teaching to read

[lavenderpegasus]

Hey Guys

How do I teach my DS1 how to read, he is 28 months old and we read to him all the time but it there a way I should actually be doing things?


ta

Lp

[staceylee]

Hey LP Mex Fox has a website with some prtty helpful tips. If you just google her name you should be able to find it. HTH :)

[Miss_N]

I would be focusing on environmental print to begin with (as well as reading him stories). So looking at words and letters in your everyday environment. Looking at these things in the shops, on the street, during car trips.

When children begin to recognise that there is MEANING behind print only then are they ready to begin learning to read.

So a child may point to the golden arches and say "Look 'M' for Maccas" or they may see a stop sign and recognise its MEANING!!! Without the knowledge of what these symbols (letters, words etc) mean children do NOT have the ability to read! :no:

After you know that your child understands this link I would being using environmental print to introduce the SOUNDS and letter names of the alphabet. "Look that is the letter "c" it says "cah".

Then children need to develop the understanding that letters make up words and words have meanings. Children need to develop reading stategies (google these for more info) that help them decode text. These strategies include sounding words out, blending sounds together, trying a popper (looking at the initial sound and having a guess in collaboration with thinking about possible words that may FIT into that context), reading on then going back to the word they are stuck on (this again requires the child to know the MEANING of the text they are reading).

Then after children have all these strategies you start looking at more complex phonic sounds and more complex texts all the while MAKING SURE that the child has VERY good understanding of the MEANING of what they are reading! :yes:

Sorry if this turned into a bit of an essay! Just wanted to give you as much info as possible. PM me if you have any other Q's! :)

P.S - This is the way we teach children to read in a formal school context!

[PinkMummies]

I have found 'Read Australia' to be most useful- just google it- lots of free info about teaching young children to read - main focus is on phonological awareness and on involving parents.
They also have a free facebook group- facebook.com/ReadAustralia - I was just looking at it as I was interested in the 'Your Child Can Read' program- and there is a really comprehensive article about it. I wont be using the program - I thought it was based on memorising whole words (sign words) but wanst sure. Read the article anyway- it also explains what we should be doing with our toddlers.
Hope that helps! I just joined and am looking for some info about early reading myself.
JS

[OJandMe]

What you're doing is fine.

There is more to reading than actually being able to know what the words are.

At this stage I'd just make 'reading conversations' a normal part of your life.

Look at things like

-why things are in lower case or capital letters
- how letters are 'letters' and words are made up of letters, sentences are made up of words, and paragraphs are made up of sentences.
- There are spaces between each word. And punctuation throughout sentences. "Look.. there's a question mark at the end of this sentence. Let's read it and see what the question is."
- look at the pictures and get your child to talk about what the story might be.
- point at each word as you say it, help your child point to each word as you say it.
- look at letters and words in the environment, talk about different fonts. ie.. the 'M' in McDonald's is different to the M in McCafe.... but they are both M's... just different fonts.
- talk about the meaning of books...
"So and so went running. They ran very fast." Who went running? -so and so. How did they run? Very fast.

And there is always reading eggs.