How to teach a child to read?
Children, being small, do not know many things, but something that characterizes them is that they are quite quick to learn. Reading is not an exception, however, due to its difficulty, it is better to help them a little. With simple tricks this task will be easy and, in a short time, children will be able to read correctly.
Since before birth, humans are social beings and, for that reason, we seek to communicate consciously to achieve what we want. A baby in the womb can demand food by kicking, for example, and she effectively develops the sense of listening, recognizing the voices of her parents.
Little by little, the “communicative” kicks turn into cries and these, in turn, become words when the children manage to learn to speak. This begins to consolidate the primary language skills: speaking and listening.
After this, there is still much to learn and soon children begin to discover secondary skills: reading and writing. These are a little more difficult and, for that reason, although they usually start to be learned at home, their acquisition solidifies when they reach the school stage.
When do children start reading?
There is no specific age for this, because all children develop at different rates. However, the most recommended is to start as soon as possible to help children develop their reading skills.
There are cases in which children can already read by the time they are 3 years old, for example, while others take a couple more years to achieve it. The important thing is not how fast they start, but that they develop this skill effectively and manage to consolidate it correctly.
However, to make everything easier, there are different reading methods that parents can apply at home to help them understand things better and motivate them to continue this habit.
How to teach a child to read?
Helping a child learning to read is not as difficult as you might think. In fact, if you have an idea of how little ones learn, helping them shouldn’t take much effort.
Mainly, it is recommended to start when they are young, because this way it will be easier for children to assimilate reading and, probably, to develop the habit of reading, which is something beneficial for them.
In addition to having a book at hand to learn to read, you must also arm yourself with patience and adapt your teachings to the age of the children. After this, everything will be easier if you follow these 10 tricks.
- Bring reading into your life from the beginning
Many parents delay the acquisition of reading because they think that their children will not be able to understand; however, arousing interest in them from an early age is the best way to help them in the future.
Read a lot to your child and you will be able to increase his curiosity about reading. There are many books to learn to read that contain a large number of images to attract the attention of the little ones and these are excellent for initiation.
In addition to this, always offer your children books , even if they are still in car seats and do not understand the letters. Children’s brains store information, and when they are old enough to understand, they will have a record of things stored in it that will start to emerge.
- read in his presence
Children often want to imitate everything their parents do . For that reason, reading a book and allowing your child to see you read may be enough to spark his curiosity and encourage him to imitate you with his own books.
- make the moment fun
Methods to learn to read for children 4 years and older should focus on dynamism, because they can easily get bored and relate reading to an obligation.
Use flashcards, rely on games and activities such as cutting, joining words and images, among other things. This way you will have a better chance of success.
- Take advantage of learning opportunities
If you don’t have readings to learn to read by hand, but you find yourself near signs, televisions or anything that has letters, then there is learning opportunity.
Encourage your child to identify the letters with you, read each sign you see aloud, match the things you buy with those words, and encourage your child to look for something else that begins with the same letter. All this is a dynamic way of teaching.
- Stimulates reading comprehension
Knowing how to read is not the same as understanding what is being read, therefore, make the child think and develop their reading comprehension at the same time that they recognize spellings and phonemes.
When talking about how to teach a child of 5 years or older to read, learning should focus on good understanding of the readings. Ask your child questions, help him to progressively separate the literal sense from the inferences, teach him to divide the stories to learn to read in beginning, middle and end, and watch how little by little he discovers the world of reading for himself.
- Teach him about word families
Bread, bakery and baker are very similar words. Therefore, starting from the simplest, teach him the rest of the words that make up each family when you have the opportunity.
- Sings
Using songs about the alphabet , dancing forming the letters with the body or inventing rhymes that focus on certain phonemes is excellent for strengthening the communication skills related to reading in the child.
- focus on phonemes
It is important to know the name of the letters, but to be able to read you need to understand the sound they produce. The S is called “ese” but its pronunciation is “sssss”. This way there will be fewer mistakes, such as saying “That-al” instead of “Sal”.
- Memorize
When the child manages to memorize words , their writing and pronunciation, it will be easier to group other similar words and deduce how they are read. In this way, reading will be more natural for the little ones and they will not need as much help.
- Let sounds become words
If the child already knows what the letter is called and how it is pronounced, then it is time to start forming words . He points out the sounds syllable by syllable and explains what they become when he reads them all together. Then he allows him to try and patiently guide him.
With these tricks, the learning process will be much more bearable for parents and children. In addition, the skills acquired may be more solid and the habit of reading could be solidified naturally and easily.
