Every milestone that children achieve is celebrated and applauded by both teachers and parents alike, especially now that technology provides easy and simple means to document these events through videos and pictures. The same technology could help in aiding and assisting eager parents and teachers in teaching children how to read.
Contrary to the common misconception that the ability to read is naturally exhibited by kids, the truth is that reading is a gift first cultured within the home and continued in school. Every child is different in terms of their own learning style, pace, and interest. To ensure that each opportunity to optimize their learning is tapped, incorporate various efficient ways to teach your kid how to read. Here are some examples of how:
Babble and Sing-Along
It has been a common practice, especially among newbie parents, that kids are taught the basics of reading at the onset of their school years. Their ability to absorb and retain learning actually starts earlier than that.
As soon as the first few months, you can already stack the necessary building blocks for your children to build on later. This is what you call scaffolding. Although it is unheard of to start teaching a newborn how to read, there are actually materials available to make this possible. If you refer to the literati book club, you may find that reading starts by getting familiar with the environment surrounding your child as early as their neonatal age. This could be achieved by providing interactive books that have simple pictures of concepts, vibrant visuals, and catchy features to keep your little one engaged.
Make the World a Canvas
Reading ability goes hand in hand with other skills, including reading and comprehension. It is important that the early practice of these skills are nurtured as well. Allow children to draw on things around them- on a foggy window during a cold day, at the sand when you go to the beach, and even at the walls of your home if you are that patient and understanding. Make this an opportunity to help them make sense of what they can do and give them confidence in learning.
For example, if your children are making semi-circles using their fingers, engage them in sounding out the letter “O”. If they make lines, you could sound out the letter “I”. The key here is to be consistent to allow the association to take place. Every time they succeed in making the same shapes, pair this with the same interpretation you’ve always been teaching them. You get to encourage both their writing and reading ability when doing this trick.
Dance to the Letter
Actions are better teachers to children than words, literally. Put your letters into actions like how you dance to the YMCA song. This is a physical activity that helps children remember the sound of their letters. The English phonetics can be complicated to teach, you have to sound letters differently in different words, like the letter “a” in cat and pay. It is confusing. That’s why important cues can be given to them as they are figuring out these differences. Teach them to make a different dance action for different sounds. Have them stand with their hands raised forming “A” for the short letter ”a”, then make them sway their hands for the long sound of this letter. You help them read through muscle memory incorporating a fun physical activity.
Build Your Own Cards
It is helpful to use cards but isn’t it kind of weird for them to learn the letter “Z” because of Zebra which they don’t ever see. You can take advantage of how techy kids are becoming by introducing them to productive ways of using gadgets for learning. Instead of using generic store-bought cards, give your children your phone and allow them to capture things around them. You can have their pictures printed with the names captioning each of them. Since they already know the names of these things, they can match the sounds and figure out how to read the words. This can lead to independent reading and studying. You start with nouns, then slowly build on words as you move along.
Teaching children how to read may seem to be challenging for both parents and children. In passing on knowledge and skills, you may use new and creative ways to efficiently teach children how to read. You can add these techniques along with the methods used on us when we were kids. Apart from using creativity, you just have to be patient and genuine enough to help them achieve more milestones.
