Toddler Education: Introduce Reading to Your Child!

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Teaching your child to read is one of the most rewarding and satisfying things you can do. You will need a combination of encouragement, intelligence and most importantly patience, you will also need a fairly good grasp of the concepts involved when teaching phonics, utilizing sight words and finding a method that will engage your child with overwhelming him/her.

The main thing to remember about teaching your child to read is to approach everything positively. Avoid teaching your child when they are in a fretful mood, and attempt to teach reading in the most upbeat manner, preferably at a time when both you and your child are relaxed, energetic and in a happy mood. This is when your child’s brain will be most receptive to learning new skills.

Three of the most common teaching methods:

Preschool reading

In preschool phonemic awareness is used to make your child aware of the differences between sounds. By listening to a plane or helicopter flying in the sky you can ask your child what it is. To you it may seem natural to know what the sound is, however a child probably hasn’t made that connection yet.  Cars, motorbikes, and helicopters all make different sounds so when your child is able to recognize these sounds then they will be ready to differentiate between sounds and words.

Reading Letters

Recognizing letters and sounds of letters is a very similar process. Your child needs to be able to recognize the letter visually before being able to guess the pronunciation. Once your child can recognize the sounds and letters he/she will be ready to start combining letters. There are a variety of online resources that will have phonics activities, sight word lists and games that you can utilize to help you when teaching your child how to read.

Sight Words Lists

When your child has learnt to recognize a few letters you can start testing him or her by including sight words. Sight words are basically words that not pronounced phonetically. This is why they need to be learned by sight rather than using the letter sounds to spell them out. There are a number of resources available both online and off such as sight lists that will help teach your child how to read.

All 3 of the methods listed above can be mixed and enjoyed by both you and your child. Applying the above teachings along with any resources that you can find will give your child a rich learning experience.

Below are 4 ways to encourage your child to read:

Fill your home with a variety of books – Filling your home with a variety of magazines, books and newspapers will make your child aware of the visible signs of reading and potentially want to participate in reading as well.

Let your child see you reading – Children often copy their parents, so try your best to let your child see you reading, if your child sees you reading he/she will realize that this is an activity that you value a great deal and in return will want to do the same as you. After all, young children want to be just like their parents and enjoy imitating everything they do.

Read to them – Children love being read to, by regularly reading to your child you will indirectly encourage him or her to pick up a book and learn to read.

Give your child plenty of books – Giving your child a new book is a great way of showing him or her that their efforts are value. Try and buy your child 1 new book every month. This will provide your child with plenty of opportunities to read as well as expand on their knowledge and vocabulary.

This article is brought to you by Pathway Care Independent Fostering Agency , a foster care agency that provides mainstream foster care services in Wales & the South East and West of England.

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