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.
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