How to Teach a Child to Read - Children Learning Reading Part 3

PART 3

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Contents

Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age ........................................................... 4

Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early ................................................. 8

Teaching Children to Read and Write .............................................................. 12



Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age

Did you know that 38% of grade four students have reading abilities

below the lowest basic level as determined by the National

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)? The NAEP is the only

ongoing survey of what students known and tracks their

performance in various academic subjects for the United States. In

their report, the NAEP found that 38% of grade four students had

reading achievement below basic levels, with a basic level reading

score being 208.

To put things in perspective, the US reading scale has an upper limit

score of 500, with average reading scores for grade 4 (217), grade 8

(264), and grade 12 (291). The grade 4 reading achievement levels

are categorized by the NAEP as Advanced (268 score), Proficient (238

score), and Basic (208 score), and the basic reading achievement

level is defined as follows by the NAEP:

Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should

demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they

read. When reading text appropriate for fourth graders, they should

be able to make relatively obvious connections between the text and

their own experiences and extend the ideas in the text by making

simple inferences. [1]



Unfortunately, over a third of all grade four students read at levels

even below basic. Is your child having reading difficulties? Research

on Phonemic Awareness have found that early reading helps

improves a child's reading and spelling abilities. In fact, the National

Reading Panel has concluded based on their massive review of over

1,900 studies that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness

produces better reading results than whole language programs.

There are numerous documented benefits and advantages of

teaching children to read early on, and teaching them to reading

using phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. It is clear that

early language and reading ability development passes great benefits

to the child as they progress through school at all grades, and that

early language and reading problems can lead to learning problems

later on in school. For example, a Swedish study found that children

with a history of reading problems at school entry scores significantly

below average on reading in grade 4. As well, children that shows

very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored

similarly low on sentence reading in grade 4. [2]This is just one of

many studies which have similar findings, and this makes it an

imperative for parents to begin exposing their children to books and

reading at an early age.

So how early?



Good question!

There's no set guideline on when you should start teaching your

children to read; however, you can start cultivating your child's love

for books and reading as soon as they're born. Obviously, very young

babies would not even know what books are, however, talking to

your child and reading to your child will help them develop a keen

liking for books and stories. As your child grows and gets older, avoid

TV-sitting them, because as they develop a dependency on television

as their main source of entertainment, it becomes very difficult to

dislodge that need for TV entertainment, and get them to enjoy

reading books. Instead, keep age appropriate books all around the

house, and read to them often. You'll find that they'll start picking up

books and pretend to read themselves, although at very early ages,

they still cannot read.

People typically think that kindergarten or grade one would be an

appropriate time for their children to start reading; however, this is

not the best approach as studies have repeatedly found that children

with good phonemic awareness before entering kindergarten

continues to outperform, and achieve exceptional reading and

spelling abilities as they progress through school. On the other hand,

children who enter school with reading difficulties may continue to

have reading and spelling difficulties.



Click here to learn how to easily and quickly teach your child to read.

Notes:

1. NAEP 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation and the States March 1999

Authors: Patricia L. Donahue, Kristin E. Voelkl, Jay R. Campbell, and John Mazzeo

2. J Learn Disabil. 1999 Sep-Oct;32(5):464-72. Early language development and kindergarten

phonological awareness as predictors of reading problems: from 3 to 11 years of age.

Olofsson A, Niedersøe J. Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Sweden.





Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early

Before a child learns to read, he or she must first learn the spoken

language, and this is one of the first instances where family members

such as dad, mom, older siblings, and grandparents play an

important role in "teaching" the child the spoken English language.

Whether young children realize it or not, they gain very early

exposure to the alphabet when parents sing the alphabet song to

them. They begin to develop language skills by being read to and

spoken to. One of the keys to teaching children reading early on is by

exposing them to alphabet letters, books, and reading to them often.

Reading nursery rhymes and children's books are an important part

of getting children to understand printed text. Talk to your children,

and talk to them often, whether they understand or not is not

important when they're just babies. The more you talk and interact

with your little ones, the better they will develop. The key is

exposure, and repeated exposure. Once your child learns to speak,

you can begin teaching them reading at home.

I often hear parents say that they don't want to "push" their child

too hard. How can teaching your child to read at a young age be

considered "pushing" them too hard? If you as a parent already have

the mentality that reading is a chore, and teaching them to read is



pushing "too hard", you certainly can't expect your children to be

excited about learning reading. On the contrary, learning to read

offers a young child an opportunity for a lifetime to learn, discover,

and enjoy the wonders of reading. Parents (including myself) will

often underestimate the abilities and learning capabilities of young

children. When we first began our teaching reading program with

our first child when she was 2 years and 8 months, little did we

expect that in just a few short weeks, she would be reading not just

words, but sentences and story books. After about 3 months, by the

time she was 2 years 11 months old, our daughter could read "Step

in to Reading - step 2 (pre-school to grade 1 level)" books with some

guidance. The benefits of learning to read were apparent - improved

speech clarity, and better reading ability and reading

comprehension.

There are no shortage of studies which find many benefits in

teaching children reading at an early age. For example, one study

administered a Stanford achievement test at the start of

kindergarten and then again at the end of grade one found that early

language based skills were highly associated with later academic

performance in school aged children. [1]Similar studies also found

that a high level of letter knowledge in kindergarten can reliably

predict better later literacy skills.[2] Having a home environment

that's conducive to literacy growth is critical in a child's



development, and directly affects a child's language and literacy

development. Studies have found that responsiveness and support of

the home environment is the strongest predictor of children's

language and early literacy skills. [3] My point here is help make

parents aware that children who enter kindergarten with highly

developed early reading skills will achieve greater success with

systematic reading education. [4]

It's never too late to start home lessons and programs to teach your

children to read. Regardless how old your child is, starting a reading

program at a young age will have ample benefits. Start with lots of

talking, singing, and reading to your child right from birth, and once

your child is able to speak, you can start a simple reading program.

Begin with teaching your child some basic letters and their sounds,

and even as soon your child learn just a few letters and their sounds,

you can begin teaching them simple blends using the letter

knowledge that they have acquired. Work on ear training with your

child on oral blending and word segmentation. One of the keys to

teaching children read is developing phonemic awareness. Studies

have shown that phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors

of reading success in children.

>> Click here to learn about a simple, yet effective step-by-step teaching Children reading program





Notes:

1. Percept Mot Skills. 2001 Apr;92(2):381-90.

Relationship between language skills and academic achievement in first grade.

Kastner JW, May W, Hildman L. Department of Pediatrics, Child Development Clinic, University of

Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216, USA.

2. J Exp Child Psychol. 1996 Jun;62(1):30-59.

Kindergarten letter knowledge, phonological skills, and memory processes: relative effects on early

literacy. Näslund JC, Schneider W. University of New Mexico, College of Education, Program in

Educational

3. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005 Apr;48(2):345-59.

The role of home literacy practices in preschool children's language and emergent literacy skills.

Roberts J, Jurgens J, Burchinal M. Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute,The University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-8180, USA.

4. Psychol Rep. 1994 Apr;74(2):403-7.

Kindergarten predictors of first-grade reading achievement: a regular classroom sample.

McCormick CE, Stoner SB, Duncan S. Psychology Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston

61920.



Teaching Children to Read and Write

Most parents, at one point or another, frets over the education and

the development of their children. Many concerned parents research

and seek information on the topic of teaching children to read and

write. I for one, am glad to see so many parents wanting to get an

early start for their children in reading and writing, because studies

have shown that developing these abilities early on before entering

school provides numerous benefits and advantages later on as the

child progresses through school.

More worrisome should be the fact that over one third, 38% to be

exact, of all grade 4 students cannot even achieve a basic level of

reading ability according to the National Assessment of Educational

Progress (NAEP). This is an alarming statistic. Will your child become

one of the 38% who cannot reach basic reading achievement by

grade 4? For most children, this poor ability to read can be easily

prevented with early phonemic awareness teaching.

Reading must begin early in the life of a child, whether it is just an

alphabet letter, a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a story. Teaching

children how to read must begin early on, and children should be

exposed to books, stories, rhymes, and be read to on a daily basis.

Children as young as 2 years old can learn to read if you teach them



to read with the proper instructions. Please watch the video below of

a 2 year 11 months old reading randomly constructed sentences.

As Lida Williams said, almost 100 years ago:

Phonics is not a method of teaching reading, but it is a necessary

part of every good, modern method. It is the key to word mastery,

and word mastery is one of the first essentials in learning to read. A

knowledge of the sounds of letters, and of the effect of the position

of the letter upon its sound, is an essential means of mastering the

mechanics of reading, and of enabling children to become

independent readers.

100 years later, this still holds true. There has been a great debate on

what method of teaching is best to teach children how to read:

whether phonics or the whole language method is better. The whole

language learning to read method is more of a "word memorization"

plan, where a young child is supposed to memorize the "shape" of

the word, and say it.

It is important to distinguish the difference between phonological

awareness and phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness is very

broad, and includes phonemic awareness as a sub category.

Phonemic awareness is very narrow, and it is only focused on the

phonemes, which are the individual sounds of letters. There are no




shortage of studies which have repeatedly found and concluded that

teaching phonemic awareness to young children produces

exceptional reading and spelling abilities. You can read more

about research on phonemic awareness here.

The whole language method simply expects a child to "read" when

presented reading material, and by memorizing sight words. The

phonics method is a bottom up approach where you teach children

to read in a logical and sequential order. You first teach children the

alphabet letters and the sounds they represent; then you teach

children to combine (or blend) various letter sounds together to form

words; which is then followed by reading sentences and simple

stories. This is a logical progression for children learning to read,

where they develop accuracy in decoding words and pronouncing

words. This method of teaching also helps the child to spell correctly.

There's no doubt that phonics and phonemic awareness instruction

is the superior method to teach children how to read. We have

successfully used phonemic awareness instructions to teach our

children at age 2 to read words, sentences, paragraphs, and simple

story books. If you would like to learn about our simple, step-by-step

method to teach your children to read and write, please click below:

Teach your child to read today using our step-by-step, proven

method for teaching young children to read







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How to Teach a Child to Read - Children Learning Reading Part 3