How much you read to your child is completely up
to you and your family, but aim to read at least 3-4 books a day, even while
your child is very young. As she gets a little older and can sit for longer
stretches of time, make it a family goal to read together for at least
20-minutes each day.
Here are a few suggestions for the types of
books to read to your child. But by all means, read whatever your child responds
to and enjoys!
- Birth-1 Year: Lullabies, Board Books (with real
pictures), Cloth Books (with various textures), Song Books
- 1 Year-3 Years: Rhyming Books, Song Books, Short-Story
Board Books
- 3 Years-5 Years: Alphabet Books, Song Books, Picture Books,
Rhyming Books
2.
Ask questions
Asking questions while reading to your child is
not only great for encouraging your child to interact with the book, but it is
also extremely effective in developing his ability to
comprehend what
he is reading. You see, if our main objective in “reading” is getting our child
to “sound out” words, we have missed the boat entirely. Even children who can
decode words and “read” with great fluency still might not be able to comprehend
what they are reading. If a child can’t comprehend what he is reading, there
really is no point to reading at all!
While your child is a baby, ask him
questions such as, “Do you see the cat?” while pointing at the picture of the
cat. This will not only develop his vocabulary, it will also encourage him to
interact with the book that he is reading. As he gets older, ask him to point to
things in the book himself and make the noises of the animals he sees.
Once your child is about 2
or 3-years of age, begin asking questions before, during, and after reading the
book. Show your child the cover of the book and ask him what he thinks it is
going to be about (predicting). While reading, ask him what he thinks is going
to happen or why he thinks a character made a particular choice (inferring). If
a character is depicting a strong emotion, identify that emotion and ask your
child if he has ever felt that way (connecting). At the end of the book, ask if
his prediction(s) came true. Afterwards, ask him to tell you what he remembered
happening in the book (summarizing).
Modifying each of these techniques
during read-alouds to meet the developmental stage of your child is a great way
to promote and increase reading comprehension!
3. Be a good (reading)
example
Even if your child is fascinated with books from an
early age, her fascination will quickly dwindle if she does not see reading
modeled in her home. If you are not an avid reader yourself, make a conscious
effort to let your children see you reading for at least a few minutes each day!
Read a magazine, a cookbook, a novel, your Bible…it’s up to you! But show your
child that reading is something that even adults need to do. If you have a son,
share this article with your husband. Sons need to see their fathers read,
especially since it is not something that they are naturally prone to doing.
As parents, we can
sometimes get wrapped up with what exactly
our children should be doing
to be successful. But we often forget that children often learn by example. Grab
a book and take a load off…for your child’s sake, of course!
4. Identify letters in natural
settings
Decorate the kids room using
their names on the wall. You can paint and hung large wooden letters spelling
their name above the cribs as a decorative accent in their rooms, for instance.
In technical terms, this is called “environmental print” and includes all of the
print we are surrounded by–fast food signs, labels, traffic signs, clothing,
magazines, etc.
Often times, we want
to
force our children to learn letter names by a certain age. We buy
flashcards or DVDs claiming to teach our children their letters. We drill our
2-year old over and over for minutes on end. Don’t buy into this…allow your kid
to be a kid and take advantage of the “teachable moments” as they come along!
Children’s minds are like sponges and are certainly capable of
memorizing the alphabet from drilling, but that’s not the most
effective method that will produce the best long-term results. Your child will
be curious about the print he sees around him and will ask questions. That’s
your chance to jump in with a practical application that actually has
real meaning and significance to your
child
.
Don’t misunderstand me and think that I don’t think
learning the alphabet is important. It is certainly important…but the method in
which we teach them is even
more important! Always keep in mind
that our ultimate goal is to foster a lifelong learner who loves to read, not a
child who has simply memorized without any significance.
5. Incorporate multiple domains of
development
Children learn best when
multiple senses or
areas of development are included. That’s why hands-on
learning produces longer retention and more meaningful application. Once your
child has shown an interest in letters and you have already begun to utilize
natural settings for identifying those letters, begin implementing activities
that incorporate as many senses as possible. K
eep in mind that learning
letter names isn’t nearly as
important as learning their sounds!
There are a plethora of ways to
incorporate multiple domains of development in regards to letter recognition and
early-reading skills.
Alphabet crafts allow your child to learn the shape of a
letter along with an association of the sound it makes all the while utilizing
fine motor skills in the process of cutting, gluing, and creating! Playing games
that involve gross motor skills (like tossing beanbags on the appropriate
letter) are also wonderful ways to include movement. Of course, every child
loves songs and rhymes! Take an inventory of your child’s strengths and areas of
interest and target activities to fit them!
6. Classify the
Genre
Once your child is around 5 and
can recognize the difference between real and make-believe, I would suggest
starting to help your child understand various genres of books during your
reading time together. This might seem complicated, but it’s really not. There
are around 5 different genres of children’s books that I would encourage you to
point out to your little one. Of course you can use the term “type” rather than
“genre” if that is easier to remember.
- Nonfiction (real stories or facts about animals, places,
people, etc)
- Fantasy (make-believe, can’t happen in real life because of
magic, talking animals, etc)
- Realistic Fiction (a made-up story, but it could
technically happen in real life because the characters and situations are
believable)
- Alphabet Books
- Song Books
When children classify a book into a certain
genre, they have to first summarize the book in their head and recall details.
Then they have to use that information to decide which type of genre that
particular books fits into. Finally, your child will be recalling details from
other books in the same genre, making connections between the two. This simple
activity that might take 5-10 seconds of your time after reading a book but it
certainly packs a punch of thought and processing in that young brain!
Also,
it’s important to note that not all books will fit into one of these genres,
especially books that are considered “phonics readers.” I would suggest that you
do this exercise only with high-quality children’s literature, not with books
that are attempting to get your child to “sound-out” on their own. Most picture
books found in children’s libraries will fit into one of these
genres.
Remember, our goal is for our children to learn to
comprehend what they’re reading…otherwise reading will honestly do them
little good. When we encourage our children to think about and process the book
we’ve just read together, we are inadvertently modeling what we hope they’ll one
day do independently!
7.
Word Families
To put it simply, word families are words that
rhyme. Teaching children word families is a phonemic awareness activity that
helps children see patterns in reading. This is an important skill because it
allows children to begin “reading” by grouping sets of letters within a word.
Once your child
recognizes the word “mop”, he’ll then have an advantage to reading all of the
other words that have the same rime (top, pop, stop, cop, hop) because only one
letter is changing. Plus, recognizing rhyming words is a great language skill in
and of itself!
8. Phonemic Awareness and
Phonics
“Phonemes” are the
smallest sounds in the English language (go
here
for a complete list of phonemes). These sounds are made up of consonants, short
vowels, long vowels, and digraphs. ”Phonemic Awareness” consists of learning
those sounds and how to manipulate them within a word. Digraphs are unique
sounds comprised of individual letters like /th/, /sh/, /ch/, etc.
“Phonics” includes
learning how to spell those sounds and the various rules that the English
language follows. Phonics is an important components of
reading/spelling, but it should never be the main focus. Again, we are looking
to balance our literacy “program” with reading comprehension as the end result.
Learning the rules of phonics is simply a tool that helps a child learn to
decode and spell.
9. Decoding
Decoding is often
referred to as “sounding it out.” This is an important element in teaching your
child to read, but it certainly isn’t the most important. Once your
child knows the sounds each letter makes (which is taught in real,
meaningful situations), she is ready to begin putting words together. When
looking at a short word, encourage her to say each individual sound /b/, /a/,
/t/, and then put them together “bat”.
As children decode
words with more frequency, they will become more proficient at automatically
identifying that word. Sometimes this task is tedious, though, so it’s important
to find creative ways to make it fun. One idea is to use
finger
puppets to point to the letters as they were decoding.
10. Sight Words
Sight words, also
known as high-frequency words, are the most common words in our written language
are are often difficult to decode phonetically because they don’t follow the
rules of phonics. Because of this, they must be memorized. I am not an advocate
of rote memorization for optimal learning because I feel it only utilizes the
lowest level of cognitive processes. However, sight words must be memorized in
order for your child to become a fluent reader. Don’t get overwhelmed when
teaching them. You can do a pre-assessment to find out which words your students
are having trouble with and then design your instruction around their needs.
Make a chart with them and leave it posted on the wall for reference!…
As you’ve probably noticed, there is no “magic
formula” for teaching your child how to read. After all, every child learns
differently! This series is not to be used as a “checklist” and think that once
you’ve covered all the strategies your child will be proficiently reading.
Rather, this series provides valuable information to you so that you can guide
your child while creating a print-rich, learning environment to foster his/her
growth as a reader. Don’t rush and don’t stress! While it’s important to take
advantage of the prime-learning time, it’s even more important to let your kid
be a kid!
In summary, here are some practical suggestions you can
implement every day based on the strategies shared with you in this post and
previous posts. Obviously, you can’t implement all of these suggestions with
children of all ages, so use your judgement about what is best for
your
child.
- Read to your child every
day!
- Ask your child questions before, during, and after reading.
- Let your child see you reading.
- Look for letters while out and about and in the environment around you.
- When teaching letters and letter sounds, incorporate as many senses as
possible.
- Read a variety of books and make a game out of guessing the genre.
- Have fun rhyming!
- Work on letter sounds and manipulating them within words (phonemic
awareness)
- Encourage your child to sound out short words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
- Practice memorizing a few sight words each day.
- Most of all, have fun together!
Did I
forget to mention any other important elements in teaching your child to read?
What strategies have you found beneficial to your child?
Walls "dripping" with language.
Student work proudly displayed on classroom walls.
A first grade word wall.
A high school classroom word wall.
A bilingual math word wall (English and Spanish).
