Introduction
We have all read and learned many ways to help prepare our children to read. And you know what? Many of us have applied these skills diligently as parents or teachers; the results don’t seem fruitful!
Many of us beat ourselves up trying to figure out where we went wrong and why our kids are not learning what they need.
We start seeing things that seem like signs of dyslexia, and we start panicking.
In today’s post, I want to share some things you can implement to help your child become a good reader. Then, as a parent, you can apply these skills to the brand-new kid in preschool or the kid struggling to make progress.
Learn How to prepare your child to read
When learning how to teach reading, we learned many concepts based on theory rather than science. Also, we have to think when we read research articles. Every research article will prove a point, and there are humans behind those decisions. How many research articles have you read that contradict each other? Research can be helpful but annoying.
This is where we have to put on our critical thinking skills. Learning to read is an art and a science. We are dealing with little humans. We need to help them embrace the challenges that come their way. Teaching them to embrace the challenge will allow them to grow in character by building confidence, perseverance, and determination.
All these skills will help them become good functioning citizens equipped to offer something to the world.
Things to REMEMBER NO MATTER HOW GOOD RESEARCH SOUNDS
- Learning to read is a skill
- Learning to read is not natural
- Segmenting Words is not natural
- Becoming a good reader requires lots of background knowledge
- Becoming a good reader requires hearing the words spoken
- Our vocabularies are developed by the people and tasks we do (It is okay not to know all those big words!)
- We are always learning. Even adults struggle with big words
- Instead of eliminating the stress, we need to help our kids struggle through it safely.
- It takes time and LOTS and LOTS of practice
- We are working with humans.
I do want to say that I do not believe that Dyslexia is not REAL. And that learning to read is a breeze by just applying the research. That is not true, but the right approach can help your child learn to become a good reader and not compensate in other ways.
To be honest, I am sure I have Dyslexia. The things I will share below are based on the latest research and concepts I wish I had learned earlier.
I did well in high school and college, but it was more on how I adapted to figure out what needed to be done. However, looking back, I wish I had learned these concepts and built these skills earlier in life. I could have developed a more robust vocabulary and comprehension because I wasn’t just getting the gist and skipping or guessing at those unknown words.
So today, I will be sharing the five ways to prepare your child to read. It is encouraged you work on these skills from the start because we do not know which students will have dyslexia tendencies or struggle to learn to read. After all, it is not 100% accurate to say a literacy-rich home will create good readers!!
Let’s stop blaming and start empowering!!
One more thing before we start!
I am not recommending an age to start working on these skills. Furthermore, remember that the transfer skills will look different when they are doing it independently. This is okay. This is normal. Don’t smash their curiosity during independent time.
However, I encourage you to implement them when teaching your kids. It does matter where we start to write. It does matter to say the sounds in order. The order of letters does matter. This is learning time, and there is a right way. As we teach the right way, we also give the necessary support. And this sometimes just means parroting! Trust me. They will be able to do more on their own in time.
Let’s not limit their abilities :).
Five ways to prepare your child to read.
1. Practice Segmenting
Segmenting is a part of phonemic awareness related to sounds we hear in words. Segmenting is where we pull apart the sounds within a word. We can segment by syllables or sounds. Did you know this is not a natural or easy thing to do?
With spoken language sounds are blended. There are no breaks between words. Additionally, it is just hard to hear some of those quiet sounds.
Research has shown that a vital sign of Dyslexia is that a child has poor phonemic awareness. The good thing is that it can be trained. Also, it does not have to be practiced in isolation :).
So when we practice segmenting the sounds, we want to help our kids start to notice the sounds. Starting out, we will have to exaggerate and draw out the sounds in the targeted word. If your child struggles, have them repeat you.
This may seem pointless and ridiculous, but it is not!
Think about it reading represents the spoken word. The sounds in those words are connected to a letter or letters. And that is how we can read. You can read this book to learn more if you are nerdy or just curious!
Let me know if you want a video to model this!
2. Practice Building Words
Practicing building words will allow your child to learn letter sounds and many other critical pre-reading skills. I originally learned this approach from Marnie Ginsberg at Reading Simplified and then solidified my understanding by reading different books and research articles.
I love this approach because it incorporates the sounds (phonemic awareness) and the symbols (letter(s). Kids who are struggling to make these connections need this explicit instruction. In addition, the speech-to-print approach allows students to make concrete connections on how the code works.
I will use the junior building cards when I build words with my kids. I start out with the cvc set and then move to the ccvc set. I love these cards because I can use them in multiple ways. In addition to the cards, I have purchased these letter magnets.
How to build words
I will select the words which contain the sound/letter(s) we are working on during the lesson.
I will lay down the first card. I will see if the child knows what it is. If he calls it the wrong thing or mispronounces it, I will model the correct way and have him repeat it.
Now I will ask him to tell me what the first sound is in the word. It is common for him to say the last sound or be clueless.
Now, you will want to elongate the word emphasizing the first sound. Give it a couple of tries. If he still struggles, tell him to say the sound.
Now uncover the letters and ask him to point to the letter representing that sound. If he doesn’t know, ask him to give it his best shot and choose one. Suppose he selects the correct one. Praise him. If he gets the wrong one, praise him for effort, pointing to the letter and saying this is ___ sound. (We have them choose to help them be comfortable making errors.)
Then he drags it down and says the sound.
Repeat for each of the sounds.
Then have him say each sound and then the word.
Repeat until you finish the selected words or the time is up. If this task is difficult, start with two cards and up the challenge as you go.
3. Practice Handwriting
Handwriting is super crucial because research has shown a connection to reading fluency. Good penmanship will also help lessen the demand when it is time to write papers in upper elementary. We must teach our kids to write correctly so that we do not have to spend precious time breaking bad habits.
I recommend practicing forming the prewriting strokes when a child starts writing. I wanted to provide a meaningful way for my kids to practice the prewriting strokes and make them meaningful and rememberable so that when they began writing the letters, they had familiarity with the unique lines and had a saying to go with each one!
How Long Should we Practice?
I like to spend 4-8 minutes practicing these strokes. Then, I will use my handwriting template and have them write the target stroke in each box.
The boxes help give them boundaries for their writing. It also models how we write from left to right and top to bottom. Once again, there is a lot of guidance and reminders, but it is setting a good foundation allowing them to know there is a ‘right’ way to write.
I have seen older kids write all over the place. This is why setting a good foundation and explicitly teaching concepts is essential.
You can get your free Handwriting Square Template with a video here.
Once your child can write the pre-writing strokes quickly, you can introduce them to writing letters and numbers.
4. Observe how letter(s) and sound(s) connect
After lots of research and teaching, I have learned to incorporate some old teaching methods with the new research to equip our students to understand the written English code.
We can do it with our ears and print when we practice syllables and rhyming!
For example, we can see how many chunks (syllables) it has when talking about elephants. We can then take the chunks and talk about each of the sounds. Then, we can help our kids pull those sounds apart by saying each sound.
We can then introduce the written word and show them the chunks and sounds.
Label the Room
Labeling the room exposes them to good reading skills and shows them to be curious about the inside of the words and how things are different and the same. For instance, some of your young learners will remember the [ph] makes the /f/ sound.
Some teachers and parents of young learners like to label the different things around the house/classroom to make that print-to-meaning connection.
I was trying to determine if this was necessary and supported young learners. It does if it is done in a specific way.
We need to create labels that underscore the concept that each letter(s) is connected to a sound. We can do this by ‘coding’ each sound. This will help students not look at reading by memorizing the word but that the broken down part gives valuable learning.
Having this exposure can help ignite some fun deeper learning. So let’s not underestimate what a learner can learn.
Also, know the child is learning a lot by just being exposed to it 🙂
5. Build knowledge
Last but not least, building knowledge. Building knowledge includes vocabulary and learning about the world and parts of the world. We have been told that our kids can only handle so much information. But this is simply not true. The Knowledge Gap was such a great book that expanded on this.
We can help our kids build their knowledge by reading good books. We want to ensure we are playfully reading the book and not passively. Assisting kids to become active listers during read-aloud means asking questions, expanding on unknown words, making connections, and making predictions.
Just because a child is quiet doesn’t mean he is listening. While reading out loud, encourage your child to focus. Help him practice remembering what is said.
The importance of slowing down and digesting what we are learning
We live in such a hustle-bustle culture that it is so easy not to pay attention. Unfortunately, I quickly find myself distracted and disengaged fully and tend to make excuses that it didn’t matter.
I know we cannot remember and recall everything. But I can confess many times that I am distracted and have lost focus.
We must be determined to build our focus on things that aren’t really fun. However, that is a topic for another day.
Just remember to expose your kids to lots of interesting and exciting things. Then, spend time on a topic to grasp it and understand it.
Too many times, we just rush through things and hit the surface. This is one reason we need to remember better.
When we tarry and build off something, it can transfer to our long-term memory.
Summary
Establishing a good foundation for your child will help him or her be ready to read real books. It is essential that we teach reading in a systematic and explicit way. Learning to read is not natural. For our beginner readers we want them to practice segmenting, building words, handwriting, learning about the world, and observe how the letters connect to the words they say.
Doing this will equip them to develop the necessary skills to become strong readers!
Would you like some practice sheets for your beginner reader. Check out my TpT store. I recommend the preschool practice sheets for the beginners. Let me know if you have any questions together we can build strong readers.