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Best ways to teach reading


9 Fun and Easy Tips

With the abundance of information out there, it can seem like there is no clear answer about how to teach a child to read. As a busy parent, you may not have time to wade through all of the conflicting opinions.

That’s why we’re here to help! There are some key elements when it comes to teaching kids to read, so we’ve rounded up nine effective tips to help you boost your child’s reading skills and confidence.

These tips are simple, fit into your lifestyle, and help build foundational reading skills while having fun!

Tips For How To Teach A Child To Read

1) Focus On Letter Sounds Over Letter Names

We used to learn that “b” stands for “ball.” But when you say the word ball, it sounds different than saying the letter B on its own. That can be a strange concept for a young child to wrap their head around!

Instead of focusing on letter names, we recommend teaching them the sounds associated with each letter of the alphabet. For example, you could explain that B makes the /b/ sound (pronounced just like it sounds when you say the word ball aloud).

Once they firmly establish a link between a handful of letters and their sounds, children can begin to sound out short words. Knowing the sounds for B, T, and A allows a child to sound out both bat and tab.

As the number of links between letters and sounds grows, so will the number of words your child can sound out!

Now, does this mean that if your child already began learning by matching formal alphabet letter names with words, they won’t learn to match sounds and letters or learn how to read? Of course not!

We simply recommend this process as a learning method that can help some kids with the jump from letter sounds to words.

2) Begin With Uppercase Letters

Practicing how to make letters is way easier when they all look unique! This is why we teach uppercase letters to children who aren’t in formal schooling yet.

Even though lowercase letters are the most common format for letters (if you open a book at any page, the majority of the letters will be lowercase), uppercase letters are easier to distinguish from one another and, therefore, easier to identify.

Think about it –– “b” and “d” look an awful lot alike! But “B” and “D” are much easier to distinguish. Starting with uppercase letters, then, will help your child to grasp the basics of letter identification and, subsequently, reading.

To help your child learn uppercase letters, we find that engaging their sense of physical touch can be especially useful. If you want to try this, you might consider buying textured paper, like sandpaper, and cutting out the shapes of uppercase letters.

Ask your child to put their hands behind their back, and then place the letter in their hands. They can use their sense of touch to guess what letter they’re holding! You can play the same game with magnetic letters.

3) Incorporate Phonics

Research has demonstrated that kids with a strong background in phonics (the relationship between sounds and symbols) tend to become stronger readers in the long-run.

A phonetic approach to reading shows a child how to go letter by letter — sound by sound — blending the sounds as you go in order to read words that the child (or adult) has not yet memorized.

Once kids develop a level of automatization, they can sound out words almost instantly and only need to employ decoding with longer words. Phonics is best taught explicitly, sequentially, and systematically — which is the method HOMER uses.

If you’re looking for support helping your child learn phonics, our HOMER Learn & Grow app might be exactly what you need! With a proven reading pathway for your child, HOMER makes learning fun!

4) Balance Phonics And Sight Words

Sight words are also an important part of teaching your child how to read. These are common words that are usually not spelled the way they sound and can’t be decoded (sounded out).

Because we don’t want to undo the work your child has done to learn phonics, sight words should be memorized. But keep in mind that learning sight words can be challenging for many young children.

So, if you want to give your child a good start on their reading journey, it’s best to spend the majority of your time developing and reinforcing the information and skills needed to sound out words.

5) Talk A Lot

Even though talking is usually thought of as a speech-only skill, that’s not true. Your child is like a sponge. They’re absorbing everything, all the time, including the words you say (and the ones you wish they hadn’t heard)!

Talking with your child frequently and engaging their listening and storytelling skills can increase their vocabulary.

It can also help them form sentences, become familiar with new words and how they are used, as well as learn how to use context clues when someone is speaking about something they may not know a lot about.

All of these skills are extremely helpful for your child on their reading journey, and talking gives you both an opportunity to share and create moments you’ll treasure forever!



6) Keep It Light

Reading is about having fun and exploring the world (real and imaginary) through text, pictures, and illustrations. When it comes to reading, it’s better for your child to be relaxed and focused on what they’re learning than squeezing in a stressful session after a long day.

We’re about halfway through the list and want to give a gentle reminder that your child shouldn’t feel any pressure when it comes to reading — and neither should you!

Although consistency is always helpful, we recommend focusing on quality over quantity. Fifteen minutes might sound like a short amount of time, but studies have shown that 15 minutes a day of HOMER’s reading pathway can increase early reading scores by 74%!

It may also take some time to find out exactly what will keep your child interested and engaged in learning. That’s OK! If it’s not fun, lighthearted, and enjoyable for you and your child, then shake it off and try something new.

7) Practice Shared Reading

While you read with your child, consider asking them to repeat words or sentences back to you every now and then while you follow along with your finger.

There’s no need to stop your reading time completely if your child struggles with a particular word. An encouraging reminder of what the word means or how it’s pronounced is plenty!

Another option is to split reading aloud time with your child. For emerging readers, you can read one line and then ask them to read the next. For older children, reading one page and letting them read the next page is beneficial.

Doing this helps your child feel capable and confident, which is important for encouraging them to read well and consistently!

This technique also gets your child more acquainted with the natural flow of reading. While they look at the pictures and listen happily to the story, they’ll begin to focus on the words they are reading and engage more with the book in front of them.

Rereading books can also be helpful. It allows children to develop a deeper understanding of the words in a text, make familiar words into “known” words that are then incorporated into their vocabulary, and form a connection with the story.

We wholeheartedly recommend rereading!

8) Play Word Games

Getting your child involved in reading doesn’t have to be about just books. Word games can be a great way to engage your child’s skills without reading a whole story at once.

One of our favorite reading games only requires a stack of Post-It notes and a bunched-up sock. For this activity, write sight words or words your child can sound out onto separate Post-It notes. Then stick the notes to the wall.

Your child can then stand in front of the Post-Its with the bunched-up sock in their hands. You say one of the words and your child throws the sock-ball at the Post-It note that matches!

9) Read With Unconventional Materials

In the same way that word games can help your child learn how to read, so can encouraging your child to read without actually using books!

If you’re interested in doing this, consider using PlayDoh, clay, paint, or indoor-safe sand to form and shape letters or words.

Another option is to fill a large pot with magnetic letters. For emerging learners, suggest that they pull a letter from the pot and try to name the sound it makes. For slightly older learners, see if they can name a word that begins with the same sound, or grab a collection of letters that come together to form a word.

As your child becomes more proficient, you can scale these activities to make them a little more advanced. And remember to have fun with it!

Reading Comes With Time And Practice

Overall, we want to leave you with this: there is no single answer to how to teach a child to read. What works for your neighbor’s child may not work for yours –– and that’s perfectly OK!

Patience, practicing a little every day, and emphasizing activities that let your child enjoy reading are the things we encourage most. Reading is about fun, exploration, and learning!

And if you ever need a bit of support, we’re here for you! At HOMER, we’re your learning partner. Start your child’s reading journey with confidence with our personalized program plus expert tips and learning resources.

Author

What is the Best Way to Teach Reading? A Literacy Professor Weighs In

The best way to teach reading is a topic that has been hotly debated for many decades. If the past is any indicator, we’re going to be fighting about it for decades to come. It’s worth arguing about because literacy is important. Roughly 21% of American adults are illiterate. Illiteracy has harmful impacts on health, finances, and overall well-being. Thus, literacy is powerful and is a fundamental human right.

In case you haven’t read anything by me or been to my Book Riot page, let me introduce myself. I am a former elementary school teacher. After I left the classroom, I pursued my PhD in curriculum & instruction (with an emphasis on literacy) while working as a literacy consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education. Since then, I’ve been a professor who teaches people to teach kids to read. Thus, I have a LOT of opinions on this topic. Buckle up, friends!

To understand where we are in this conversation, we have to understand where we’ve been. Let’s dive in, shall we?

A Brief History of the “Reading Wars”

The debate about the best way to teach reading is not new, nor is the science complete. In fact, the “Reading Wars” have been going on for decades. Here’s a little bit about what we actually know.

Whole Language vs. Phonics

Even now, despite the changes in what we call things, the ongoing war is between those who believe a whole language approach is the best way to teach reading and those who advocate for a focus on phonics. The basic premise is that some educators believe in exposure to books and using meaning to help decode texts, and a competing faction that believes in phonics instruction as providing the necessary tools to decode text. Over the years, the field has swung between the two sides. For a couple of decades, whole language has been on top. Now, we’re shifting back to the phonics end of the spectrum.

Those against whole language are adamant that kids are being taught to guess at words they don’t know and that approach is failing them. Others who are against an overemphasis on phonics lament the drill-and-kill, decontextualized approach to reading. The truth is, both sides are right, and they’re also both wrong.

The “Science of Reading”

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to listen to science. Unfortunately, that means there are some people in the world that can use so-called science to manipulate others. The “science of reading” is a hot term that has caught on lately, but it means nothing. The term was created by media outlets as a way to present an emphasis on phonics instruction.

In this recent surge of interest in reading, one state has been placed on a pedestal. A specific program produced growth in Mississippi, citing the highest growth of all states on the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) in 2019. But the truth behind that program is much more complex. Nonetheless, state legislatures are scrambling to find the same success for their own populations.

Literacy researchers like me, as well as many teachers, are so tired of this game. It seems like every year there’s a new miracle program, a new way to do things. Unlike many professions, everyone has an opinion about teaching. The mentality of “those who can’t do, teach” has permeated our culture. People believe that teaching is an easy job. Consequently, our expertise is devalued and we’re not treated like other professionals — just take a look at the pay if you need more evidence.

Some of the Politics Behind the “Science of Reading”

Politics and education go hand-in-hand, so it’s important to look at who is pushing certain decisions. One interested stakeholder in all of this is the International Dyslexia Association (ILD). If you click that link, it’ll take you to a test that suggests most of us have dyslexia. In actuality, only 5–15% of the population has dyslexia. The organization has branches in 37 states and DC. Big Dyslexia (I’m sorry, I can’t help myself) treats all learning difficulties as dyslexia. They have a lot of support from worried parents and lawmakers, resulting in policy and curricular changes that aren’t necessarily sound.

Despite the fact that there is no best way to teach reading to all kids with reading disabilities, the ILD standards suggest otherwise. In my state, the ILD standards are being touted alongside standards from the International Literacy Association, which is a 60-year-old professional organization that is widely respected among teachers and researchers. ILA has responded to ILD, saying (among many other things), that ILD standards and claims are based on misinterpreted research and represent an inaccurate stance on teaching reading. According to ILA (p. 8):

“ILA’s position is that teachers do not need to spend substantial amounts of time learning about dyslexia, which, as has been argued, is a construct of questionable utility. Nor should teachers be obligated to learn a specific and poorly researched approach to preventing and remediating reading difficulties.”

The ILA represents the views of thousands of educators and educational researchers worldwide. The organization has contributed a great deal to what we know about the best way to teach reading. Yet many states are legislating that professional development and other resources be allotted to mitigating dyslexia. Again, educators are being undermined by outside stakeholders.

A Balanced Approach

I’m not supposed to say this anymore, but the best way to teach reading is through a balanced approach. Unfortunately, “balanced literacy” has become synonymous with whole language, so opponents of balanced literacy believe we already tried it and failed. What we’ve actually done is a little of this and a little of that, but none of it with enough time or fidelity.

Children need to be taught the code. They need to learn letter-sound relationships. However, since English often deviates from its own rules, phonics instruction isn’t enough. There are words that kids need to learn by sight. Additionally, there are patterns and word parts that kids can learn and apply to hosts of words.

While they’re learning all of this, kids need to encounter words in contexts. They need to apply their skills to a variety of text types. They need to fall in love with lots of great books so that they’re motivated to read. The best way to teach reading is to teach kids how language works and to give them lots of practice enjoying books.

Systematic Phonics Instruction

Phonics (and its precursor phonological awareness) are crucial to reading instruction. We have to teach children how to crack the code, which means we have to teach how letters work. Furthermore, we have to teach this in a systematic way. Teaching the letter of the week or any other arbitrary approach is not effective.

We need to take a developmental approach to literacy instruction. That means that we meet kids where they are and prepare them to move forward. Children move through developmental stages in reading, just like they do in other areas. We know from research that emergent readers typically start to develop letter-sound correspondence starting with beginning sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words (p. 11). They then start to notice and represent ending sounds, followed by medial vowels. Once they’ve mastered that, they move into the beginner stage and on through transitional, intermediate, and skillful. (Sometimes these stages go by other names or are broken down further.)

I don’t expect you to know what all that means, but teachers should. Knowing the stages of development means we can assess where a child is and use that information to plan appropriate instruction that will move the child forward in the developmental sequence. That’s how we determine which letters and other features to teach at a particular time. (And that’s why grade levels are nonsense that I promise to rant about at a later date.)

The best phonics instruction includes hands-on practice building words, practicing skills with developmentally appropriate texts, and getting targeted guidance. There’s no need to drill kids to death and make them hate reading. Phonics can be phun!

Exposure to Rich Texts

Surprise! Books help kids learn to read. Reading aloud to children of all ages offers a host of benefits from improving comprehension skills to expanding vocabulary. Further, these experiences foster a love of reading and increase motivation.

Children need to apply their decoding skills to actual books. They need exposure and access to lots of different kinds of books so they are prepared to read widely throughout their lives. Moreover, studies have found a correlation between access to books and literacy development.

As I mentioned earlier, the English language often deviates from its own rules. For example, all of these words include the long i sound: hi, flight, bye, cry, bite, pie. Thus, when we teach a child that the letter i makes a particular sound, we haven’t taught them all the ways to spell that sound.

This is another place books help. Children who read widely will encounter more words and more patterns. They’ll build a larger sight word vocabulary through exposure and practice. While we can’t teach every pattern and every exception to the rules, we can offer children opportunities to apply what they know to lots of situations by sharing great books.

A Focus on Comprehension

If you read a page of text, but you can’t explain what information it contained, did you really read? Decoding without comprehension is just word calling. To read, you have to make sense of the words you read. Children can only practice comprehension by reading words in context. That means they have to read books (and articles, passages, posts, etc.). Even the current literacy champ, Mississippi, acknowledges “language comprehension is equally important and works best when exposing students to high-quality, engaging instructional materials.”

The Bottom Line

It’s not surprising that people are grasping at miracle cures, considering that two-thirds of United States 4th graders are reading “below grade level.” (I will save my views on levels for another day.) We want what’s best for kids and for the world. That means we’ve got to teach people to read well.

Sadly, there’s no magic bullet. There’s no one program or strategy that will work in all classrooms. We are not going to read aloud or phonics our way into better literacy in this country. Reading is a complex process requiring a nuanced approach.

Reading is about comprehension. It’s about making sense of text so that you can gather information. That requires more than flash cards and letter-sound matching, but also more than being read to and having access to lots of books. Both sides need to come together and give a truly balanced approach a fair try.

How to teach a child to read: important rules and effective techniques

October 26, 2022 Likbez Education

Teaching a preschooler to read without losing interest in books is real. Lifehacker has selected the best ways for responsible parents.

How to understand that it is time to teach a child to read

There are several signs of psychological readiness.

  1. The child speaks fluently in sentences and understands the meaning of what is said.
  2. The child understands directions: left-right, up-down. For learning to read, it is important that the baby can follow the text from left to right and from top to bottom.
  3. The child distinguishes sounds (what speech therapists call developed phonemic hearing). Simply put, the baby will easily understand by ear where the house and the bow are, and where the tom and the hatch are.
  4. Your child pronounces all the sounds and has no speech problems.

Natalia Zharikova

Speech therapist with 33 years of experience

A child with speech therapy problems does not hear and does not distinguish similar sounds. From here come errors with speech, and subsequently with reading, and even more often with writing. It is very difficult for a parent to identify violations on their own, so usually a teacher or a speech therapist can point this out to them.

How to teach your child to read

Be patient and follow these simple guidelines.

Set an example

In a family where there is a culture and tradition of reading, children themselves will reach for books. Read not because it is necessary and useful, but because it is a pleasure for you.

Read together and discuss

Read aloud to the child and then look at the pictures together, encouraging them to interact with the book: “Who is this picture? Can you show me the cat's ears? And who is that standing next to her?” Older children can be asked more difficult questions: “Why did he do this? What do you think will happen next?"

Don't learn the letters as they are called in the alphabet

Instead, help your child remember the sound the letter makes. For example, you show the letter "m" and say: "This is the letter m (not em )". If a child remembers the alphabetic names of letters ( em , es, ef and so on), it will be quite difficult for him to learn to read. Then, when he sees the word ra-ma in the book, he will try to pronounce er-a-um-a .

Go from simple to complex

Once the child has memorized a few letters (from 2 to 5) and the sounds they represent, move on to syllables. Let the words consisting of repeated syllables be the first: mum, dad, uncle, nanny . In this case, it is not necessary to break the syllable into separate sounds. Do not say: "These are the letters m and a , and together they read ma ". Immediately learn that the syllable is pronounced like ma , otherwise the baby may start to read letter by letter. After mastering simple combinations, move on to more complex ones: cat, zhu-k, house .

Help to understand the meaning of what they read

Do this when the child begins to slowly but surely reproduce words and whole sentences in syllables. For example, the kid read: "Mom washed the frame." Stop and ask: “What did you just read about?”. If he finds it difficult to answer, let him read the sentence again. And you ask more specific questions: “Who washed the frame? What did mom wash?

Show that letters are everywhere

Play a game. Let the child find the letters that surround him on the street and at home. These are the names of stores, and memos on information stands, and advertising on billboards, and even traffic light messages: it happens that the inscription “Go” lights up on green, and “Wait so many seconds” on red.

Play

And play again. Stack blocks with letters and syllables, make up words, ask your child to read you some kind of sign or inscription on the packaging in the store.

Natalia Zharikova

There are many exercises for memorizing letters. For example, circle the desired letter among a number of others, circle the correctly written among the incorrect ones, color or shade. You can also ask the child to tell what the letter looks like.

Use every opportunity to practice

Whether you are waiting in line at the clinic or driving somewhere, take out a book with pictures and short stories to accompany them and invite your child to read together.

Build on your success

Repeat familiar texts, look for familiar characters in new stories. Runaway Bunny is found both in "Teremka" and "Kolobok".

Do not force

This is perhaps the most important thing. Don't take away a child's childhood. Learning should not go through violence and tears.

What techniques to use to teach your child to read

Here are six popular, affordable and effective techniques. Choose one or try several and choose the one that interests your child the most.

1. ABCs and primers

Frame: This is all mine / YouTube

Traditional, but the longest way. The difference between these books is that the alphabet fixes each letter with a mnemonic picture: a drum will be drawn on the page with B , and a spinning top next to Yu . The alphabet helps to remember letters and often interesting rhymes, but will not teach you how to read.

The primer consistently teaches the child to combine sounds into syllables, and syllables into words. This process is not easy and requires perseverance.

There are quite a lot of author's primers now. According to the books of Nadezhda Betenkova, Vseslav Goretsky, Dmitry Fonin, Natalya Pavlova, children can study both with their parents before school and in the first grade.

Parents agree that one of the most understandable methods for teaching preschoolers is Nadezhda Zhukova's primer. The author simply explains the most difficult thing for a child: how to turn letters into syllables, how to read ma-ma , and not start naming individual letters me-a-me-a .

2. Zaitsev's Cubes

Shot: Little Socrates / YouTube

If a child consistently masters letters and syllables while learning from an ABC book, then in 52 Zaitsev's Cubes he is given access to everything at once: a single letter or combinations of consonant and vowel, consonant and hard or soft sign.

The child effortlessly learns the differences between voiceless and voiced sounds, because the cubes with voiceless consonants are filled with wood, and the cubes with voiced consonants are filled with metal.

The cubes also differ in size. The large ones depict hard warehouses, the small ones - soft ones. The author of the technique explains this by the fact that when we pronounce to (hard warehouse), the mouth opens wide, nor (soft warehouse) - lips in a half smile.

The set includes tables with warehouses that the parent sings (yes, he doesn’t speak, but sings).

The child quickly masters warehouse reading with the help of cubes. But there are also disadvantages: he may begin to swallow endings and face difficulties already at school when parsing a word by composition.

3. "Skladushki" and "Teremki" by Vyacheslav Voskobovich

Frame: Play and Toy Club / YouTube

In "Skladushki" Vyacheslav Voskobovich reworked Zaitsev's idea: 21 cards show all the warehouses of the Russian language with nice thematic pictures. Included is a CD with songs, the texts of which go under each picture.

Folders are great for kids who like looking at pictures. Each of them is an occasion to discuss with the child where the kitten is, what the puppy is doing, where the beetle flew.

It is possible to teach a child with these cards from the age of three. At the same time, it should be noted that the author of the methodology himself does not consider it necessary to force early development.

"Teremki" by Voskobovich consist of 12 wooden cubes with consonants and 12 cardboard cubes with vowels. First, the child gets acquainted with the alphabet and tries with the help of parents to come up with words that begin with each of the letters.

Then it's time to study the syllables. In the tower with the letter M is embedded A - and the first syllable is ma . From several towers you can lay out words. Learning is based on play. So, when replacing the vowel , house will turn into smoke .

You can start playing tower blocks from the age of two. At the same time, parents will not be left alone with the cubes: the kit includes a manual with a detailed description of the methodology and game options.

4. Chaplygin's dynamic cubes

Shot: Both a boy and a girl! Children's channel - We are twins / YouTube

Evgeny Chaplygin's manual includes 10 cubes and 10 movable blocks. Each dynamic block consists of a pair - a consonant and a vowel. The task of the child is to twist the cubes and find a pair.

At the initial stage, as with any other method of learning to read in warehouses, the child makes the simplest words from repeating syllables: ma-ma, pa-pa, ba-ba . The involved motor skills help to quickly remember the shape of the letters, and the search for already familiar syllables turns into an exciting game. The cubes are accompanied by a manual describing the methodology and words that can be composed.

The optimal age for classes is 4-5 years. You can start earlier, but only in the game format.

5. Doman's cards

Frame: My little star / YouTube

American doctor Glenn Doman suggests teaching children not individual letters or even syllables, but whole words. Parents name and show the child the words on the cards for 1-2 seconds. In this case, the baby is not required to repeat what he heard.

Classes start with 15 cards with the simplest concepts like females and males . Gradually, the number of words increases, those already learned leave the set, and the child begins to study phrases: for example, color + object, size + object.

How can one understand that a child has understood and memorized the visual image of a word, if the author of the methodology recommends starting classes from birth? Glenn Doman in "The Harmonious Development of the Child" strongly emphasizes that it is not necessary to arrange tests and checks for the child: kids do not like this and lose interest in classes.

It's better to remember 50 cards out of 100 than 10 out of 10.

Glenn Doman

But given that parents can't help but check, he advises the child to play the game if they want and are ready. For example, you can put a few cards and ask to bring one or point to it.

Today, psychologists, neurophysiologists and pediatricians agree that the Doman method is aimed not at teaching reading, but at mechanical memorization of visual images of words. The child turns out to be an object of learning and is almost deprived of the opportunity to learn something on his own.

It is also worth adding: in order to proceed to the stage of reading according to Doman, parents need to prepare cards with all (!) Words that are found in a particular book.

6. Montessori method

Photo: Kolpakova Daria / Shutterstock

Montessori reading comes from the opposite: first we write and only then we read. Letters are the same pictures, so you first need to learn how to draw them and only then engage in pronunciation and reading. Children begin by tracing and shading the letters, and through this, they memorize their outline. When several vowels and consonants have been studied, they move on to the first simple words.

Much attention is paid to the tactile component, so children can literally touch the alphabet cut out of rough or velvety paper.

The value of the method lies in learning through play. So, you can put a rough letter and a plate of semolina in front of the child and offer to first circle the sign with your finger, and then repeat this on the semolina.

The difficulty for parents is to purchase or prepare a significant amount of handouts. But you can try to make cards with your own hands from cardboard and sandpaper.

What's the result

On the Internet and on posters advertising "educators", you will be offered ultra-modern methods of teaching your child to read at three, two years old or even from birth. But let's be realistic: a happy mother is needed a year, not developmental activities.

The authors of the methods as one insist that the most natural learning process for a child is through play, and not through classes in which the parent plays the role of a strict controller. Your main assistant in learning is the curiosity of the child himself.

Some children will study for six months and start reading at three, others have to wait a couple of years to learn in just a month. Focus on the interests of the child. If he likes books and pictures, then primers and Folders will come to the rescue. If he is a fidget, then cubes and the Montessori system are better suited.

In learning to read, everything is simple and complex at the same time. If your child often sees you with a book, you have a tradition of reading before bed, your chances of getting your baby interested in reading will increase significantly.

See also 🧐

  • How to teach a child to keep promises
  • How to teach a child to say the letter "r"
  • How to teach a child to ride a bicycle
  • How to teach a child to swim
  • How to teach a child to write

How to teach a child to read.

5 ways to teach your child quickly and correctly.

The whole truth about how to choose a backpack for a first grader.

  1. Articles
  2. How to teach a child to read. 5 ways to teach your child quickly and correctly.

Reading is one of the very first skills that a child will master in his life. In our society, literacy is the key to success, and when reading ability does not develop within one or two classes, parents begin to feel that they have failed. However, most likely, the matter is in the choice of the method of education - there are no right and wrong books, methods, games, it all depends on the individual characteristics of the baby. There are no two children who simultaneously learned to read at the same pace, but for each case, the main thing is patience, diligence, perseverance.

In our article “What a future first grader should know when going to school”, we talked about the fact that reading by syllable is one of the skills that helps a child better adapt to the first grade. Therefore, it is worth starting training in advance, but taking into account the readiness of the child to learn.

How to get a child interested in reading?

Most children learn to read at the age of 5-7 years. Parents are encouraged to read aloud to their children, as the best way to instill a love of books is by example. Babies may not understand what you are reading, but they will become familiar with what a book is, learn to distinguish drawing from print. Toddlers love to imitate adults, play with printed materials, start flipping pages - this is another option for training fine motor skills. The main thing for parents at first is to form positive associations in the baby associated with the books they read. Read - and they will want to read, smile, opening a fresh volume, - children will also smile, flipping through the pages!

Is the child ready to learn to read: how to determine?

  • Desire to learn. Motivation is an essential component of learning - children need to get excited, really interested to start reading, then they will do their best to learn.

  • Games “I write” and “I read”. If you saw that the baby took the book and examines the pages, imitates reading, or tries to draw with a pencil not just drawings, but zigzags resembling letters, these are signs that you should pay attention to.

  • Involvement in history and attentiveness. How attentively does the child listen to the story being read? How involved is he in the story you are reading? Can he retell it? If the baby not only hears, but listens with interest and remembers what you read to him, you can certainly take the first steps towards his education.

  • Understanding how to open a book, flipping through, realizing that sentences are read from left to right is another bell that indicates a child's interest.

  • Interest. Can your toddler point to large letters and identify them with something familiar, recognize multiple lowercase letters? When the text you read ceases to be just a set of characters for him, take a closer look.

  • The ability to distinguish readable sounds. A good way to determine if the baby knows about the sound structure of words is to check if he can rhyme simple words, determine the first and last sound.

  • Developed oral language. If your son or daughter does not have problems with pronunciation and errors in syllable coordination, he or she can start learning.

You can teach to read in several stages, depending on the age of a small student:

  • 2-3 years - work is underway on figurative thinking, parents arouse interest in reading fairy tales, look at pictures together.

  • 4-5 years - the first acquaintance with the alphabet takes place, simple sound-letter learning.

  • 5-6 years - you can teach to read words, sentences, retell a readable text.

Basic training rules

What is the most successful approach to early learning to read? Let your child set their own pace and enjoy what they are doing. Do not force him to memorize numbers, shapes, names of objects, sentences you read. On the contrary, encourage curiosity, let the little one learn to explore on his own, discover new things, without fear of mistakes. The main condition is the desire of the smallest student. Read books to your baby that he really likes and entertains, the readable text should not be boring! Do not force reading when the child does not want it - this can permanently turn him away from books.

Use games - it is in a playful way that preschoolers most easily learn the information they read, so combine the useful with the pleasant. Keep the child interested, but do not make the classes too long - it is better to spend less time studying, but do it more often. Classes should be diversified with light warm-ups or outdoor games, which help relieve stress, distract and gain strength to continue studying.

Good parents must remain patient and not compare their child's progress to other children's - remember that everyone's learning process is at their own pace. Listen to the baby, if right now he does not want to read, pick another time. For each preschooler, you can choose the best home teaching method - look at the different methods, choosing the one that suits your baby.

Teaching methods

Montessori method

The Italian teacher and doctor Maria Montessori proposed a method of teaching reading, according to which you must first learn to write, and only then read. Small children perceive lettering as drawings, so it's easier to start by teaching a preschooler how to write the alphabet correctly. Use cursive, not block characters - rounded characters are easier to read for preschoolers. The methodology provides for training without manuals, books, primers. You will need paper, a pencil, toy three-dimensional letters. The process takes place in several stages:

  • Hand training. Before you learn to write, teach your child to circle a variety of objects, to hatch drawings. Such exercises train the hand and fingers, develop fine motor skills. If the baby gets used to holding a pencil in his hand, the first letters will come out easily, without much effort.

  • "Feeling" letters. Tactile contact is one of the first ways a child explores the world. Let him "touch" to get acquainted with the alphabet. You can buy tables with a convex alphabet or cut out letters yourself from fabric, soft paper. It is better that the preschooler is pleased to touch them, then he will learn the alphabet very quickly, he will be able to compose syllables on his own.

  • Compilation of words. Having learned the alphabet, children are ready to connect letters into syllables, and syllables into words.

  • First writing lessons. At this stage, some children immediately write in full sentences, some prefer drawing individual letters. Do not rush the preschooler, give him enough time to learn the art of writing. After numerous trainings, your son or daughter will learn how to correctly write the words and sentences they know.

  • Reading. Composing familiar concepts from cut out letters or trying to write them with a finger in the sand, the child will repeat them, gradually moving from writing to being able to read. With each practice, the words will become easier to read for him.

Zaitsev Cubes

Zaitsev's technique is based on a game form of learning, for this they use cubes developed by a famous teacher. According to this method, in order to teach a child to read, you do not need to use the alphabet, which is more likely to confuse than help. Zaitsev believed: the alphabet is harmful due to the use of pictures. For example, if a baby remembers the letter “A” associated with a picture of a stork, and “M” with a picture of a mouse, he may decide: to write “mother” you need two storks and two mice. The readable text will be clearer if you first learn to write, make warehouses, and only then start reading. There are several rules for this technique:

  • The basic unit of the language according to this method is not a syllable, the basic unit is a warehouse, that is, a combination of consonant and vowel sounds. For example: PA-PA, MA-MA, SA-MO-LE-T.

  • Warehouses are presented to the child not in a book or cards, but on cubes that are designed to develop analytical thinking. They differ in colors, sizes, have different content, due to which they produce a different sound. A preschooler will learn to distinguish and memorize them by sound, touch, appearance, using all the senses. Warehouses are written on the edges, not syllables.

  • Learning takes place in a playful way - let the child build towers from cubes, gradually moving on to compiling readable words. You can sing warehouses, speak out loud, start writing (not necessarily with a pencil, just move your finger along the table).

  • There are 52 large and small cubes in the set, 7 are repeated so that you can make words with the same warehouses. The letters are written in different colors, there is a cube with punctuation marks. Products are made of different materials, there are wooden, iron, golden and combined.

Phonetic method

The phonetic or sound technique is used in schools, so if you start teaching a child using it, it will be easier for him to adapt to learning already sitting at a desk. This method is easy to use at home, useful for practicing correct pronunciation, suitable for 5-6 year old preschoolers, but may not be practical for earlier reading. The technique consists of several stages: first, the baby must be taught to distinguish sounds in readable words, then they must be taught to correctly write sounds in letters, put what is written into syllables, and then into words and sentences.

Glen Doman cards

According to the methodology developed by Glen Doman, you need to start reading with individual words, not syllables. The technique is suitable for the youngest children, even those who are only a couple of months old. The child is shown cards with words in a certain order, correctly and carefully repeating what is written aloud, gradually moving on to phrases, sentences and books. In total - 5 steps:

  • Step number 1: 15 cards with inscriptions are used that may be interesting and familiar to the child (“mom”, “dad”, names of pets, names of favorite dishes). Cards need to be alternated and shown, explaining what is written. Readable cards are held in the hands of a parent, the viewing time of each is 1-2 seconds. After the first 15 words, you should add the following, on average, you should learn 5 new concepts per day.

  • Step number 2: you need to analyze the vocabulary of a preschooler and start compiling phrases. The easiest way to perceive phrases with colors, dimensions, familiar characteristics - “red apple”, “big stool”, “clean hands”.

  • Step #3: You should start with 5 simple sentences, demonstrating them three times a day, and after 3-5 days, start replacing them with new readable cards.

  • Step number 4: it will be correct to teach how to read common sentences, complicating them with new words. For example, “mom is cooking” can be turned into “mom is cooking soup”. Gradually, the child will be ready to move on to the final stage - the book.

  • Step #5: After reading cards with large letters, you can move on to books with smaller fonts. The first book must comply with several rules: vocabulary - 50-100 familiar words, one sentence per page, pictures after the text. It is not necessary to purchase ready-made books, you can make them yourself, the main thing is that the material you read is of interest to your son or daughter.

Olga Soboleva's technique

The methodology of the Russian teacher Olga Soboleva is based on motivation by creating confidence in the child that reading is pleasant. Learning takes place in the form of a game using associations. For example, the letter “M” should be associated with the native word “mother”. At the same time, the method excludes learning by syllables, you need to start with words, after which sentences are mastered immediately. Games gradually move to books, so that the love of reading is instilled in the preschooler.

How to teach reading independently and at home

Almost all teaching methods agree that the easiest way is to teach a preschooler to read in a playful way, without coercion, to use the example of parents and readable material that is understandable to him. Remember the simple rules: