Most of us don’t think about the process of learning to read, until deciding to start teaching the skill to kids at home. Contrary to popular belief, learning to read is not a ‘natural’ process that happens to your child on its own. In fact, learning to read is a complex phenomenon that involves teaching your kids crucial strategies and skills, such as phonemic awareness and phonics (relationship between letters and sounds) that help build their reading and fluency skills.
The good news is that although reading is a complex process, the steps taken to build these skills in your child are pretty simple and straightforward. So if you are wondering how to teach kids to read and make it a rewarding and positive experience, try these simple and effective strategies we have listed in this post.
How To Teach Reading To Kids: 16 Tips To Try At Home
Use Nursery Songs And Rhymes To Build Phonemic Awareness
Nursery rhymes and songs aren’t just fun to dance to, but their rhythm and rhyme help your kids hear the syllables and sounds in words, which further helps them learn to read. A good way to build phonemic awareness in your child is by reciting the songs in unison and clapping rhythmically together.
This playful and bonding activity is an excellent way for your kid to implicitly develop the literacy skills that will set them up for reading success in the future.
Make Simple Word Cards At Home
Cut out simple cards and write a word with three sounds on each of them (for instance, top, sat, fin, pot). Encourage your child to pick a card and read out the word together while holding up three fingers. Ask them to say the first sound they hear in the word, then the second, and the third. This activity will help essential decoding and phonic skills in your child, and also help them learn how to sound out words. If your child has just started learning the letters of the alphabet, try focusing on the sounds of each letter, more so than letter names.
Engage Your Kid In A Print-rich Environment
Create a print-rich environment at home to give your child ample opportunities in building their reading skills. Seeing printed words on charts, posters, and labels will enable your child to notice and apply connections between letter symbols and sounds. When you are out and about with your tot, point out letters and symbols on billboards and other road signs.
Play Word Games At Home Or In The Car
Try to introduce simple word games to your child on a regular basis. Focus on playing games that will encourage your child to listen, identify, and manipulate the sounds in different words. For instance, start by asking questions like “What sound does the word big shart with?” “What word rhymes with cat?”
Play With Letter Magnets
If your child finds it tricky to learn the middle vowel sounds, then use this fun activity to build up their skills. Purchase letter magnets that go on the fridge and put the vowels on one side. Now encourage your child to say a CVC word (consonant-vowel-consonant), for example, bat, and ask your tot to spell it using the magnets. To help them, read each vowel sound aloud while pointing at the letter, and ask your child which letter makes a similar sound to the vowel.
Harness The Power Of Technology To Keep Your Child Engaged
To keep your child motivated, and make the process of learning as enjoyable as possible. Although your child may seem excited and eager to learn how to read at the beginning, they may also feel overwhelmed and demotivated after hitting a wall. That’s why you need to try out different methods of encouragement and fill out gaps that may be causing frustration in your little one.
One of the ways to keep your child motivated while making learning an enjoyable journey is by exposing them to various tutorials and exercises available online. Play an online lesson on your tablet or phone and encourage your child to participate in that. These lessons are mostly interactive and appealing and will keep your child occupied for hours.
Read Together Regularly And Ask Questions About The Book
The simple act of reading to your child can help them pick up many new skills and strategies. Reading helps demonstrate how to sound out words, and also builds key comprehension skills and vocabulary in your little one. Most importantly, regular reading can help your child get into the habit of storybook reading, which is probably one of the best ways to improve their learning skills.
Also, while you are reading, try asking questions to your child and engaging them with interactive pictures in the book. This will help strengthen their comprehension skills, which is also a key skill required to be a good reader.
Understand The Core Skills Involved In Teaching Your Kids To Read
It’s important to understand that learning to read involves various different skills. And as a parent, you must follow specific strategies to build up these skills in your little one. The five key skills that your child needs in order to successfully read include:
- Phonics: Recognising the connection between letters and the sounds that they make
- Phonemic awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate various sounds and words
- Vocabulary: Understanding the meaning of words, their context, and definitions
- Fluency: The ability to read aloud with accuracy and understanding
- Reading comprehension: Understanding the meaning of a text, both in information and storybooks.
Try to Make The Reading Process Enjoyable
Remember, every child learns at their own pace. Hence, be patient, and try to make the reading process as enjoyable as possible for your little one. By reading to them regularly, mixing up fun activities, and encouraging them to pick out their own books occasionally, you will be able to instil an early love for reading and learning in your child and give them the best chance at success at no time.
Incorporate Movement While Learning
Sitting at their study desk for long hours is only going to bore your child and deprive them of a fun learning environment. Rather get your little ones up and moving while learning content. After reading for a bit, ask your child to move around the house or take a break before moving on to the next chapter of their book.
Spend Time Outside
This can really transform the learning environment and keep your child motivated and eager to learn new things. Step outside on a nice day and do an outdoor read aloud or just head out for a walk with your child, and while you are on your way, encourage them to describe the objects that they see in their surroundings, such as the number of trees in the park, or the colour of the car that just passed.
Use Your Child’s Interests While Learning
When you introduce new concepts by incorporating your child’s interests, it helps in better grasping the subject and positive learning. For instance, if you are teaching your child about different colours, then use colour poems or songs that your child already listens to as an example.
Create Learning Stations For Your Child
Set up different learning activities around your child’s room. These activities can all be based on the same topic or different, depending on your learning goals. Have your kid sit at one learning station for 15-20 minutes, and then encourage them to move on to the next one after some time. This will keep your little one interested, and they will be eager to learn about new things and concepts.
Use Crafts As A Means Of Learning
When you pair crafts with a lesson, it gives you an excellent opportunity to make learning fun and meaningful for your child. The best part is that there are endless options for crafts that you can use to make reading fun for your child. Make a spinning wheel, a fortune teller, or design a poster to demonstrate new concepts.
Act Out The Story
Your child is more likely to learn better if you demonstrate the story to them. This not only builds their vocabulary and language skills but also helps strengthen their communication skills. So next time you read a story together, instead of just reading it aloud, act out the story for your little ones and let them have some fun while learning.
Choose Books About Your Child’s Interests
Your child will be more motivated to read if they are interested in the material. So let your little one choose the book they want to read, and if the text in the book is too challenging, help them by reading the book along with them. Besides honing their reading skills, this tip will also help you learn your child’s interests better.
While there’s no one fixed way to teach your kids to read, you can use a mix of the strategies that we mentioned above to encourage reading in your child. Besides reading, these tips will also help build other key skills in your child, such as a strong vocabulary, fluency, and good comprehension skills.
Remember, you need to be patient in this journey, and encourage positive learning in your child as much as possible.
Also read:
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Different types of parenting styles: Are you an authoritative parent? Or a permissive one? Tap this post to find out.
Best parenting movies: Here’s a list of the best parenting movies that perfectly capture all the highs and lows of parenthood.
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