How You Can Help Your Child Learn to Read
As a parent, you probably realize the need for your child to learn to read. Firstly, it brings about success at school, which is a confidence-building measure and can be motivating for the child too. However, for reading beginners, it’s important that they read slowly and gain reading fluency over time.
How your child can learn to read: For reading beginners, reading doesn’t happen at once, but in a graded manner. It involves several stages that, in due course of time, leads to reading fluency.
Your child can start reading at the pre-school stage because at this stage, he or she can develop elementary reading skills.
Stages of reading
- Pre-reader and beginning reader stage: At this stage, your child will like to just look at books and would love you to read to him or her. You’ll find that your child is trying to behave like a typical reader by holding the book in his or her hand and pretending to read. Your child will soon learn certain basic words by looking at picture books and identifying them, while also playing with letter blocks.
- Emerging reader: At this stage, your child is mentally ready to follow reading-related instructions. He or she can now match spoken or written words and can see a relationship between letters and sounds, call out words when reading easy passages, and understand text with the help of images.
- Early reader: At a slightly older stage of development, your child can now read confidently. He or she now uses visual cues to identify certain words in a passage. Your child can also recognize several words and is keen to try out other passages.
- Fluent reader: By now, reading beginners can read by themselves by using several techniques to identify words. Now, he or she can understand the events of a story.
How you can help your child: Being a parent to a little child is a huge responsibility, especially when it comes to reading and writing. You are his or her first teacher, so when you introduce your child to reading, you are really introducing a whole new world to your child.
You can help your child read by:
1) Talking to him or her: Listening and talking are the basics of language. So, talk and sing to your child. This will make reading easier for him or her. You can do this by:
- Narrating family stories
- Including your child in all your daily activities
- Ask your child many questions
- Urge him or her to speak his or her mind
- Encourage your child to sing alphabet songs and rhymes
2) Make reading to your kid a fun activity: Make reading to your kid fun time. You can do this by reading with expression, drama, and excitement. For this, you will have to read a story using a variety of voices for different characters. For example, a king will need a strong voice, or a damsel in distress will demand a simpering voice. Whatever the story, for reading beginners, you need to adapt your style and voice to the story you’re reading and make reading an enriching experience.
>> Click here for a simple and effective method to teach your child to read and write in just 12 weeks |
