FreeArticlesArchive

Just learning to read is not enough if your child is going to compete in the modern information society. Becoming a good or excellent reader is the key to your child's future.

A young enthusiastic reader will get through 2-3 books every week. That might be 1000% more than your child is reading. And so a huge differential will open up.

So here are 5 things that will make a huge difference to your child's reading development. We employ all of them in our Easyread System:

TIP 1 - Avoid Early Reading Books

This may seem a bit crazy, but teaching a child to read with a book is a mistake. It's like teaching a child to catch a ball by playing basketball.

We all use whatever seems the simplest solution to a problem. If you have a bright kid, then the simplest option will seem to be to memorise the words that keep appearing in an early reader book. But, as the vocabulary increases, that gets steadily harder and you will see more and more guessing.

Eventually you will see a collapse of confidence at around 6 or 7 years old.

TIP 2 - "Dimensionalise" the Phonemes

We use 43 phonemes (the little sounds within words) to create every word in English. You can find them at the beginning of any dictionary. Your child needs to know them, to make learning to read easier.

But they are tough to get a handle on. So the best thing is to create a visual image (with physical dimensions) for each one. That will make them much easier for your child to remember. For instance, we use the octopus that knocked a puss, the oak in a cloak, the owl with a scowl and the oon on the moon in Easyread for the sounds of the letter O. Those are much easier for your child to remember.

Our memories work mainly with visual images.

TIP 3 - Play These Games

You don't want to start with a book. So where do you start?

Well, in Easyread we use games like these:

Build-A-Word. Take 6 plastic letters including 2 vowels. Revise the main sound of each one. Then say a simple 3 letter word that your child can built with these letters, like bed, dog, fat or mop.

Selec-A-Word. This is a simple reading exercise. Write three similar words on a piece of paper, like ten, pen, pin. Then read one of them out and ask your child to select it.

Nonsense Words. Using your plastic letters again, write a nonsense word, like leb, kib, teg, vod. Ask your child to try to read it.

Easyread-I-Spy. If you know the classic "I Spy..." game, play it using the first sound of the object, rather than the first letter.

TIP 4 - Less is More

Never do more than 15 minutes of reading practise at a go. Any more and your child's concentration level will begin to dip.

TIP 5 - Try Easyread TrainerText

TrainerText is a system we use to make ongoing reading practise much easier for the child. We float the visual images that we have created for each phoneme above the text, so that there is a clue to the sounds in each word. You can use the images you have created for Tip 2 to do the same.

Using TrainerText the fear of the text goes away, because your child can always check the images for help when needed. So confidence can build quickly.

We see a new level of enthusiasm from day 1 and a leap in confidence over the first 3 weeks using these techniques. If you employ them, I am sure you will quickly see the difference.