How to Teach a Child to Read

My 4 year old son is learning to read.  He has already started to show some early signs of dyslexia, so I haven’t rushed him.  I have many friends who are afraid of teaching a child to read.  I was terrified when I began reading mechanics with my children, so I thought I would post some tips.

My four year old is excited to start reading!

1.       Give your child play time with letter manipulatives.

Children learn through play.  My motto has always been, “You might as well teach them something while they play.”  There are many letter manipulative toys on the market.  You can buy many of them at the dollar store.  Refrigerator magnet letters and foam letters are readily available.  Purchase lowercase letters if you can.  Lowercase letters make up 95% of what we read.  Uppercase letters are only used at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns.  For some reason, the toy market is slow to understand this.  Many of the letter toys are uppercase. It won’t hurt anything for your child to play with uppercase letters, but they will read easier if they have more exposure to lower case letters.  Here area few of my favorite letter manipulatives. (Notice that some of them are uppercase because that is what is available).

 

2.       Read to your child. 

Reading with your child is such a great bonding experience.  My children and I are currently reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret as our evening read aloud.  My four year old and I love to read picture books together.  When I read to him, I try to point to every word to model the left to right reading method.  He has started to understand that letters make up words.  When he picks up a book, he now points to word and tracks from left to right while he makes up his own words.  This summer we are going to use Five in a Row as our literature curriculum.

 

3.       Wait for signs of Reading Readiness.

Some children are just not ready to learn letter sounds.  My youngest has been slower than my other two children to be ready.  Just about a month ago he started to pretend spell.  He says things like, “Mom, can I have some E-R-G-H?” Apparently ERGH spells ice cream according to my 4 year old.  His use of letters to make words, even though they were incorrectly spelled, shows me that he is ready to learn.  Other reading readiness signs include finding letters in a book, tracking while pretending to read, and trying to write.

Be careful with motivation!  Some children are more than ready to learn to read, but they do not want to do the work.  My youngest is motivated by the iPad.  I allow him 15 minutes of screen time AFTER he does a reading lesson. 

4.       Focus on letter sounds over letter names

Beginning to read is so much easier when you focus on letter sounds.  I’m not suggesting that we ignore letter names all together.  Children will need the names of the letters to spell out loud.  But let me explain why letter sounds aid reading.  If children have only been taught letter names, they cannot sound out the word “sat”.  It would be ESS-AY-TEEE.  If they are taught the sounds, then they can blend them to make the word sssaaat.  Then they can say the word quickly as “sat.” When I teach beginning letter sounds, I ONLY refer to the sounds the letters make.  I do not use the names of the letters until I have introduced them much later in the curriculum.  When we write in salt or paint, I ask children to write the mmmm sound instead of asking them to write the letter eM.

 

5.       Teach lowercase letters before capital letters

I touched on this before.  About 95% of what we read is in lowercase.  It is easier to teach uppercase letters after the child has made some progress in reading.  I even start out with sentences that are not capitalized.  “see me sit” is one of the first sentences the children learn to read.  Notice that it is not capitalized.  I gradually introduce capital letters at the beginning of the sentence and for proper nouns as the student has gained some confidence. 

 

6.       Don’t reinvent the wheel!

There are many good curriculum options available to help you teach reading.  I have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with two of my children.  (My middle child was a spontaneous reader and did not need any instruction.  I didn’t believe children could actually teach themselves to read until my middle child proved me wrong!)  I also like Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.  Several of my friends have had success with The Reading Lesson, but I am not quite as familiar with it.  When we finish with 100 Easy Lessons, we start Spell to Write and Read.   Another note: Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is NOT 100 Easy Days.  You may have to repeat a lesson several times before your child is ready to move on to the next lesson.  Do not be surprised if it takes 6 months to a year to complete the curriculum.

7.       Reinforce the Letter sounds with Writing. 

Use as many of the senses as possible! Reading uses the senses of sight and hearing.  When you write the letter, you use the sense of touch.  I don’t care at this point about beautiful handwriting; I just want the mind to know what a /t/ FEELS like.  It makes a huge difference to write the letter sounds as you introduce them.  My four year old almost always chooses to write them in salt, but finger paint, shaving cream, sand, or crayons are some of the other options.

 

What are some of your favorite tips to teach beginning reading mechanics?