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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Quick Tips on How to Teach a Child to Read

By Allen Williams

First steps of a child's formal education begin at home. It is with the help of the parents or guardians to provide guidance to their children before letting them enter straight into formal schooling. The children should at least be equipped with important basic knowledge and skills in order for them to easily fit in a formal school and an example of such important skills is reading.

Most parents mistake reading as a skill that is learned through the sense of sight. But in reality, reading is first picked up by the child through the sense of hearing the sounds that the words create when pronounced. In order to successfully instill this basic skill on children, here are some ways on how to teach a child to read.

One of the first ways on how to teach a child to read is to read to the child. Reading aloud stories or any other children's books slowly helps the child to be familiar with the sounds attached to the words before them. Engaging the child in a conversation and even making the child repeat the words increases the child's vocabulary. It also helps the child to be familiarized with the distinct sounds of different letters and word pronunciations.

Next step on how to teach a child to read is to simplify and break down the various words read aloud to the child. This can be done through the alphabet, introducing consonants and vowels, and later on combining vowels and consonants to create a guide for easier reading.

Before bombarding the children with tons of information which the children can't surely absorb all at once, the next step on how to teach a child to read is to keep it simple and light. Maintain a small number of simple words for the child to work on and just continuously repeat to the child until the child becomes very much knowledgeable with these simple words.

In order to reinforce the child's energy to learn and not be easily distracted or be tired, a helpful way on how to teach a child to read is to provide certain rewards such as toys, stars, etc. Young children are easily distracted, bored and frustrated, and it is important that parents maintain reading activities as enjoyable and interesting as possible.

Another important thing about children is that some children act negatively due to a superior control over them. After teaching the basics, parents can start on letting the children read slowly on their own. Provide them with easy-to-read children's books and encourage them to do it by themselves.

Parents should also be able to extend the reading activities outside the comforts of their home. Simple reading activities can be done even when they go to the mall, to the park or somewhere else. Children can start on reading simple signs and words that they will encounter wherever they go.

Among all these ways on how to teach a child to read, the most important aspect still lies with the parents' ability to be patient and persevering in instilling such basic skills which will then be the foundation of the child's future education. So make it a light, easy and enjoyable experience for the child.

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