If you’re looking to raise well-rounded children, then one of the best boosts you can give them early in life is to teach them how to read and to help them develop a healthy appetite for reading. If you want them to learn more effectively, then it’s not just about reading to them, there are techniques that can help it all sink in a little faster.
Start with uppercase letters
In time, your child will learn the difference between uppercase and lowercase. However, while lowercase letters are much more commonly used in day-to-day life, upper-case letters are much more visually distinct. Q, P, B, and D are a lot easier to differentiate for a child than q, p, b, and q. When they have their uppercase letters down, move on to lowercase.
Build their phonetics
One of the changes in the past couple of decades that you might have noticed from your own childhood is that we don’t teach children the names of letters, to begin with, anymore. We start with the sounds of the words. So, instead of reading the letter K as “kay,” you might read it as “kuh.” Phonetic rules are one of the most important things to put together in order to construct words and read new words correctly. Of course, there are words that don’t fit those phonetic rules, as well.
Start teaching sight words
The English language is full of words that don’t fit our usual phonetic rules. You should start building their vocabulary of these as soon as possible with sight words. A sight word is a word that they learn to recognize instantly so that they don’t have to sound them out. The, is, of, to, and that are all examples of sight words. They’re extremely common in sentences but don’t fit phonetic rules. The single best way to teach them is memorization of the entire word, rather than as a collection of letters.
Start incorporating word families
Once they’re starting to get their phonetics down and they’re able to recognize the most important sight words, then you can start branching out into word families. These words all typically have the same ending sounds, and it can be a good way to teach them to start recognizing specific sounds, especially those that don’t follow common phonetic rules, like brought, thought, and so on.
Get your kids reading independently
Yes, reading to your child is helpful, can help them develop a love of stories, and is a great way to bond with them. But you want to make sure that children are able to read independently as well. You can set aside some reading time and make sure they have access to all kinds of books. Asking them questions about what they’re reading and showing an interest (without putting pressure) can ensure that they’re more likely to engage with the content, too.
Reading is a vital skill. If you’re able to start building it within them as soon as they’re capable of learning it, then that is all the better. Keep that in mind and learn more about the tips mentioned above.
