How to Teach Adifient 4 Yr Old to Read

Pedagogy your child to read can be one of the almost rewarding experiences of your life! Hither we share x tips on how to teach a child to read, from pre-readers all the style to school-age children!

When Do Kids Learn To Read?

As a former start grade teacher, teaching children to read is one of my greatest passions! Only because well-nigh children don't start actually "reading" until around 6 years quondam (which is upwards of the targeted age range for my blog), I didn't want parents to experience pressured that their 3-year old needs to start reading (which, by the fashion, they don't!). However, the information shared beneath is general information that is beneficial for children of all ages, whether your child is ready to read or non. Don't implement all of these strategies at once, nor should you wait your child to be able to practise everything right away. Learning to read is a process and the data below is simply for you to implement when yous feelyour child is prepare.

One time your child is gear up to begin reading, you will need to discover a systematic and explicit program that teaches phonemic sensation and phonics. This is essential. Learning to read is like breaking a cipher code (and contrary to what the title of this post suggests, it is NOT easy). Every child must learn the lawmaking and it makes the most sense to teach this explicitly rather than depending on kids figuring it out on their own. Please also recognize that although the suggestions below are labeled equally "steps", they are not necessarily in sequent gild, nor are they in society of importance. The information you will detect here is simply a guide to aid you see how each of the components of reading fit together for your pre-reader. If your child is school-anile and y'all are looking for a curriculum on how to teach a child to read, I highly recommend Pathways to Reading Homeschool.

How To Teach a Child To Read

ane. Read Aloudto your child

Teaching your child to read is truly a process that begins at infancy. No, I am about certainly Non advocating programs that claim to teach your baby to read using flashcards! What I AM encouraging you to do is to begin reading with your newborn inside days of welcoming her domicile! Not only is ongoing reading time edifice a special bonding time for the ii of you lot, it instills in her a love for books. Enjoyment while reading is one of the single greatest predictors of reading success in schoolhouse-age children. If children don't learn from an early historic period to enjoy reading, it will most probable hinder their ability sometime down the road.

How much you read to your child is completely upwards to yous and your family, but I propose you aim to read at least three-4 books a 24-hour interval, even while your child is very young. Equally she gets a little older and can sit for longer stretches of time, make it a family unit goal to read together for at least 20-minutes each solar day.

Here are a few suggestions for the types of books to read to your child. But by all ways, read whatever your child responds to and enjoys!

Birth-ane Year: Lullabies, Board Books (with existent pictures), Textile Books (with diverse textures), Song Books
1 Year-3 Years: Rhyming Books, Vocal Books, Short-Story Board Books
three Years-5 Years: Alphabet Books, Song Books, Picture Books, Rhyming Books

2. Ask questions

Asking questions while reading to your child is non only great for encouraging your child to interact with the book, but information technology is also extremely effective in developing his ability to cover what he is reading. Y'all run across, if our principal objective in "reading" is getting our child to "sound out" words, we accept missed the boat entirely. Fifty-fifty children who can decode words and "read" with great fluency still might not exist able to comprehend what they are reading. If a child can't comprehend what he is reading, in that location really is no signal to reading at all!

While your kid is a baby, ask him questions such as, "Do you see the cat?" while pointing at the picture of the cat. This will not but develop his vocabulary, information technology will too encourage him to interact with the book that he is reading. As he gets older, enquire him to point to things in the book himself and make the noises of the animals he sees.

Once your kid is nearly 2 or 3-years of age, begin asking questions earlier, during, and afterward reading the volume. Show your child the cover of the book and ask him what he thinks the story is going to exist well-nigh (predicting). While reading, ask him what he thinks is going to happen in the story or why he thinks a character made a particular selection (inferring). If a character is depicting a strong emotion, identify that emotion and enquire your child if he has ever felt that way (connecting). At the end of the book, ask if his prediction(s) came true. Subsequently, ask him to tell yous what he remembered happening in the book (summarizing).

Modifying each of these techniques during read-alouds to run across the developmental phase of your child is a neat style to promote and increase reading comprehension!

three. Be a good (reading) example

Even if your child is fascinated with books from an early historic period, her fascination will apace dwindle if she does not meet reading modeled in her dwelling house. If you are non an avid reader yourself, make a conscious effort to let your children see you lot reading for at least a few minutes each solar day! Read a mag, a cookbook, a novel, your Bible…it's up to y'all! Simply bear witness your child that reading is something that even adults need to do. If you take a son, share this article with your married man. Sons need to see their fathers read, peculiarly since it is not something that immature energetic boys are naturally prone to doing.

As parents, we tin sometimes get wrapped up with what exactly our children should exist doing to exist successful. But nosotros often forget that children oftentimes learn by instance. Grab a book and have a load off…for your child's sake, of form!

4. Identify letters in natural settings

Before our boys were born, we painted and hung large wooden messages spelling their proper name above the cribs every bit a decorative emphasis in their rooms. I would accept never guessed that those wooden letters would take such a learning incentive for Big Brother! Around age 2.5, he began request what letters were above his name. That'south honestly how he learned to spell his name…and he can spell his brother's name too because he has taken an interest in his letters besides. In technical terms, this is called "environmental print" and includes all of the print we are surrounded past–fast food signs, labels, traffic signs, wearable, magazines, etc.

Often times, nosotros desire to force our children to larn letter names by a sure age. We buy flashcards or DVDs claiming to teach our children their letters. Nosotros drill our ii-year one-time over and over for minutes on end. Don't buy into this…let your kid to be a kid and accept advantage of the "teachable moments" every bit they come along! Children's minds are like sponges and are certainly capable of memorizing the alphabet from drilling, just that's not the nearly effective method that volition produce the all-time long-term results. Your child volition be curious about the print he sees effectually him and will ask questions. That's your take chances to jump in with a practical awarding that actually has real significant 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 heed that our ultimate goal is to foster a lifelong learner who loves to read, not a child who has merely memorized without any significance.

5. Contain multiple domains of evolution

Children larn best when multiple senses or areas of evolution are included. That's why easily-on learning produces longer retention and more meaningful application. Once your child has shown an interest in messages and yous accept already begun to apply natural settings for identifying those letters, brainstorm implementing activities that incorporate as many senses as possible. Keep in mind that learning letter names isn't nearly as important as learning their sounds!

In that location are a plethora of ways to incorporate multiple domains of development in regards to letter recognition and early-reading skills. Alphabet crafts allow your kid 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 grade, every kid loves songs and rhymes! Take an inventory of your child'due south strengths and areas of involvement and target activities to fit them!

6. Classify the Genre

One time your child is around 5 and can recognize the departure between existent and make-believe, I would suggest starting to help your kid sympathise various genres of books during your reading time together. This might seem complicated, just information technology'southward really not. There are around 5 different genres of children's books that I would encourage you to point out to your lilliputian one. Of course you can use the term "type" rather than "genre" if that is easier to call back.

Nonfiction (existent stories or facts near animals, places, people, etc)
Fantasy (brand-believe, tin'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 arebelievable)
Alphabet Books
Song Books

When children classify a book into a certain genre, they have to first summarize the book in their head and recollect details. Then they have to use that information to decide which blazon of genre that particular books fits into. Finally, your child will be recalling details from other books in the same genre, making connections betwixt the two. This uncomplicated activity that might take five-10 seconds of your fourth dimension 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 ane of these genres, peculiarly books that are considered "phonics readers." I would suggest that you lot do this do only with high-quality children's literature, not with books that are attempting to get your child to "sound-out" on their own. About picture books found in children's libraries volition fit into one of these genres.

Retrieve, our goal is for our children to learn to comprehend what they're reading…otherwise reading volition honestly do them petty practiced. When we encourage our children to think about and process the book nosotros've just read together, we are inadvertently modeling what nosotros hope they'll one twenty-four hours practise independently!

seven. Focus on Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

"Phonemes" are the smallest sounds in the English language (get here for a complete list of phonemes). These sounds are made up of consonants, brusk vowels, long vowels, and digraphs. "Phonemic Sensation" consists of learning those sounds and how to manipulate them within a discussion. Digraphs are unique sounds comprised of individual letters like /th/, /sh/, /ch/, etc.

"Phonics" includes learning how to spell those sounds and the diverse rules that the English language language follows. Learning the rules of phonics is an essential tool that helps a kid learn to decode and spell. I used the Pathways To Reading program in the classroom every bit my phonemic awareness and phonics program and loved it! It made learning all of the tricky spellings so much fun! Pathways now has a homeschool version, which is amazing!

9. Decoding

Decoding is often referred to every bit "sounding it out." Once your child knows the sounds each letter makes (which is taught in real, meaningful situations), she is ready to begin putting words together. Decoding is a process that requires strong phonemic awareness skills and gives way to orthographic mapping, the process by which words are stored equally "sight words" in long-term retention.

Equally children decode words with more than frequency, they will become more good at automatically identifying that word. Researchers say it tin have between 1-4 exposures of decoding before a word is transferred to long-term retention for automatic retrieval. Sometimes this job is tedious, and can't exist short-inverse, so information technology'due south important to find creative means to make it fun. When I taught get-go class, I used to buy little finger puppets that my students could employ to point to the messages every bit they were decoding. This was a huge hit and made this process so much fun!

ten. Employ a reading program with explicit, systematic instruction once he/she is in kindergarten and beyond

Most of the skills upward to this signal are what I would consider "pre-reader" skills that we, as parents, tin can work on during our child'due south primeval years to make the procedure of learning to read much easier for our children. Once your kid reaches school-age, be certain that you are using a program rooted in the scientific discipline of reading, with explicit and systematic instruction in both phonemic awareness and phonics. If your child is headed to school, ask to expect over the curriculum to ensure it is potent in these areas specifically. Some children will naturally learn the phonetic code more easily than others, as Nancy Young'south Reading Ladder suggests, but ALL children benefit from early code-based instruction.

There is no better foundational reading program, in my opinion, than Pathways to Reading. The original curriculum has been used in classrooms and clinical settings for the last 20 years. The program has been involved in numerous research studies, showing statistically pregnant results. Pathways to Reading Homeschool now offers their groundbreaking curriculum for dwelling house educators, starting with Basic Foundational Reading (which is the equivalent of kindergarten-age instruction). All v areas of reading instruction, as identified past the National Reading Panel, are incorporated: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Reading Comprehension. This is such an incredible resources for families and I can't recommend it highly plenty!

Learning To Read is a Journey

In summary, hither are some practical suggestions you can implement every day based on the learning to read strategies shared with you lot in this post. Plain, you can't implement all of these suggestions with children of all ages, and so utilise your judgement about what is the all-time style to teach a child to read.

Read to your child every solar day!
Ask your child questions before, during, and after reading.
Let your child see you reading.
Expect for letters while out and about and in the environment around you.
When pedagogy letters and letter sounds, incorporate as many senses every bit possible.
Read a variety of books and make a game out of guessing the genre.
Accept fun rhyming
Play these oral phonemic awareness games together (no materials required)
Encourage your child to sound out curt words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
Almost of all, have fun together!

This post was outset published Feb 2012. Updated 2018.

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Source: https://www.icanteachmychild.com/10-steps-to-teaching-your-child-to-read/