Teaching your child to read is a process involving many steps and a variety of well tested techniques, but getting started on the road to reading is quite simple and involves little more than laying a strong foundation through very simple methods.

Teach Your Child To Read By READING

Reading aloud to your child each day is a great way to introduce reading at the earliest age. Take time to read aloud to your child at least once per day and more often if time allows. Choose a time when you and your baby or child can be together with limited interruptions. You may even choose to implement a family story hour where all of the family members can be involved. Parents and siblings who can already read can take turns reading their favorite story book aloud. This process helps to form an early love of reading and an understanding of phonics and proper pronunciation.

Teach Your Child To Read By SPEAKING

Demonstrating proper speech when communicating with your baby or child is essential to preparing them for reading. Speak to your child in full sentences and avoid baby talk. Speaking to your baby using proper pronunciation and form will help them to develop proper language skills which will assist them in the later learning stages. Encourage your child to speak as well by asking them many questions throughout the day. Be sure to make corrections to their speech as you go so they learn the proper way to form sentences and pronounce sounds.

Teach Your Child To Read By EXAMPLE

Just telling you child that reading is important may not be good enough. Reinforce this belief by taking time to read often. Set aside reading times in your home even before a child has learned to fully read. Turn off the TV and have quite times where the family reads on their own. Allow your child to see you reading books, newspapers, and magazines often. Share your experience by showing them pictures or telling them about the story you are reading. This builds excitement and a desire to read on their own.

Building a strong foundation and a love of reading are great building blocks when you are ready to teach your child to read. Start here and then move on to the more advance techniques to create a lifetime reader.

There are different schools of thought on teaching reading early. Those who favor teaching reading early state that a baby is able to recognize complete words well before their first birthday and that they are able to quickly learn to do this at this stage of their development.

Many of these same proponents also believe that when you teach baby to read early, you give them a greater advantage when they finally do enter school and begin the learning process. They are able to understand lessons more easily than their non-reading peers.

There are also those who will argue against teaching baby to read early and will cite that a child is not able to read properly until they reach school age (5-6). However, those who do pose this argument often have a great deal of trouble explaining how it is these younger children and babies are actually able to read well before that.

Since there seems to be a better argument for teaching your baby to read very early on, the next question might be what the best age to get started is. For most the best time to teach baby to read is when they begin to speak and show signs of verbal communication.

Each child develops at their own pace so every parent must use their own judgment and decide the best path for their child, but there are few who will argue against the lifelong benefits when you teach baby to read very early on.

Teaching reading strategies

If you are considering teaching reading strategies to your baby or child there are many ways to do this which can be both fun and instructional. Making the learning experience fun is an important key to maintaining your child’s interest while allowing them to learn naturally and build self esteem.

One of the easiest ways to start teaching reading strategies is to begin introducing words visually to your baby or child. New information has shown that babies as young as 10 months can begin to make associations between written words and their appropriate definition or object, so don’t be afraid to start this process at this early age.

Though there are many strategies which work well, one of the most widely used is repetition and memorization. To do this, simply begin by writing some basic words on flash cards. These should be words which represent object your baby or child sees everyday. Examples would be Mom, Cat, Chair, Window, Door, and Stove. Begin introducing the words to your child and associating them with the objects they represent. Show the word to your child, say the word, and then point to the object it represents. After your child has correctly identified a word they can be rewarded with hugs, claps, or their favorite toy.

Repeat this several times and you will soon see that your child will associate the word to the object rather quickly. Over time you will be able to introduce a large vocabulary of words to your child and start them on their way to reading sentences in a structured format. This is a very powerful early reading strategy which has proven to be effective for many parents and children. It allows you to introduce the process as a game. This will please them and encourage their desire to continue.

There are a variety of ways all parents can start teaching reading strategies. Just remember to keep it fun for your child and to remain consistent. You will be giving your child the gift of reading which will benefit them their entire life.

Since every child develops differently, it is hard to state what age is ideal for you to start teaching your child to read. A good rule of thumb is that a child is ready when they begin to show signs of verbal communication. This can start as early as 10 months for some children.

The very early stages of reading begin with letter recognition and word recognition, so start out very simply by introducing letters to your child along with the sound they make. You can purchase pre-made flash cards or make your own, then introduce one or two new letters each day. You don’t want to overwhelm your child, so keep it simple at first. You also don’t want to try and structure this too much. It is best to just introduce them during a time when your child is happy and relaxed. Take a few moments and introduce the letter, then the sound and repeat this a few times. Continue this throughout the day when the opportunities arise.

Always use lower case letters when first introducing them to your child. It may seem more uniform to introduce capital letters first, but these only account for approximately 5% of all letters in reading. It will be far more beneficial when teaching children to read to introduce the more common lowercase first.

Remember that your baby or child has a very short attention span and may want to travel from activity to activity throughout the day. Use this to your advantage by finding ways to turn each activity into a learning activity. Wooden or plastic letters can be kept around in a basket and each time your child chooses a toy, introduce the first letter of that toy. “b” for the Ball, etc. Say the letter, and then recite the word. This will help your child make the association between the two.

Teaching children to read at home is becoming more the norm than the exception these days. Give your child an early advantage by introducing reading as early as possible. It will help them to succeed as they enter school and will help them to maintain that advantage as they progress.

Needless to say, teaching your child to read is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to them and although we often wait till children enter school to begin the teaching, many parents today are opting to start much earlier and give their child an advantage as they enter formal schooling. Homeschoolers are even beginning the reading process much earlier and benefiting from the impact is has on advancing in other subjects.

You may wonder when your child will be ready to learn to read. This is a common question among parents. Though there are many schools of thought on this subject, most are in agreement that a child is ready to read when they are starting to communicate verbally. This would be the time they start to say their first words and recognize the association between the spoken word and its meaning. For some, this can be as early as 10 months, but most commonly is between 12 and 15 months of age.

It may seem that this is a bit too early an age to learn to read, but studies have shown that this age is actually quite ideal. Since they are able to make associations between the spoken word and an object, they are also able to associate between a written word and an object. At this stage it is merely a matter of introducing the learning process.

Each child will learn to read at their own pace, but there are some very common techniques which can be used which have proven to be especially successful in babies and very young children. Many of these techniques involve similar principles of repetition, recognition, and memorization. These techniques are presented to the baby or child in a way that fun and interactive so that they remain entertained and interested for a longer period of time.

When you think your child is ready to learn to read, look for programs that offer these techniques and present them in a fun, playful way. You will be surprised how easily your child is able to grasp even complex reading concepts in this way.

When they say a baby can learn to read what they mean is that they have the capability to recognize whole words and can identify them upon sight. This is very similar to the way a baby would recognize any object such as a toy, their pet, or a parent or family member. Through repeatedly seeing a word and associating that word with an object, a baby learns to recognize the connection between the two. Though they may not be forming full sentences at this point in the process, they are in fact, reading none the less.

Many of the programs available today work with these very principals of recognition and repetitiveness in order to teach your baby to read words at a very early age. The process is then turned into game which engages your child and makes them want to interact with the program. This is what makes the programs so powerful. Afterall, if your baby is not interested in what they are seeing, they will not interact and they will not learn to read.

When you decide you want to teach your baby to read, consider a program which offers the necessary repetition process mixed with an interactive and entertaining time for your baby. You want them to learn while they think they are simply playing. This will ensure your baby and you have a great experience while learning a skill that will benefit them throughout their life.

When you teach your baby to read very early on you establish a foundation which allows them to then move on to understanding and composing full sentences. This leads to reading as we know it. Getting started very early is the best way to encourage this natural transition, so it is best to start teaching your baby to read as soon as they show signs of verbal communication.

If you have considered getting started early and want to know how to teach a child to read then here are 3 basic steps or techniques you can try to get started.

Step One

Introduce basic letters to your child as early as 10 – 12 months of age. This can be done in the traditional way using blocks or magnetic letters. You could also use a chalkboard to display letters or make flashcards. Show your baby the letter and say the letter to them. Then, use the letter in a word associated with a picture. For example, show the letter “c” to your child and then say the letter as it sounds “cee”. Then show a cup and say the letter again and the word “cup”. This method allows your baby to learn the letter along with the name and the particular sound. This helps build recognition of the letter and begins to introduce phonics as well.

Step Two

After you have introduced the basic letters to your child you should begin to introduce letter blends to them. Blends are two consonants together such as “st” or “pl” or “bl”. Make a list of common blends (you can get these online in several places), but no more than ten to start. Recite these to your child and have them repeat the sounds back to you. Continue this until your child has mastered the list and then move to a new set.

Step Three

At this point your child is ready to begin learning full words. By building a foundation of letters, phonics and blends, you child will be able to quickly understand the structure of the words and how they are pronounced. Begin with basic words such as Cat, Ball, and Cup. Break each word out into segments for example “C / at”. Sound out each part of the word and then repeat to blend the word into one. Have your child repeat the word back in this manner. They will begin to understand word structure here and how letters form words. After they have mastered some basic words, begin to introduce words utilizing the blends you have created.

Learning how to teach a child to read may seem intimidating, but it is actually quite easy and can be a fun way to bond with your child while teaching them a new life skill. Remember to keep it fun and uplifting so your child wants to learn and always reward them with lots of love and appreciation.

When learning disabilities arise in other areas such as math, a child can utilize other tools such as a calculator to assist them in the process, however, with reading these tools are not available making this disability an even bigger challenge than others.

Identifying the Various Types of Reading Disabilities

The inability to associate symbols with the sounds they make is a common type of reading disability often referred to in Dyslexia. Children will often transpose certain letters and confuse their sound based on this confusion. This makes it difficult early on for a child to memorize certain words and identify them correctly due to the symbol confusion. This can also be seen at times in all children when learning letters which look very similar such as ‘d’ and ‘b’ or ‘m’ and ‘n’.

Another difficulty children may have is understanding and following the proper reading form. This causes the child to read from right to left or bottom to top. This type of reading disability may result in a child reading the word ‘stop’ as ‘pots’ or ‘was’ as ‘saw’.

Some children may show an inability to memorize words which inhibits them from developing a sight word vocabulary. Since most readers begin to memorize words rather than sound them out as they read, this skill is vital to developing more advanced reading skills and a faster reading pace.

Since reading is the gateway to higher learning, identifying and correcting such reading difficulties is necessary to ensure a child’s progress through school and life. The earlier these disabilities are identified, the more time parents and teachers have to correct them.

Start introducing reading to your child as soon as 10 months so that any disabilities can be identified at an early age. Take time to understand the various reading stages so that you can monitor your child’s progress. Many of the early reading programs available today offer guidelines and techniques which can help to track progress, The key is to start early and take action when reading disabilities are identified.

When introducing reading to younger children it is important to keep in mind that their attention span is limited while their minds and bodies are in constant motion. Therefore, introducing reading strategies that are both fun and interactive will maintain your child’s interest while they learn.

Here is a great activity parents can do with an early reader to help introduce reading strategies while masquerading them as play time.

Create Your Child’s First Book Storybook

This is a fun way to not only introduce reading to your child, but preserve memories for a lifetime.

1. Gather 3-4 sheets of plain white paper, crayons or colored pencils, a glue stick, stapler and various magazines. If you have an audio recorder that is also helpful (you can even use a cell phone to record!)
2. Have you child tell a story about something they love to do or a very funny story. Children love to tell stories so this part should be easy. Record the story as they tell it.
3. Play back the story with your child and allow them to hear it.
4. Write the story in its simplest form on the paper and go through the magazines with your child to find pictures which represent the words and concepts in the book.
5. Cut out the pictures and paste them on to the pages next to the appropriate words in the story.
6. Create a storybook cover and title the book. Be sure to note your child as the Author.

Your child will show great pride in creating their very first storybook which they can then read to other family members or friends. This activity has many reading strategies incorporated into it such as word recognition, phonics, and sentence structure and presents them in a very interactive and entertaining activity.

Try creating new books each week by exploring new topics. Your child will delight in the process while learning important techniques needed for reading.

There are many ways in which parents can begin to introduce reading to their child starting as early as birth to six months. Here are some ideas you can try if you want to start teaching children to read.

Read To Them Often

The simple act of reading aloud is a great way to introduce your child to reading and you can do this from birth. Reading allows your baby or child to hear speech patterns and words which helps them to understand the building blocks of language from a very early age. Reading aloud is also a great way to bond with your children and gives them a time during the day or night to look forward to. This gives them an early love of reading by introducing it to them in this loving setting.

Do Not Speak To Your Child in Baby Talk

The development of speech plays a vital role in your child’s early ability to read and recognize words. Using proper speech, rather than baby talk, allows your baby and child to hear the correct pronunciation of words from the very beginning, insuring that their own speech will be correct. This will later help them to more easily identify words as they start to develop their own reading skills.

Make Each Interaction a Learning Experience

When teaching children to read there is a process by which a word is introduced to your child along with an example of the word. So, for instance, the word apple would be shown with a photo of an apple. This process helps your child to recognize words by association and memorization. Use this technique throughout your daily activities to make each interaction a learning experience for your baby or child. Make up flash cards of common words in the home such as Couch, Door, Cat, and Chair. As you show your child the word point to the object so your child can make a clear association.

It is never too early to start teaching children to read. Begin as early as possible to give them the best opportunity to become expert readers in the future.