Teaching reading to beginners

How to Read with a Beginning Reader

By: Joanne Meier

Most beginning readers are inconsistent. Learn more about the characteristics of a beginning reader and simple techniques and tips to nurture your child's skills and joy in reading.

Sometimes parents of beginning readers wonder if their child is on track with reading. They don't understand why their child can't read a word today they were able to read yesterday. They think their child reads too slowly. They grumble that their child only wants to read the same book over and over again.

Most beginning readers are inconsistent. They may know a word one day but not the next. They may read a particular word correctly on one page, but they have to stop and sound it out again on the next page. When you listen to a beginning reader, you hear short, choppy words with little attention to punctuation. Sometimes a new reader can tell you very little about what they just read.

At the beginning stage of reading, all of these reading behaviors are to be expected. Beginning readers are building their fluency. This means they're working to make several skills, like matching a letter to a sound and decoding, more smooth, accurate and automatic. Without fluency, each word must be decoded, and that takes time and energy. This means that other reading behaviors like reading with expression and comprehension have less of a focus.

When reading with a beginning reader, it's important to do the following:

Give them time to read. Reading is a skill, and like many other skills, it takes time to develop. A beginning reader should spend at least 20 minutes a day reading to or with someone. The books read during this time should be relatively easy for your child.
Let them reread the same books. Rereading the same words over and over again helps build fluency. Over time, you'll notice that your child will stop less often to decode words.
Encourage attention to the print. If your child is stuck on a word, help him look at the first letter(s) and encourage him to sound it out. If it's a difficult word, or one that can't be sounded out, simply supply the word and continue reading.

Take turns reading. By listening to your fluent reading, your child will hear what good readers sound like. After you've read a short passage, ask your child to reread the same passage. This provides a chance for her to practice reading with expression.
Have realistic expectations. For example, students should be reading approximately 60 words per minute correctly by the end of first grade, and 90-100 words per minute correctly by the end of second grade. Your child's teacher can help you learn your child's reading rate.

It's important to nurture your beginning reader in a way that helps make reading a daily habit and a lifelong love. By being aware of what's normal for a beginning reader, and by knowing how to help them progress, you're sure to instill those qualities in your reader.

Joanne Meier (2009)

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25 Effective Ways to Teach Reading to Beginners

The Butterfly Teacher is thrilled to welcome guest writer Sophia Sanchez, an ESL instructor who has extensive knowledge about language development. In this post, she shares 25 practical and effective ways to teach reading to beginners. Get your pen and paper ready…there are tons of teaching tips below!

*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, which do not cost any extra for you. Please see the full disclosure here.*

How Do You Teach Reading Effectively?

Reading is a complex exercise.

We have to teach kids to read the written word and to build vocabulary simultaneously.

On top of all this, as students grow, they need to master more complex reading skills, such as inferencing.

So what are the best reading strategies that teachers and parents need to teach? And HOW do you teach them?

To best answer these questions, you must approach reading instruction based on your students/child’s developmental level:

Early / Beginning Reader
Emergent Reader
Advanced Reader

You will be able to teach reading more effectively when you recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each developmental level and cater to those.

Tanya–The Butterfly Teacher, shares reading comprehension teaching tips for advanced readers, so in this post, I will share tips for early and beginning readers.

Let’s jump right in!

Vocabulary-Building Strategies for Early Readers

A highly effective way to teach reading to beginners is to help them build extensive background knowledge and vocabulary skills.

As you teach early readers more vocabulary, make sure the learning is playful, because most kids learn best via play!

1–Build Their Oral Vocabulary Through Conversation:
Encourage children to frequently interact verbally with you and others. More conversation will build on the vocabulary they may already know.
2–Combine Pictures with Vocabulary Words & Actions:
For example, put up a poster outside your class with signage for shaking hands, hugging, greeting with a bow/folded hands, or just smiling, and get the kids to point at how they want to be greeted. Encourage the kids to say the words aloud and then act them out.
3–Play Games to Identify Everyday Items:
Boring teaching will make reading seem like a chore! Make learning to read more fun with games that help children build vocabulary.
As children grow more proficient and confident pronouncing words for things like vegetables, fruits, simple objects, colors, plants, actions such as mowing, sweeping, washing, drying, etc.–they are forming the building blocks for strong reading fluency.

Simple Ways to Teach Pre-Literacy Skills

The vocabulary word building tips from above help beginning readers develop more background knowledge that influences their reading.

Here are simple but effective ways to teach reading to beginners who need more pre-literacy skills.

4–Introduce Kids to Books With No Text:
A few of my favorite examples for beginning readers are:
Free Fall by David Weisner,
Up and Up by Shirley Hughes,
and Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier.
As you share these picture books, let each child “read it” on their own, say the story out loud for others, or even interpret a page in their own words to develop pre-literacy skills.

Wordless books or simple word books such as this book set help early readers build essential vocabulary skills. Click HERE or the image to learn more. (Amazon affiliate link)

5–Start a Story Prompt:
Use flash cards or picture books to begin a make-believe story. Then allow your students/kids to create the next part or line of the story you’ve started. This helps them build the foundation for sequencing in reading.
6–Read Simple Rebus Readers:
These fun books help beginning readers answer your story prompts, identify sight words, and build vocabulary–which are all important pre-literacy skills.

What is the Main Difference Between Alphabetic Principle & Phonemic Awareness?

Let’s pause here to quickly dive into an important topic that relates to beginning readers.

Alphabetic understanding vs. letter-sound relationships!

What in the world is alphabetic principle and how is it different from phonemic awareness?

Many people use the words “alphabetic principle” interchangeably with “phonics.” It relates to letter-symbol relationships and spoken words.

Phonemic awareness involves breaking word parts down to isolate and identify specific sounds or phonemes.

To effectively teach reading to beginners, parents and teachers must use different teaching strategies for these two reading skills!

Let’s continue with specific examples

Easy Ways to Teach Alphabetic Principle

7–Introduce Single Letters and Their Sound:
English is not a phonetic language, but language learning is a lot about listening and ears like sounds. Confusion can set in but reducing pace and increasing fun games for practice can help.
8–Get Kids to Say Words Which Start With That Sound:
This can be combined with the same teaching strategies that you use to teach vocabulary words. Put pictures with words next to everyday items. Emphasize the sound that initial letter makes.
9–Give Sounds for Single Vowels:
Like ‘e’ for egg
10–Give Sounds for Single Consonants:
Like ‘h’ for hut

Tactile letter activities like this one help beginning readers build letter recognition and phonemic awareness. Click HERE or the image for more details. (Amazon affiliate link)

11–Do Kinesthetic & Tactile Activities to Learn Letters:
Write letters in the sand or in shaving cream. Use magnetic letters, ropes, and other items that beginning readers can touch as a fun way to build letter recognition.
12–Identify Letters among other letters (like a design:)
Before kids can identify letters as letters, they can play at spotting them. E.g Write ‘egg’ on the board with space in between. Now hold up the letter ‘e’ and ask the kids to spot it in what’s written. Add more words on the board which include ‘e’, and ask them to spot all the occurrences.
13–Complete Letter Crafts Decorating Objects Which Start With That Letter

Ideas for Helping Beginning Readers Build Phonological Awareness

14–Play Phonological Awareness Games:
Pair your students in two teams. One team will say words and the other team has to say a word with the sound it ends on
For example: one team may say the word “red.” The other team will need to say a word like “dog” since the word red ends with “d.”
This type of game can be difficult for some kids, so feel free to modify it with flashcards, pictures, or other ways to assist kids. If it’s too frustrating for them, they will not feel confident to play, which will lead to possible tantrums.
15–Get Kids to Call Out Rhyming Words With You

16–Form Various Words With The Same Set of Sounds
17–Play Rhyming Games With Nonsense Words:
Kids love gibberish! Plus, using nonsense words heightens their awareness of word sounds and word parts.
18–Try basic tongue twisters: (you will have kids rolling in laughter!)
She sells sea shells on the sea shore, but the shells she sells are not the real sea shells’. It’s better to start with the first four words, and slowly add the rest meaningfully in steps, or it might turn into a gibberish spewing noisy classroom!

What’s the Absolute Best Way to Teach Children to Read?

Kids learn at their own pace.

As no two kids are alike, teachers really have to individually nurture each child on their reading journey. So there’s no ONE absolute best way to teach reading to every single child.

This post features lots of effective ways to teach reading to beginners so that you have more than one strategy to try.

Here Are More Helpful Posts on Reading Instruction For You:

The Best Free Literacy Apps
11 Children’s Books Written by Celebrities
Using Life Lessons to Teach Children’s Literature
Books that Teach Socio-Emotional Skills

Here’s hoping for wonderful journeys in the world of reading!

Author Bio: Sophia is a newbie online ESL/EFL instructor. She is a passionate educator and blogs about education on her personal blog. She found her true calling — teaching — while she was juggling writing and a 9-5 desk job.

How easy it is to teach a child 4-6 years old to read - the best methods and exercises

How to understand that it's time

To the question "When is it time for a child to be able to read?" there is no ready-made answer, but we want to immediately warn against two misconceptions:

“It is not necessary to teach a child to read at home, they will teach you at school anyway. ” Yes, they will. But remember: the first year at school is the most intense in all 11 years of study. For some 4-5 months in the 1st grade, the child goes through the alphabet "from" and "to", learns to read, write, and the rest of the time he studies the basics of the Russian language. Therefore, it will be great if he has a reading skill before school. This will reduce the burden on the child. nine0005
"There is no time to waste - the sooner the baby begins to read, the better." All children are different and develop at their own pace. Therefore, you should not impose teaching reading to a preschooler as soon as he is 4-5 years old, if the student himself does not yet show interest in this activity. Instead, you can begin to develop an interest in reading through bright and engaging books. A good option would also be games that involve letters.

The indicator to be guided by is not the age of the preschooler, but his speech skills. nine0005

It's time to learn to read if...

If the speech development of a preschooler proceeds without gross violations. Let's figure out what criteria will help you find out if a child is ready to learn to read:

Understanding addressed speech. The kid must understand sentences, phrases, individual words that others around him turn to.
Vocabulary. The more words a child knows, the better he will understand what he read. It will also help him communicate with adults and other children. nine0005
Grammar. The ability to correctly build sentences, select and change words is important for children who are learning to read.
Pronunciation. For learning to be effective, the child must know how to pronounce words without gross errors.

Remember: at preschool age, a child may have minor mistakes in grammar and pronunciation - this is normal. Over time, these violations will be corrected, and they should not be considered an obstacle to reading. But if the baby is not yet very confident in speaking, do not rush him to read - this will not help develop speech, but only demotivate. nine0005

Practicing child psychologist Ekaterina Murashova

Free course for modern moms and dads from Ekaterina Murashova. Sign up and participate in the drawing of 8 lessons

How to make learning to read easier for preschoolers

Praise more and never scold

It's hard for us adults to imagine how difficult it really is for a baby to learn from scratch such a complex skill as reading. After all, being able to read means being able to correlate a sound with a letter or a combination of letters, connect sounds, understand the meanings of the words read and the meaning behind the text. nine0005
If parents take the child's progress for granted and express dissatisfaction when the child does not understand something, this will not push the future student to development, but will only complicate the process. Therefore, it is important to praise for small victories: I learned the letter that was passed last time - great, I coped without my father's help with the word as much as two syllables - clever.

Do not take failures as a consequence of the negligence of the little student. When a child does not understand the first time, this is an occasion to look for another explanation or give more time to practice. If you feel tired and irritated, you should stop the activity and return to it in a good mood. nine0005
Exercise little but regularly

Do not expect perseverance and a desire to spend hours figuring out unfamiliar letters from your baby. It is difficult for preschoolers to keep their attention in a lesson for more than 25 minutes, and even such small classes should be interrupted with physical education minutes and games so that the child does not get bored. This is exactly how Skysmart prepares for school: 25-minute classes with breaks for outdoor games.

But regular practice is important - much more important than the duration of the session. And it doesn’t have to be just lessons: you can look for familiar letters on signs during a walk, on a door plate in a children’s clinic, on a package of your favorite corn flakes. nine0005
Read books aloud

In a series of studies conducted by Dr. Victoria Purcell-Gates among five-year-olds who could not yet read, those children to whom their parents regularly read aloud for two years expressed their thoughts in more literary language, built longer phrases and used more complex syntax.

In addition, reading aloud with adults contributed to the expansion of the children's vocabulary, as parents explained the meanings of new words that children did not encounter in everyday life. nine0005

Expert Opinion

According to neuroscientist Marianne Wolfe, book evenings with parents help develop a love of reading because the child establishes a connection between reading aloud and feelings of love and warmth.

Discuss read

The role of communication in teaching literacy cannot be overestimated. At first, it is important to ask if the future student is interested, if he is tired, what was remembered from the lesson. When a preschooler learns to read coherent texts, be sure to ask questions about their content. nine0005
It's great if the child reads on his own and without the prompting of the parents, but even in this case, do not deprive him of the opportunity to discuss what he has read with you. For example, you can ask:
- Which of the characters do you like?
- Do you think this character is like you? Would you like to be like her?
- What would you do if you were a hero?
- Why did the described event happen? How are these two events related? nine0005
- How did what you read make you feel?
- What do you remember most from what you read?
- What do you think the author wanted to teach? Why did he write this? Do you agree with the author?

It is important to select questions individually, based on the age of the child. With younger children, discuss everything together, ask simple questions, direct their attention to some facts. The complexity of the questions should increase in proportion to the age of the child. The older he is, the more difficult the tasks should be, and the questions can already affect the "reflection" of their feelings and experiences. nine0005

Go from simple to complex

From the correspondence between sounds and letters to syllables, from short words to longer and more complex words. It would seem that this is obvious, but no: sometimes parents are so happy with the success of the child at first that they push him to study more complex topics than he is ready to accept. Of course, the program should adapt to the future student, but you should not skip steps, even if the child is making progress.
nine0004 There are methods that offer to teach a child to read by memorizing whole words. Alas, experiments show that such techniques generally work worse. For example, a group of scientists from the United States came up with an artificial alphabet and offered subjects to learn it, and then read the words written using this alphabet. At the same time, some subjects were immediately explained the principles of correspondence between sounds and letters, while others had to derive reading rules on their own based on whole words. It turned out that the first group copes with reading new, previously unfamiliar words better than the second. nine0005
Therefore, we advise you to choose those teaching methods that involve clear instructions about the relationship between sound and letter - and this is especially important for those children who have difficulty reading. Below we have compiled a few of these techniques that you can use to teach your preschooler at home.

Methods of teaching preschoolers to read

Warehouse reading

The way to teach a child to read through warehouses was actually used in Rus', but for modern parents this technique is associated with the name of the philologist Nikolai Alexandrovich Zaitsev. nine0005

Zaitsev suggests not focusing on the study of individual letters, as it can be difficult for students to understand how letters can merge into syllables and words. Teaching a child to read by syllables is also not always easy: one syllable can be quite long ( shine, ruble ), and the boundaries of syllables are not obvious ( Lun-tik or Lu-ntik ?). Therefore, in Zaitsev's methodology, a warehouse is used as the main unit.

Warehouse can be a combination of a consonant and a vowel (pa-pa, ma-ma), a single consonant or vowel (de- d , i-s -li, A -le-sha), as well as a combination of a consonant with a hard or soft sign (ma- l -chi-k, po- d -yem).

In order for a preschooler to understand the differences between the recording of voiced and soft, vowel and consonant sounds, different types of warehouses have their own cube size, color and content, thanks to which the cubes sound when they are shaken. Cubes affect several channels of perception at once, and warehouses should not just be pronounced, but sung - this way, according to the author of the methodology, learning is more interesting and effective. nine0005

One of the advantages of the technique is that children willingly play with blocks themselves, and the process of learning to read becomes active and mobile.

Syllabic reading

This technique, according to some sources, was developed by the Romans. Later, Nadezhda Sergeevna Zhukova, a Soviet and Russian speech therapist, created a primer based on it. In it, she built her own system in which sounds and letters are sequentially introduced into speech.

Due to the fact that the concept of a syllable is introduced at an early stage, it is faster and easier to teach a child to read syllables together. By the way, as in Zaitsev's technique, it is proposed to sing syllables, and not just pronounce them. nine0005

Based on the syllabic method, Zhukova developed a set of teaching aids - copybooks, copybooks and a book for reading. Benefits will help teach children to read correctly 6 and 7 years old at home.

Both techniques for teaching preschoolers to read are used in the Skysmart Ready for School course. The course consists of two stages: first, children get acquainted with letters and warehouses, which allows them to quickly start reading simple words, and then they learn what a syllable is. Gradually, we introduce more complex syllabic constructions, move on to reading phrases and sentences. nine0005

Sound analytical-synthetic teaching method

This method originated in the USSR and is still considered the main one in Russian schools and kindergartens. It was developed by the Soviet teacher and Russian language methodologist Voskresenskaya Alexandra Ilyinichna.

Same as N.S. Zhukova, Voskresenskaya proposed her own order in which children should learn letters and sounds. The principle of this sequence was that the child first learned the letters that can be combined into simple syllables, and then moved forward in the level of complexity. As a result, children learn syllables in this order:

Two-letter syllables (including one consonant): am, ma, ra, etc. and simple words from them: ra-ma, ma-sha, Pa-sha, etc.
Three-letter syllables with a central vowel: poppy, lat, etc.
Combination of the first two stages into words: sa-lat, earth-la, etc.
Words of three syllables and six letters: az-bu-ka, ve-se-lo, etc.
Words of two syllables and six letters: question-ros, tea-nick, etc.

Words with a combination of vowels at the beginning and at the end of the word: chair, March, etc.

In this way, children simultaneously prepare for more complex syllables at each stage and reinforce what they have learned earlier.

Exercises for learning to read

Learning to read, as a rule, takes place in several stages. First, the child listens to the sound, visually remembers the letters. Different games will help with this, where you need to look for letters, invent words, etc. When this stage is over, you can move on to syllables and games to work them out. And only after that it will be possible to proceed to words, and then to sentences and texts. nine0005

Letter memory exercises

The first step is to teach your child to recognize letters. To do this, you can use pictures with hidden letters. We use such exercises in the preparation for school lessons in Skysmart.

Ask your child to identify what letter a word begins with, or name as many words as possible that begin with a certain letter.

Next, we train to distinguish correctly written letters from incorrect ones. This is also important for learning to write: preschoolers often mirror letters or distort individual elements. nine0005

Exercises for vowels and consonants

To learn how to distinguish between vowels and consonants, tasks will help you determine the sound with which a word begins.

It will also help to remember the difference between vowels and consonants and search for an extra letter.

Word building exercises

When the child can read short words, ask him to form a word from the letters on his own.

Composing words from syllables is convenient if you have cubes at hand, but you can also try on paper.

Another good exercise is to fill in the missing letter in a word. Children perform such tasks in the lessons in the Skysmart online school.

For more colorful and fun reading activities, check out the Skysmart Ready for School course. Attentive teachers will help the child learn to read, count and express themselves through creativity. Classes are held online at a convenient time for the child and parents. Try it for free with an introductory lesson! nine0005

Teaching children to read

Every parent thinks about the importance and role of reading in the life of their children, who cares about their harmonious, correct and holistic development. But if in some families it’s enough for moms and dads to simply send their child to a kindergarten or school, shifting, but it doesn’t sound loudly, the responsibility on the shoulders of educators and teachers, then in others, caring parents prefer to work with kids on their own.

The information from this course is intended specifically for people of the second category, because those who belong to the first category are unlikely to search the Internet for relevant information. But let's continue. nine0005

Despite the great desire to teach your precious child to read as soon as possible, this process should be approached with maximum attention and caution, because there are subtleties and nuances that simply cannot be ignored. The fact is that contrary to popular belief that the sooner you start learning the basics of reading with your child, the better, many specialists (neurologists, child psychologists, etc.) are convinced that this can lead to negative consequences in the future. For example, early learning to read with the accompanying premature stress on the visual apparatus often causes myopia and other vision problems. nine0005

Thus, it is very important to know at least the basic features of the formation of the child's body, when to start teaching children to read and how their readiness for this process is determined, and also to adhere to the basic relevant rules. These fundamental questions will be considered by us in the first lesson.

Contents:

How a child is formed. General information
When can I start teaching my child to read
Basic rules for teaching a child to read
Some additional advice
Reading quotes from famous people

How a child is formed. General information

Here, as it should be understood, we will present only general information, because it will be sufficient.

So, starting from the early stages of pregnancy and ending with the age of three, the first functional block of the baby's brain is formed, which is responsible for his bodily, cognitive and emotional perception. nine0005

From three to five or eight years of age, the formation of the second functional block of the brain takes place, which controls the five senses - touch, taste, smell, hearing and vision.

It should be borne in mind that the formation of functional blocks of the brain is a sequential process. Any attempt by a parent to “skip” any stage negatively affects the development of the child, which is inherent in nature, because. unnatural "adjustments" are made to it. The insidiousness of the consequences lies in the fact that, quite likely, they will not affect immediately, but after years. Subsequently, an already matured child may have problems that are expressed not only in speech disorders, neuroses, motor failures, etc., but also in difficulties in relationships with people around them. nine0005

Based on this, it is necessary to start teaching a child to read at a certain time.

When to start teaching a child to read

There are several opinions on when to start teaching a child to read. Some experts believe that it is possible to start certain work, for example, showing Doman cards (we will talk about them and other methods in the second lesson), already after the baby reaches six months of age, while others believe that it is best to start at 3-4 years old , and from the primer. However, all teachers agree on one thing: no teaching of reading is completely unacceptable and impossible until the child has mastered speech skills. If, somewhere around the age of 3-4, the baby begins to take an active interest in books, it is not only possible, but also necessary, to start learning to read. nine0005

It should also be noted that in case of restlessness and indifference to printed materials, before learning, one should understand how to arouse the child's interest in reading. We will touch on this issue in more detail in a separate lesson, but nevertheless we will say that an incredible selection of books will help parents solve this problem, which, in addition to brightness and colorfulness, have many moving elements and even sound accompaniment. Thanks to this, reading becomes not only an interesting activity for children, but also an exciting game. At the initial stage, any book serves not so much as a source of knowledge, but as a way to get involved in the very process of reading. nine0005

Continuing the conversation about the readiness of the child to read, it can be determined by several signs:

Firstly, the baby has already formed speech, and he is able to pronounce words and sentences, as well as compose at least small coherent stories
Secondly, the child has no speech therapy disorders, and this applies to both incorrect pronunciation and violations of melody and tempo and rhythm of speech
Thirdly, the baby is able to navigate normally in space, and does not confuse the concepts of "right", "left", "down" and "up"
Fourthly, the child has a sufficiently developed phonemic hearing, i. it can easily recognize sounds in different parts of words

If there are problems with any of the above, you should take up their elimination - take some time to work out the difficult moments, visit a speech therapist, neuropathologist, etc. If everything is in order (or after fixing the problems), you can proceed to learning to read.

A few words about the correct teaching of reading

The presented question excites, perhaps, every parent. And the first answer to it will be the traditional method, which boils down to daily monotonous reading of the primer. But this option is not very effective, because almost always the child gets bored, he quickly gets tired and tired. Plus, he does not learn to read thoughtfully at all. Of course, the baby will learn some skills and knowledge, but it is a stretch to call it a good way of sensory-emotional development, knowledge of the world around him and his place in it. In order for the process to become exciting and creative, so that it arouses interest in the child, so that the reading skill is mastered effectively, you need to use other methods (we devoted separate lessons of our course to such methods, and for now we will not focus on them). nine0005

Before you start learning to read and apply any methods, it is imperative to learn the basic rules that you should rely on in your work. They can be called the basis of the whole process. Although slight deviations are allowed, it is still recommended to adhere to all the rules, otherwise the reading skill will be mastered by the child less effectively, which in no case should be allowed.

Basic Rules for Teaching Your Child to Read

So, if you want to help your child learn such an important skill as reading, follow these rules:

Do not force

Remember that you cannot force a child to read, and any such strategy is wrong, wrong and ineffective in advance. To make the child want to read and begin to show interest in books, just surround him with them. So, you can arrange books around the house - on shelves, tables and other easily accessible places. In addition, you yourself need to pick up books and read something interesting to your son or daughter. You also need to read for yourself so that the child can see you with a book. Given that children strive to be like their moms and dads, your child will most likely ask what you are doing, or pick up a book himself. nine0005

First the sounds, then the letters

Many parents make a big mistake by first explaining the pronunciation of the letters to the baby, and only then the sounds. It is necessary to do the opposite: first of all, it is important to tell what sound this or that letter in the word has, and only then - how it is pronounced by itself. Those. initially explain that the letter "er" in the word sounds like "r", "en" - like "n", "em" - like "m", etc. And after that, teach that “er” is “er”, “en” is “en”, “em” is “em”, etc. nine0005

Learning not letters, but syllables

It must be understood that syllables, and in some cases even whole words, are assimilated by children much better than many single boring letters. Therefore, the letters must be shown in whole words. As an auxiliary material, you can use specially printed cards with syllables, with the help of which it is convenient to teach the baby to read by syllables and make words.

Repetition

The frequency of repetition of the material studied with the child depends on how well he will remember and assimilate it. However, there is one trick here - many kids do not really like it when they are satisfied with checks and tests, and therefore repetition as a teaching method must be presented in the form of a game. nine0005

First simple, then complex

As we said, initially it is most effective to teach a child to pronounce sounds, and only then complicate the process - move on to reading by syllables and combining syllables into words. All information should be provided in a dosed and step-by-step manner so that there is no “porridge” from the knowledge gained in the child’s head.

Learn simple words

Learning to read should always start with simple words where letters are repeated, for example, the words "mother", "woman", "dad", "uncle", etc. After that, it is allowed to move on to learning words, where a letter is added to the syllable, for example, “bass”, “cat”, “house”, “poppy”, “lacquer”, etc. And having already mastered such material, you can begin to engage in elementary sentences, such as “mother washed Mila”, “Kolya pricks stakes”, etc. As for the letters "y", "b" and "b", it is better to leave them in the end. nine0005

Learn anytime, anywhere

No matter what you and your baby are doing at the moment: walking, shopping, standing at a bus stop or having a snack in a cafe - you can read anywhere and anytime. Almost everywhere there are signs, advertising posters, signs with the names of shops, streets, stops, etc. Use it to your advantage and your child, and let him read everything you show him.

Play

Teaching a child to read, as well as any other skill, should take place in a playful way. Come up with your own games where you need to know the sounds, letters and syllables. For example, you can ask your child to look for specific letters in words and pronounce them. You can also buy home letters on magnets and make words on a special board or refrigerator. And another game will help develop mindfulness - take letters on magnets or cubes, make a series of letters where all but one are consonants, and let your baby find a vowel. nine0005

Arouse interest

To make your child learn to read better and easier, you need to get him interested in it. And for this it is very good to show that reading is necessary for a full life among other people. Therefore, clearly demonstrate to the baby the importance of this skill - show him letters, postcards, notes, tablets, write notes so that he reads them. Over time, the child himself realizes that learning to read is simply necessary.

Read aloud

Reading aloud, and even for a while, is considered to be a very effective way of teaching a child to read quickly. But you need to apply it, of course, when the baby has already mastered some skills. Based on what your child has already learned, make up your tasks and give them to him to complete, marking, for example, a minute. By the way, the so-called “Reader's Diary” will help a lot here, where you will record the progress of your baby. And so that he completes the tasks with enthusiasm, after every hundred words you read, give him some nice little thing. nine0005

Reading with a bookmark

Reading with a bookmark is another rule for improving reading skills. You need to use a bookmark here, as usual, with the only difference being that it should not close the bottom line, but the words read. So you will help your baby not get confused in a large number of words and focus on a new word.

Regularity of classes

We have already talked about repetition, so just add that you need to read regularly and systematically. In other words, you need to pay attention to mastering the reading skill every day, even if it takes only 5-10 minutes. But what is even more important is not to abandon classes, even when it starts to seem that the baby is already reading well. nine0005

To conclude the first lesson, we would like to supplement the above rules with a few more tips that will help you teach your child to read faster and better.

A few extra tips

Your child will learn to read more successfully if you follow this list of tips:

Be sure to get a primer or alphabet. In the future, this literature will always evoke in the child associations with pleasant learning. It is best if the books are supplemented with drawings
If you study letters, then start with vowels, because they can be sung using your favorite melodies, and this is useful, fun and interesting. It is very good if the classes are accompanied by modeling from plasticine or coloring pictures. This will teach the baby to identify letters and understand them
You need to study consonants only after vowels. And do not forget that first you need to explain to the child how the letter in the word is pronounced, and only then - how it sounds on its own

In the process of learning, do not neglect creative materials. Remember that a child learns the world through sensory perception, which means that he definitely needs to try and touch everything. Cutting out letters from cardboard, sculpting letters from plasticine, baking cookies in the shape of letters, etc. can come up. An experience like this will forever be imprinted in your child's memory
Most effective are short sessions of 10-15 minutes several (3 to 5) times a day. Stick to this system, and your baby will not only not get tired, but will also look forward to each lesson
And, finally, the most important rule in any interaction with a child is benevolence and patience with the baby. Never allow yourself to lose your temper, raise your voice, and even more so insult the little man. Otherwise, all activities will be of no use, and even the child’s attitude towards you may not be the best. nine0010

Approach teaching your child to read with love and intelligence, and the first results will not be long in coming. And in the next lesson, we will talk about the most popular methods for teaching children to read today, and also briefly talk about what we based on when creating the presented course.

Lesson 1. The most popular methods of teaching children to read

Almost every one of us today can remember the famous blue primer with which he learned to read. But time passes, and the presented tool loses its relevance, giving way to special methods of teaching children to read. Today, there are many such methods, but we will tell you about the most popular ones, as well as point out their main advantages and disadvantages, if any. Of course, we will say a few words about the primer, as well as introduce the benefits of practical methods for teaching children to read, collected in this course by the 4Brain team. But, as is customary with us, everything is in order. nine0005

To begin with, it would not be superfluous to note once again that it is recommended to teach children to read not earlier than 4-5 years old, but there are cases when children begin to master this skill earlier (we talked about the indicators of children's readiness for reading in the first lesson). The author's methods, which we will talk about, are designed for early, i.e. primary education for children.

Lesson 2. The most important points in teaching children to read. An easy way to teach your child to read

In the previous two lessons, we looked at the basics of teaching children to read and got acquainted with the most popular methods on this topic. But the theoretical aspects do not end there, because teaching a child to read is not an easy task. Naturally, we will not load you with theory, otherwise the course will simply be of no use, but nevertheless we will allow ourselves to touch on a few more issues of a similar nature.

If you want to make your child's reading education as effective as possible, you should pay attention to a number of specific nuances, which we will discuss below. We also note that the recommendations we offer have been tested in practice by many parents and have shown their effectiveness on many generations of children. Despite this, they are extremely simple, and it will not be difficult for you to follow them. Plus, this information will help you avoid the most common mistakes. And this means that your baby will very soon distinguish between letters, syllables and words, memorize them and pronounce them correctly. nine0005

Lesson 3. Preparing for reading for the little ones. Age features. First books. Methods and recommendations

Remember, just recently you thought about how to help your baby solve his first "baby" difficulties - to master a rattle, teach him to eat, go to the potty. But time flies, and now it's time for the baby to master the first skills that will be useful to him in adulthood. And one of them is reading. Preparation for the process of learning to read is very important, because. only with a competent integrated approach, success in this difficult, but very interesting business will be guaranteed. nine0005

To begin with, let's once again touch upon age-related features, namely: consider what is special in the period from 3 to 7 years with a child, because the methods that need to be used for learning and the subtleties of preparation depend on this.

Lesson 4. Learning the alphabet

One of the foundations of reading at all times was the knowledge of the alphabet. As it should be assumed, there are many methods for studying the variety of letters in the Russian language, but not all of them are effective. In addition, when teaching a child, it is always necessary to focus on the psychological and physiological characteristics. Of particular importance in the development of the alphabet is the age aspect. nine0005

We have already mentioned that in 99% of cases the characteristics of babies are such that it is quite difficult for them to concentrate. For this reason, it makes no sense to purposefully study the alphabet at the age of 1-2 years (meaning just such a study that will come in handy in the future, but of course you can prepare for reading), and teachers advise starting this from the age of three. Although always and everywhere one should rely on the individual characteristics of a particular child, and not try to find any age limits. Next, we will talk about learning the alphabet for children of different ages. nine0005

Lesson 5. Reading by syllables

After the child has mastered the alphabet, and you are sure that from now on the information about the letters of the Russian language is firmly established in his head, it's time to move on to the study of syllables. This lesson is dedicated to this topic.

Here are practical tips to help you teach your toddler to read by syllables, as well as some homework lessons to improve reading skills and abilities. Let's start with recommendations. nine0005

Lesson 6. Reading whole words

After completing the lessons, the child can confidently read the words, but they sound something like this: “ko-te-nok”, “so-ba-ka”, “ig-rush- ka", "ki-no", etc. In other words, the baby reads the words, but reads them syllable by syllable. This is quite normal, but you definitely need to work on it, because. only when the child reads the words and sentences completely and without hesitation can we say that he really learned to read. In addition, at the same time as learning to read words in their entirety, children must learn to understand the meaning of what they read. We will talk about these topics in the presented lesson. nine0005

But first, let's clarify a few very important points for ourselves - when a child masters reading words in its entirety, it is necessary:

Lesson 7. Speed reading

The ability to read is one of the most important and necessary skills for a person in life. And this is most clearly expressed when the child begins to go to school. The speed and quality of perception of information, as well as the success of the entire learning process in general, depends on the ability to read. If the child is able to read with difficulty, he will study, write down and assimilate the material very slowly, and this, in turn, will affect academic performance. nine0005

For these and many other similar reasons, every parent who cares about their child and his success in life should not only help him learn to read, but do it as efficiently and competently as possible. In a slightly different way, he is obliged to teach the child to read correctly, meaningfully and quickly. And in our today's lesson, we will present a number of techniques and exercises that will help you achieve this result.

Lesson 8. How to make a child fall in love with reading

Enough has already been said about the meaning of reading and the boundaries it opens. We only recall that people who love to read have a much better chance of success in life. And according to some psychological research, well-read children perform better in school and are significantly more likely to receive a higher education than children who do not like to read.

But how can a child be able to read and love this activity? How do you get him to pick up a book and spend time with it instead of spending countless hours on social media or playing games on his tablet? nine0005

Lesson 9. Teaching children to read in foreign languages 

Teaching a child to read Russian is one thing. This, of course, is necessary; without it, as they say, nowhere. But at present, more and more often there is a need for a person to also know a foreign language, and, of course, this implies the ability to read in this language.

In the final lesson, we will look at the basics of teaching children to read in foreign languages, and as an example, as you might guess, we use English. First, it is an international language, i.e. it can be useful in life to any person, and secondly, its relevance is due to the widespread use of computer technology. That is why, by the way, today it is increasingly being taught in schools from the first grade. nine0005

And before moving on to the main part of the course, let's think a little about why being able to read and teaching your children to read is so important.

Reading quotes from famous people

To conclude this introductory lesson, here are some inspiring quotes from famous people about reading:

Reading is the best teaching!

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

nine0052 Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Joseph Addison

People stop thinking when they stop reading.

Denis Diderot

Reading is an idle creative work.
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