is wider - and concerns language problems, the formation of mental functions: phonemic perception, phonemic analysis and synthesis, underdevelopment of the lexical and grammatical structure of speech, mnestic and receptive processes, and, of course, visual analysis and synthesis, spatial representations.

– Is it possible to recognize dyslexia before a child starts learning to read? What features in his behavior will help alert?

– In order to understand whether a child will have problems with reading, it is necessary to assess the child's health in general: his physical and psycho-speech development, the ability to use different types of memory - all this is easily checked before school.

Every problem has roots. Let's consider various ways of diagnosing problems that can later lead to the development of dyslexia:

1. If a child has speech disorders, he goes to a speech therapist. The speech therapist also looks at whether the child has impairments in phonemic hearing, analysis and synthesis, understanding, whether the dictionary is broken and whether there are agrammatisms (incorrect formation of words and their forms), how well coherent speech is developed. It is in the classes that develop speech that the speech therapist also conducts the prevention of reading disorders, especially those types that are associated specifically with speech.
2. In the art classes and when using any kind of manual labor, a good teacher will notice that the child has poorly developed fine motor skills (cannot cut, sculpt, glue, lace, fasten buttons). For writing, calligraphy, it is very important to be able to perform small precise actions. They are specially trained. I recommend these exercises every day.
3. If a child goes to school, he must be able to ride a two-wheeled bicycle - the functions of writing and reading require coordination and coherence.
4. Poor mastery of rhythm can complicate the assimilation of words with a complex syllabic structure, which means that it needs to be developed - dancing, music or more specialized procedures such as an interactive metronome will help.
5. Reading requires well-formed visual-motor and auditory-motor coordinations in order to be able to see, hear, speak simultaneously - this is what is important when reading.
6. The child must be able to remember and, if necessary, retell what he has read.
7. It is necessary to understand which hand the child has - leading, with which hand he will write.

– Is left-handedness in itself a reason to check a child with a speech therapist?

- Yes. Speech therapists, psychologists, neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists often pay attention not only to the dominant hand, but also to the leg and eye. Lateralization is important because there are letters in Russian that face right or left, are symmetrical vertically and horizontally, or not at all symmetrical, and a left-handed child may not learn directions well.

In fact, the vast majority of left-handers and ambidexters (people who equally use both hands) have no special features other than the dominant hand. The left hemispheric location of the center of speech is observed in 95% of right-handed people and in 70% of left-handed people. And only 15% of left-handers have the speech center in the right hemisphere. Such children have features of thinking - they think in images. They may have the ability to draw, music, or, on the contrary, may have a number of neurological problems.

An individual lateral profile helps to determine the type of training program (depending on the combinations of the dominant hand, eye, etc., a school of a certain profile can be recommended to the child. For example, the leading left eye, hand and shoulder are a reason to send children to mathematics.

It makes sense to send children with different lateralization to a school where more attention is paid to reading and the humanities. But the approach of most gymnasiums, where they take a complex program in all subjects at once, is wrong. Such study is very difficult even for ordinary children and extremely difficult for right-brained, left-handed children).

– How can you tell dyslexia from not trying at school?

- In fact, "not trying" and "not paying attention" - this is also what you need to pay attention to and look for the reason why the child quickly gets tired.

A parent can turn to a speech therapist with the fact that the child does not remember, for example, letters. But an experienced specialist is obliged to ask: “What else is worrying, what is still wrong?”

If a parent lists: fatigue, inability to switch, headaches, vomiting, inability to concentrate - these are all symptoms and reasons for contacting a neurologist.

Returning to the question of whether it is difficult for an ordinary child to learn letters, the answer is quite simple. The ability to memorize the image of a letter is a pre-prepared function. Almost from birth, children see letters everywhere - on billboards, in newspapers, in a book that dad reads. And one fine day the child will ask himself: “What is this letter?”, because he knows the word “letter”. That is, the child himself, through practical experience, will come to the point that a letter is a sign that means sound.

So, in general, an ordinary child should not have problems with memorizing and recognizing letters. If they occur, you need to seek the help of specialists.

– And if the child reads badly and slowly?

The speed of reading also depends on the way of reading, deviations in which are now also considered a dyslexic error.

Here, perhaps, we need to talk about the age of the children.

There are three ways of reading: syllable-by-syllable, “syllable+word” and “fluent reading”. There is also “stacking” - the sequential naming of letters in a word (B, A, B, A) - this process cannot be called reading, this is the wrong type of learning to read.

I think it's perfectly normal for first-graders to read by syllables. This is how the first stage of the reading skill is worked out and it cannot be accelerated somehow from the outside - everything has its time. The child "read the syllables" and from this method goes to another - "syllable + word". Later, the child learns and begins to read whole words, moving on to fluent reading.

The child must not be rushed to master this skill. And the requests of parents and teachers to “read faster” are meaningless.

It is also unreasonable to ask "faster knitting" or "faster shifting gear in the car" of a person who is just learning to knit and drive a car.

Here we will not speed up anything, but we can do harm: the child will start to rush and try to “guess” the endings of words.

Parents who try to teach their child to read fluently too early achieve only one thing - “guessing reading”, when the child tries to guess the word from the first syllable that he managed to read.

As a result, the child makes mistakes, gets confused, cannot understand the text, and generally abandons reading.

At the initial stage of the formation of reading skills, one must show patience - allow the child to read at the pace that he can keep for the time being, not to adjust or correct.

Allow to move your finger under the line until this need itself disappears. A finger is such a “backbone”, a “magic wand”. It is already very difficult for a child to cope with independent reading, without which he did well at preschool age, when adults read to him.

The most important thing is to create an intrigue around reading, so that this activity, boring at first, can be brought to a habit and instilled in love for it. And one of the important conditions here is to read to adults themselves, to set an example. The child must see that parents, brothers and sisters read that this is something necessary and as important as eating and sleeping, so that it enters into his personal life.

So many children do not progress in speed simply because they do not read. And when a child reads every day, the pace will definitely increase.

– Is the teacher able to recognize dyslexic from “not trying”?

- I'm not completely sure about this. I don't think he has time for this.

The teacher, most likely, sees the problem - there is no time to deal with it.

Although it cannot be ruled out that somewhere in the district school there is a wonderful Marivanna, who has enough mental strength to convey to her mother what problems the child has or, if not to solve them herself, then suggest going to a speech therapist.

I am not inclined to blame the teacher for not being able to solve a correctional problem. Even a teacher cannot sometimes send a child to a speech therapist, because such a staff unit is now not provided for at school.

– It is really not necessary to teach a child to read before school.

One can not interfere only with what the child does himself - at least at two years old.

There is a large population study that is being conducted at the Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education: memory problems are the result of very early learning, because a system of inadequate requirements is created, including very early learning to read.

Until the age of six or eight, the child is not “physiologically” ready to read: supporting functions are not formed:

selective attention is not developed, without which reading and writing are impossible, memory and speech are not sufficiently formed. Only by the age of six or eight, when the frontal lobes of the brain mature, do effective visual differentiations begin to form in the child. At this age, it makes physiological sense to start teaching reading.

If a three-four-year-old child starts reading, this can lead to the appearance of an inadequate reading mechanism, which is also called “guessing”: the child will glance unevenly along the line, having time to read the first few letters in the word and trying to guess the ending from them. Yes, this can lead to dyslexia.

– Does it make sense to send a child with neurological problems or a physiologically immature child to school later?

- I don't really like it when sensitive (most favorable) periods are missed. The most optimal age for going to school is seven to seven and a half years. A physiologically immature child will still continue to "mature" until puberty, so you should not overexpose him at home. Sometimes they say that you need to extend childhood to eight years. I wonder: why not until nine or ten, or even until adolescence? No, I am against.

It is psychologically easier for the whole family if the child goes to school at the same time as his peers and continues to solve already known and identified problems simultaneously with his studies. At the same time, you should not ignore classes with a speech therapist, a psychologist, and if necessary, continue to visit a neurologist.

I very rarely agree to wait until eight years. This is justified if the psychologist strongly insists - if the child does not have motivation to learn, he has just begun to really play, or I myself see that it is necessary to allow speech to stabilize, which was only recently “summoned”. But I don’t want to see six-year-olds at school either.

For example, I went to school at the age of seven and a half, and I never missed anything in my life. And so I still think that everything has its time: we will read at school, before school - walk and play - learn to interact.

– Are there any other errors in the preparation of school programs that can provoke errors in reading?

- This is possible when corrective techniques are included in the regular training program. For example, if a teacher in a regular lesson says: “Look, children: the letter “E” looks one way, and the letter “Z” looks the other way,” - tomorrow half of the children will confuse these letters. If a child taught in the usual way does not have problems in distinguishing letters, then there is no need to explain the difference.

– Is it necessary to leave only books for the period of learning to read and dose visual sources of information – gadgets, TV?

- I think that the book at the initial stages of learning will not withstand competition with any visual series. A lot of learning processes are tied to visualization - it is no coincidence that we add up with the child not “2 + 2”, but “two and two apples”.

Therefore, in the fight against gadgets and computers, there will be only two effective means - a personal example of parents and the right steps.

For example, you can arrange reading together or reading by roles, but you need to find a book that would be interesting for the whole family. Maybe it will be possible to establish a tradition of family reading.

You can use your favorite gadget to help, offer a filmstrip - put a picture on the projector - and the child reads. That is, the main thing is to offer, show, stimulate interest in reading. It is clear that “mom washed the frame” is very boring. But even without a “frame” we can’t do it - there is a specially simple structure of the word.

Don't impose your taste on a child, don't offer him the wonderful Nosov and Dragunsky, let the child read what he likes - about princesses, hairstyles and manicures, or science fiction, about animals and cars.

The main thing is that the child pays attention to the book as a source of information.

You can work with incentives. Think about how you can encourage the child, the main thing is that the encouragement is here and now.

It could be sweets, although dentists won't understand us.

You need to know your child well. I remember that a boy from a very wealthy family studied with me, it was difficult to surprise him with something, his parents could buy everything. And I came up with the idea of ​​buying him small chewing gums, and for each success I gave several at once. He didn’t chew them at all, he just liked that by the end of the lesson he had a whole hill of prizes. Someone will try - for a smiley, for a funny picture. And the child will start collecting such pictures simply because it is his encouragement.

– Can parents take care of their child in case of diagnosed dyslexia?

- They can, but under the guidance of a specialist. In addition to mandatory diagnostics and visits to a speech therapist, extended consultations can be organized, where a rehabilitation and educational route is drawn up, what exactly to do with the child. With the consent of the teacher, emerging questions can be quickly asked to him in social networks. Sometimes it is advisable to offer a “big” task for independent work, with which the parent goes home, and then shows the child in dynamics, after some time.

And this can be a task not only for reading, but also specific advice: to involve other specialists in work with the child - a neuropsychologist, a neurologist, a massage therapist.

Sometimes it happens that a neurologist looks at a child and says: “Let's first solve the problem with enuresis and digestion, because the child has constipation for the third day, he can hardly sit with you, what kind of reading is there?”

You will still be reading with your child at home, it's another matter that a specialist has life hacks - interesting texts, encouragement, all sorts of finds. He makes learning faster and more fun.

– How long will it take to visit a speech therapist?

- Depends on the condition of the child. If we quickly find the “cog” that holds the problems and deal with it, we will move quickly enough.

If the child's condition is complicated by other diagnoses, such as mental retardation, more time will be required. Of course, he will not read complex texts with a lot of special terminology, but it is quite possible to bring the skill to such a state that the child can use it freely.

But I definitely do not believe in the story “now we read for three days and everything will pass”.

"Simply explaining" the skill of reading is impossible - it needs to be developed and improved.

For example, if the first grade program had a writing lesson once a week, we would learn to write before the eleventh.

– How realistic is it to get to all the specialists necessary for the correction of a child with dyslexia free of charge through compulsory medical insurance?

– You know, I am for private clinics. I understand that few people will like this answer, but it's all about the current admission standards. A specialist cannot look at a child in three minutes, write down everything you need, write out a ticket, and so on. Neurological problems need to be able to interpret, and this takes time.

For example, as a speech therapist, for me, the initial diagnosis of a child and a consultation takes from an hour to an hour and a half, but in other respects I do not limit time: the parent must receive answers to the questions that he came with, I allow, if you forgot to ask something, write to me in social networks. All over the world, high-quality consultations are also most often not government programs, alas.

– Should dyslexics be homeschooled?

- I am against any separation, because the child will need communication skills everywhere.

At the same time, it is clear that I cannot improve our society. So, look for a teacher who would be ready not to scold such a child, but to encourage his every success. If we encourage the personal success and personal growth of the child, there is no problem that he learns among everyone.

Photos from the personal archive of Olga Azova

Read more about how to choose a speech therapist for a child:

How to choose a speech therapist for a child?

Shmagina N.M. about errors in the child's speech.

Good morning, dear friends and dear parents!

The program "Vitaminka" is with you - a program about children's health.

Today we have a very radical topic - about speech. We will talk about mistakes in children's speech, in oral and written speech. Such serious errors that border on a diagnosis.

Parents who experience this say it is a very serious problem.

Dysgraphia, dyslexia, dysarthria - that's what we're going to talk about today, and the main thing is to try to figure out what to do with these problems.

Our guests today are Natalia Shmagina, a neurolinguist at the specialized speech therapy center "Children's Academy of Speech" and Irina Pravednikova, head of the Family Neuropsychological Center.

Let's understand the terms, what it is: dysgraphia, dyslexia and dysarthria

Irina Pravednikova: Dysgraphia, dyslexia are really very serious diagnoses.

As a rule, now the terms "dysgraphia" and "dyslexia" have become philistine. Evaluate in principle if we consider children. The norm implies certain errors in writing and reading.

So dysgraphia is writing difficulties, dyslexia is reading difficulties?

Irina Pravednikova: That's right, as a rule, they still accompany each other, because oral and written speech are inseparable from each other.

As for dysgraphia, errors can be of different nature depending on the underformation of one or another area of ​​the brain.

Our brain is formed for some time and matures heterochronously, each area of ​​the brain does not develop immediately, but gradually. Some zone at one time, some zone at another time. And accordingly, if some zone is underformed, this can affect writing, reading or speech. All the diagnoses are simply piled up here: dysgraphia, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and dysarthria.

What is dyspraxia?

Irina Pravednikova: Dyspraxia is also a very serious diagnosis, it is a violation of voluntary movements in the absence of paralysis and paresis.

And all this is interconnected, where dyspraxia, dysarthria can also begin?

Why am I asking, because I know that in children, for example, dysarthria is when they speak incorrectly or porridge in the mouth, or confuse letters in words.

Example: the child does not say “princess”, but “princess”.

Natalya Shmagina: I beg your pardon, but you just made a cocktail of two completely different problems.

When it comes to the fact that the child does not pronounce phonemes correctly, the violation may relate to a disorder of phonemic hearing. That is, that hearing, which, unlike ordinary hearing, gives us the opportunity to correctly, precisely correctly hear the phonemes of our native language. Or with movement problems.

You understand yourself, when we talk to you, our articulatory apparatus moves. In fact, this is also a motor act, as professionals say. The same movement that you and I do with some other actions.

That's why I asked if dyspraxia and dysgraphia are related.

Natalya Shmagina: This may be a manifestation of both problems. Well, to say, for example, that any dysarthria will have phonemic hearing problems is impossible.

Of course not, but sometimes it comes together.

Natalya Shmagina: rare, but it happens.

Let me immediately reassure parents whose children have just begun to speak and pronounce a lot of words incorrectly. This is the norm, which then must pass.

Irina Pravednikova: that's right, if a three-year-old child says “sapka” instead of “hat”, this is still normal.

Because he just can't pronounce "sh" because something is jumbled up in his head.

Irina Pravednikova: but again, I'll make a reservation, many parents let things take their course. By the age of 5, absolutely all sounds should be delivered to the child. The most recent sound according to the norm, with regard to speech therapy, is the sound “r”. By the age of two, a child should have formed phrasal speech, which parents miss a lot. At 2 years old he doesn’t speak, at 3 years old he doesn’t speak, but nothing, tomorrow he will wake up and speak. But in fact, no, you should not let this one take its course, by the age of 5 the child should speak.

Question from a listener. If the child is 3 years old and instead of the sound “k” he says “t” (instead of “what” - “tatoy”). Instead of "g" - "d" ("geese" - "dusi"). And instead of "x" - "s" ("I want" - "sochu"). Is it normal for a 3 year old?

Natalya Shmagina: at the age of 3 is a physiological norm. You should not be scared and afraid, you just need to help the child pronounce it correctly.

Easy to correct?

Natalya Shmagina: not only correct, but also show if possible. Articulating pose, it's easy.

Just make sure your child is looking at you before correcting. Say: "Look at me, please, 'machine'." Make the pose concentrated, and the child will instantly understand how to put the sponges and so on. It's all easy. Another conversation if you see that the situation is dragging on. Time passes, and the child does not change his pronunciation, then in this case you need to contact a speech therapist. The only thing I’ll correct my colleague a little, according to the physiological norm, it is still permissible to swallow, not pronounce the sound “l” until 6 - 6. 5 years of the sound “r”. It is better not to delay this process and contact a specialist.

Children swallow, do not finish words, also related to the same problems or in general, why does this happen? They are in a hurry, especially when reading a poem. Their words all fly downhill. Why?

Irina Pravednikova: the reasons can be very different. There are children who develop in leaps and bounds. It costs, then a huge array is typed when the array comes to the child.

Natalya Shmagina: especially on the development of phrasal speech.

Irina Pravednikova: if you don't say at this moment: “Speak slower”…

Natalya Shmagina: …the mouth can't keep up with the brain.

Is it better than the other way around, in my opinion?

Irina Pravednikova: very often fast speech is not a fact, but, nevertheless, typical of overtrained left-handers.

Natalya Shmagina: wow, why?

Probably because there is something in the brain wedged?

Irina Pravednikova: in principle, you are right.

A little bit about fast speech, let's talk about too fast speech. If a child is 12 years old and swallows words, is this already a diagnosis or not?

Natalya Shmagina: is not always a diagnosis. This may be a symptom of the diagnosis. Often this can be a neurotic reaction, that is, signs of a neurosis. It's about this. Either this is a symptom of ADHD (hyperactivity syndrome), and it can manifest itself in different ways for everyone. The children with whom we worked, studied, they can have a very good regulatory system. There must be a way out of this hyperexcitability somewhere. Very often there is an exit to fast speech.

Irina Pravednikova: or, by the way, if the posterior frontal parts of the premotor area are not formed. We need to switch quickly to switch from letter to letter, syllable to syllable, word to word, sentence to sentence.

Where is this area located?

Irina Pravednikova: above the forehead. If in a child this area “walks” a little, fails, is underformed, then it is very difficult for the child to switch quickly, and this is bad, but compensation is swallowing words.

Let's talk about this. We realized that this is a very serious problem, but I want to know if this is an independent violation or do they always accompany some kind of serious neurological disease?

Irina Pravednikova: dysarthria is a neurological diagnosis, and in principle it is made by a neurologist. If we talk about a speech pathologist-defectologist or even a neuropsychologist, we have the right to only assume and refer to a neurologist to clarify the diagnosis.

And with ADHD (hyperactivity syndrome) will be about the same picture. And in itself, this is an independent phenomenon, which is worth fighting.

Natalia Shmagina: As for dysgraphia and dyslexia, here, in general, it is not necessary to go to a neurologist. If you see mistakes in writing or reading in a child. I don't use these terms when talking about children. Or I make a reservation: “age dysgraphia” and “dyslexia”.

Up to what point is she old?

Natalya Shmagina: elementary school for sure. There is a development of the rules of writing and reading, there is a development of the rules of the Russian language. The child's writing and reading skills are automated. Talking about the diagnosis of "dysgraphia" and "dyslexia" is a bit wrong.

But, nevertheless, often there are some other spatial disturbances in the bouquet?

Natalya Shmagina: and this is precisely the types of errors. Let's say the same dysgraphia. For example: you open two dictations, for both dictations the children received "2". You look and understand that the errors are of a different nature. They are visual-spatial, when a child confuses letters according to a spatial type. Let's say "b" and "d" are uppercase, and he has them optically similar. In this case, the child will give out not only errors in writing by spatial type, he will slip off the line, he will have problems in drawing. Will confuse right and left in a notebook. I mean, it really is a bunch.

Examples that do not concern a notebook and a desk, but in life, what are the symptoms?

Irina Pravednikova: for example, a child is brought in for a diagnosis. I open the notebook and see how a colleague said that everything has moved off the line, the letters have turned over and so on. The first thing I ask is how long and how difficult it was for the child to memorize the letters when they were taught to read. Because violation of spatial perception. Because the child remembers the images of letters and the pattern of letters (what we call a grapheme) for a long time. This is one moment.

The second point is that at an earlier preschool age, such children, as a rule, find it difficult to master space-time categories: days, weeks, parts of a day, seasons, months.

If you notice this in a child, beware. Dysgraphia, dyslexia, and in general, in a broader sense, learning disabilities are the scourge of the 21st century.

According to statistics, dysgraphia is diagnosed in 17 percent of children in the US and UK. A teacher from a Russian school wrote to us that one or two students in the class have such problems.

Was it really different before or not?

Natalia Shmagina: you know, I think yes and no. The situation is such that, probably, everyone, regardless of how old they are, can remember a classmate of one, or even two or three, who read poorly. Who, as a Russian teacher said: "A mistake sits on a mistake and drives a mistake." I mean, there have always been kids like that.

It is another matter that the problems that children are now developing, they might not have formed, they could be compensated under the condition of a different quality of childhood. The older we are, the more fun our childhood was: we played a lot, jumped a lot on one leg. They got in, they got over. In general, there were many outdoor games. We heard a lot of live speech. If we talk about the phonemic side of speech, they read a lot to us, they talked to us a lot. If you and I go to the preschool sphere, then no one could conceive of music for a tape recorder, there was a piano everywhere. Again - live sound, a lot of dancing.

What's the difference?

Natalya Shmagina: that we were talking then. Many parents say: “You know, I'm very bad at reading aloud, so I'll buy a CD or something. We will listen to the audiobook. “Alas” and “ah”! .. Despite the fact that the child is interested in speech in itself, what we call speech patterns, the ability to change the word correctly, the ability to accentuate correctly, the ability to breathe correctly and distribute one’s speech breathing - learning this is possible only in live speech. With native speakers. The audio carrier for this task is completely unsuitable for the child. Now a lot has been replaced by audio media, the same situation in games.

Irina Pravednikova: again, as for school, I often remember my own childhood – we developed ourselves. Elementary sea battle, a game of "tanks". Games for the development of spatial perception.

Now there are many computer games for spatial perception.

Irina Pravednikova: is not true. Again, I will make a reservation so that the space is at a decent level for the child. If we take the geography of the brain, the upper crown develops first - the space relative to its body. And we developed it very well in due time. Indeed, as Natalya said, ball games, Cossack robbers, hopscotch and so on - here it is, the body scheme.

Games in three-dimensional space do everything for us to speak correctly, read correctly, and write correctly. Friends, this is amazing!

Natalia Shmagina: participation of the whole body in the process.

Irina Pravednikova: it often happens that parents miss this moment. Their children are subject to a deficit of motor games, even relative to their own bodies. We immediately put the child at the table and begin to teach him. Draw, write in the cells. Top topic. So we are skipping a step.

Natalia Shmagina: I'm sorry, we skip the stage much earlier! They scare us with germs, so our children first sit in jumpers, and then in walkers.

Irina Pravednikova: is generally a scourge.

Why, tell me?

Irina Pravednikova: many parents, again mothers of small children, really do not allow them to crawl, and this is very, very bad. It is necessary to let the child crawl as far as possible. Do not force him to walk ahead of time. The longer the child crawls, the better - it is in the stage of crawling that the first jump in the formation of interhemispheric interactions takes place.

They are very important, connections between the right and left hemispheres. Then, if he does not crawl with you in due time, he will have problems when he learns to write and read letters at school. Phoneme/grapheme connection.

We hear the phoneme with the left hemisphere and write with the right. It would seem, what nonsense - only because the child did not crawl at one time. And then a very funny thing happens, at 4-5 years old. The children's body is very sensitive, if you go to any kindergarten group, they all play creeping games. They are all cats/dogs. And then a terrible thing happens: there are educators who say: “we don’t wipe pantyhose, adults don’t behave like that.” Here he is blocked for the second time the opportunity to compensate. As a result, we have such a topic.

Now, regarding early development. The desire not only to raise children so that they do not crawl, but also the desire to teach them to read and write at 2 years old. Experts said that all this leads to a violation of the same space-time perception.

Why is this happening? And then at school, problems begin with reading, writing, and so on.

Natalya Shmagina: I wouldn't even start talking about some global violations of space-time perception and everything else. I always, when parents say: “at the age of 3, the child is already reading with friends” or, “teach us how to pronounce letters correctly, we will read correctly, and everything will be fine.” I'm asking maybe a bit of a nasty question, but it usually brings the person to their senses. I ask: well, you will learn to read and write, but in order to write something, you must have something to say. And in order to have something to say, speech experience is needed. Therefore, first you still need to read, learn coherent speech. Learn to describe, gain experience of some kind of interaction with the outside world. Then we can talk about the process of writing and reading. We all talk, but in very different ways. Our speech is very different.

Irina Pravednikova: by the way, speaking of Natalya. Many parents make a global mistake out of ignorance, they teach their child to read and do not really teach them to write. This is very very bad. If you are teaching your child to read, be sure to write.

If you're learning the letter "A", sit down and write it right away. I apologize, they didn’t even write, but printed. Written sample is too early, graphomotor skills are not so mature. It's just that many parents perceive it as: to write is to write. This is especially true for lefties. Better in three modalities: aurally, visually, tactilely.

Question from radio listener: “My daughter (3 years old) is not dyslexic, but hyperlexic. When they learn to read and then speak. When my daughter was 2 years old, she knew the letters for a long time. She knew the letters, and, for example, we say “rhinoceros”, the daughter chooses the correct picture, but she could not pronounce them.

Natalya Shmagina: is the "gift" from early development that we talked about. Most likely, the notorious cards of Glen Doman served as the source. It's not that we don't like them, they breed pseudo-autists, these cards.

Irina Pravednikova: I agree.

What kind of dirty insinuations about this wonderful invention? Let me explain for those who do not know, parents show the words printed in large red letters, and the child visually perceives them, practically knows how to read. I surprised the guests of our house when my 2.5-year-old child read these cards.

Natalya Shmagina: an amazing phenomenon. And now a little digression into these skills. What do you call reading?

Adding words from letters.

Natalya Shmagina: mechanical, yes, it is formed, children remember in whole words. There are certain disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, for which, in fact, Doman's cards were developed. The child remembers words in images. This is not reading, this is a mechanical process.

Irina Pravednikova: a very heavy load on the subdominant hemispheres. If we are talking about right-handed children, memorization occurs at the expense of the right hemisphere, at the expense of the image. But correct learning also implies sound-letter analysis. And this is the left hemisphere. In addition, it is mechanical reading. This is rote memorization - the child reads, but, in general, this is a direct road to dyslexia. If we are talking about disorders.

Natalya Shmagina: the impossibility of reading is not only the impossibility to merge letters into syllables, but also the impossibility of understanding what is read. Very often people encounter this phenomenon: a child reads wonderfully, and then there are mistakes in writing. Then you ask, how are you doing with math? And then you get a very simple answer: we are great at solving examples, but we can’t solve problems at all. We do not decide, because we do not understand what we have read.

That is, it does not reach the brain what we are reading?

Irina Pravednikova: only mechanical memory works here, that is, the child is beaten with these cards. He, of course, will remember them from 10, from 20 times, but there is no understanding, understanding in this.

Natalia Shmagina: and I return to this mother who asked the question: an unpleasant thing happened that happens to some of the users of these cards and similar benefits. It was necessary to call, speaking in a professional language, the child's speech. Instead, the child had active speech replaced with passive speech. A child can show letters and cards with his fingers, but this is not reading - this is symbolic communication.

Irina Pravednikova: it's elementary here, taking such a child and showing him a card, he will recognize it, he will name the word. If you ask him to name the first sound in this word or the last one, he will not name.

Now the question is: can speech delay lead to dyslexia and dysgraphia? This is, in fact, what we are talking about today.

Natalia Shmagina, Irina Pravednikova: definitely.

If your child does not speak or speaks late, at 3-4 years old?

Natalya Shmagina: It depends on what we mean by speech at 3 years old.

Irina Pravednikova: there is another point why speech is important. I want to say for parents who, in principle, wave their hand at this, and think that they will speak at 4, 5 and so on. Speech is a very important aspect, in fact. And a long absence of speech can lead to a delay in intellectual functions. This is what needs to be taken into account.

Natalya Shmagina: is one moment. And there is a second point: parents say: "the child performs excellent logical tasks, mooing, pointing" - yes, such miracles also happen. There are even speechless children with a diagnosis of "motor alalia" who perfectly perform any intellectual task. There is one small "but": by the age of five, we have formed most of the speech patterns. Let me explain what it is: we use cases correctly and build simple common sentences correctly. If a child is just starting to speak by four, then the practice of inflection and word formation, it rolls back further. And to say that a 5-year-old child will say that “carrot juice is carrot”, “one tree, and when there are a lot of them - these are trees”, this will be much later.

But, nevertheless, if he started to do this, is there a chance that by the age of 6 he will acquire everything you are talking about?

Natalya Shmagina: yes, provided that you give him all possible assistance.

Let's go back a little. We understand that the sources of these problems lie not only in the fact that our mothers began to leave early for work and not talk to their children, and not only in the fact that we play computer games and do not play Cossack robbers, but and the fact that perinatal medicine has come a long way in our country. Even very premature babies are saved, of course, this is fraught with problems. With problems with the brain, with brain damage.

Parents of premature babies should pay special attention to these problems, so to speak, ahead of this problem itself. Maybe you can tell me, Irina, what research should be done to understand that the area of ​​the brain was not affected, or vice versa? And what to do after that?

Irina Pravednikova: again, we are talking about speech now. As I have already made a reservation, a child should speak words by the year. By the age of two, he should be able to speak phrases. If a child does not even speak phrase speech by the age of 2.5, this is already a reason to turn to a specialist.

Which specialist?

Irina Pravednikova: to a neuropsychologist or neurologist.

Natalya Shmagina: I would say that a neuropsychologist and neurologist. If we talk about premature babies, or children with the appearance of which, at birth, there were problems or some difficulties, for example, intrauterine hypoxia, if any problems accompanied the birth of a child, or the bearing of a child, he, firstly, should be under the supervision of a neurologist, and secondly, an earlier appeal to a neuropsychologist and a speech therapist can equally help. As a rule, a qualified good speech therapist will see signs of a need and recommend an appointment with a neuropsychologist. Just like a neuropsychologist will tell you that you need to contact a speech therapist if necessary. But the neurologist must be involved in this.

Okay, they'll send you for some examination, an MRI, for example.

Irina Pravednikova: of course. For example, at the time of treatment, we suspect a diagnosis of ADHD (hyperactivity) in a child. With all our work, we will not be able to help him 100 percent, without medical support. Of course, we send him for medical examinations.

Natalya Shmagina: if we are talking about non-speaking or poorly speaking children, try to choose not just neurologists, but speech neurologists. And I also want to make a reservation, very often at the reception we are faced with a situation, for example: a child is 3 or 4 years old, he does not speak. We ask the question: have you applied somewhere? And very often we hear the answer: “Yes, of course, I applied when the child was 2 years old (or about 2 years old), I showed him to all the doctors. The doctor waved his hand and said that everything is fine, the child will speak. And then a child at the age of 3-4 is brought to a neurologist. And he throws up his hands and says: “Where were you before ?!”.

Clearly, this is a problem that requires vigilant monitoring.

Question from a listener: “A 13-year-old child, somatically healthy, had a slight hypoxia in childbirth, at the age of 7 he was diagnosed with dysarthria, understood everything well, but did not stick with sounds; now he can’t pronounce certain words correctly, no matter how they fight. ”

Or here's another one: “The child is already 15 years old, everything is fine. But there is one word that is not given – “pillowcase” is somehow mispronounced” – what to do about it?

Irina Pravednikova: You know, if we're talking about one word, it's most likely just a speech stereotype that has formed and is holding on.

But can this be changed?

Natalya Shmagina: is possible. There is a very simple exercise, you need to use all analyzers at the same time. You take a sheet of A4 paper and write this word on it syllable by syllable. And connect it with the numeral. It looks like this: the first line - “one-on-a-loch-ka” write in syllables; then three, four, five ... up to 8, up to 10. And, in general, the child, looking at this leaflet, and then without a leaflet, bows these unfortunate pillowcases. After a while, the stereotype will fall into place.

Irina Pravednikova: can be helped with the help of a motor stereotype, and in the process of walking, clapping on a syllable for a loch... That's when he walks 10 times, clapping to himself and dividing into syllables...

Natalia Shmagina : is also a good option, but comes with some difficulties.

With what?

Natalya Shmagina: if we are talking about a child who has no problems in terms of building a speech rhythm, then the clapping option will be perfect. If there are problems with speech rhythm, speech breathing, the slamming option can aggravate the situation, make it difficult.

A separate topic is very interesting: how should parents behave? If a parent hears that the child is saying something incorrectly, especially if the child is already a schoolboy. This feeling of embarrassment, shame, and the parent begins to get angry, annoyed to correct him.

If a child pronounces a word incorrectly, is it necessary to pronounce it incorrectly and say, for example, not “obvious”, but “many”? Or should an adult not even pronounce the wrong version at all?

Natalia Shmagina: yes, the wrong version should not be broadcast by an adult. I would like to return to where you started, about the fact that the parent is shy and this is reflected in the child. There is a wonderful phrase of specialists “a child must”. The child does not owe anything to anyone! The child can. Maybe as much as he can. And you have to be on your child's side, otherwise you won't help.

Even so, he does not go to school very eagerly, because a situation of failure awaits him there, in which he is unwell. And if you also take the position that you must also speak correctly to me, write correctly, read correctly, the child’s desire will not grow from this, but will decrease. Therefore, first of all, in addition to contacting specialists, you need to start by contacting yourself. And think a little about how unhealthy your child is. And how to make him feel good, so that he feels supported.

And how to do it, Natalia?

Natalya Shmagina: you know, less criticism. Together, without shouting and screaming.

We will try. Now look, well, parents, I admit, pull themselves together. But at school? Before giving advice to teachers, let's imagine how this child feels. Several already adult girls and mothers with problems of dysgraphia and dysarthria wrote to me.

For example, a listener writes: “I had an accident, we waited for the traffic police for 6 hours, no one could read the protocol I wrote, but I see everything correctly.” Does this mean that she herself does not see her own mistakes? He writes when the brain is tired, and sees the error only after a few days.

Irina Pravednikova: well, here we are not talking about any dysgraphia/dyslexia when the brain is tired. Subcortical structures are responsible for our working capacity, and the brain can get tired situationally in everyone. And make mistakes. Of course, imagine that you worked 10 hours and came home and were forced to write. And it is normal to make mistakes, situationally performance may decrease.

But then we take the diagnosis of dysarthria/dysgraphia. A person does not see his mistakes, and in a state of stress he can make a lot of them. Now we are still talking about a person who has a real problem.

Natalia Shmagina: Look at , just about stress. You yourself confirmed what I said a moment ago. That you need to remove the stressful situation, and then you can talk about the correction of the child. What advice would I give to these mothers? Firstly, he will turn to a specialist, and, secondly, ask a specialist to write a very calm instruction for the teacher that is not abstruse, without pretensions.

I imagine how the teacher will react.

Natalya Shmagina: you are saying that in vain. Many teachers are ready to do anything to get the child moving, to start reading, writing, and so on.

Question from the listener: “How to convey to the teacher of Russian and literature at school that the child has dyslexia? The teacher does not recognize this feature in principle. The sixth grade, a dyslexic child, did not crawl at all as a child, he began to speak at 3.5 years old, we simply work out spelling mistakes, remember as much as possible, then apply them in life. But the reading doesn’t seem to go on, and the teacher got caught like that. ”

Irina Pravednikova: what would I advise: any teacher is a person, let's remember this. And let's go to the teacher and let's say that, yes, we heard you, we began to look for all possible inputs and outputs, we are not trying to teach you and in no way belittle your authority.

In addition, if the teacher does not know what it is, but he is interested, there are all sorts of courses, seminars. For example, I also read seminars, including those specialized for teachers. Where I tell how to work with such kids, because there are a lot of them. Your main task, when you approach the teacher, is to ask for some kind of handicap. Not a special relationship, namely odds. Please wait, we're working, but it can't be all at once. If you wish, we will provide you with detailed information from a specialist. Give us time to move on.

Natalya Shmagina: I would also ask the parent: “In what form did you communicate with the teacher? If you shouted with foam at the mouth “my child has dyslexia, you owe us an indulgence”, then it is quite possible that he did not hear you. But if you came with a certificate from a neuropsychologist and said: “Dear Maria Ivanovna, look at the conclusion of a specialist” ...

Irina Pravednikova: you go with all these conclusions, and she paints in detail all the conditions necessary for the rehabilitation of the child. Still, we already have inclusion, it, at least in some strange form, but walks from school to school. And then the school will be obliged to comply with the recommendations given by the PMPK. I will especially make a reservation, parents often turn to us 9-th graders. And they ask to conduct a neuropsychological diagnosis and give a conclusion. Or to give them a treat. And they really give it to them. The school makes concessions when passing the OGE.

We read that in the USA they put a note on the notebook that the child has dysgraphia and treat it with understanding. Here, women who also have such problems are worried: is this not inherited?

Irina Pravednikova: such a moment can exist, and we had such a child.

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