The process of teaching a child to read is not easy until you experienced it for yourself. As a parent, teaching your kid in your home might be complicated, especially if you do not know where to start. It’s a complex method that requires the proper teaching of various skills and strategies, such as phonics and phonemic awareness.
The good news is that it’s a difficult process to read in itself, but the steps taken to develop these skills are fairly straightforward. To teach your kids to read and make it a positive and rewarding experience, try the following simple, time-tested strategies.
Below are the seven simple steps you can use to teach your child at home or anywhere:
1. Children songs and nursery rhymes to build phonemic awareness
Children’s songs and nursery rhymes can help kids who are starting to familiarize themselves with sounds and syllables in words. The rhymes and rhythm in songs are catchy to listen to, helping them remember it.
A good way to create phoneme recognition is to clap rhythmically and sings the songs together. This playful and binding activity is a great way for children to develop literacy skills for successful reading.
2. Make simple word cards at home
Create simple cards and write one word with three letters and three sounds each, such as big, fat, and fin. Let your child choose a card, then read the word together and raise three fingers. Tell them the first sound they hear in that word, then the second, and then the third.
This simple exercise takes a little preparation time and develops the necessary phonic and decoding skills. If your child is starting to learn the letters of the alphabet, focus on each letter’s sound rather than starting on reading the whole word.
3. Engage your child in a print-rich environment
Young kids can easily recognize images or printed letters. Create a different approach to learning how to read by putting posters, graphics, labels and etc. Having printed words allows children to see and apply the links between words and letter symbols.
As you move, point to letters on posters, graphics, and labels. Over time, you can devise a character survey to create words. Pay attention to the first letter of the word. Ask your child, “What is the sound of this letter?”, “What other word starts with this letter?”
4. Play word games at home
Continuing from the previous step, regularly introduce your child to simple word games. Focus on playing games that encourage children to hear, recognize, and interact with words. For example, start the question, “Which sound does the word start with?” “How many sounds does this word end with?”
5. Employ the skills involved in teaching kids to read
Remember that learning to read involves different skills, and there are five reading basics that you need to know for your child’s success in learning to read. The five reading skills are:
Phonemic awareness – the ability to hear and identify the different sounds in words
Phonics – recognizing the connection between letters and the sounds they make
Vocabulary – understanding the meaning of words, their definitions, and their context
Reading comprehension – understand the meaning of the text, both in storybooks and information books
Fluency – the ability to read aloud with speed, understanding, and accuracy
6. Use the power of technology to keep your child engaged
Learning to read should be a fun and exciting process to motivate children to improve. Sometimes a child may be excited and eager to learn at first, but as soon as they experience difficulties, they can be overwhelmed and give up easily. As a parent, it is difficult to resolve the frustration your child experience.
But, there are online reading tutoring where they take lessons at your child’s own pace. More importantly, the lessons are tailored to your child’s abilities. With online reading tutoring, children are regularly rewarded and motivated to get going when they complete their activities and reach new levels.
Through this, you, as a parent, can also view their child’s progress report to see how your child’s skills are improving.
7. Be patient; the best way to teach children to read is to make it fun!
Every child learns at their own pace, so the most important thing you can do is make the learning fun. If you let your child read regularly, you mix things up in your chosen activities, and your children choose their book from time to time. Through this method, your child will develop an early love of reading and the best chance of success in reading.
If you are too busy to give your child time to read at home, enroll him in online reading tutoring perfect for your kindergarten or adult kid. You will guarantee an enjoyable, engaging, and educational online class.
Louie is the father behind the travel blog Browseeverywhere.com. He has a background in photography, E-commerce, and writing product reviews online at ConsumerReviews24. Traveling full time with his family was his ultimate past-time. If he’s not typing at his laptop, you can probably find him watching movies.
