Top Tips for Teaching Your Child to Read*

*This is a collaborative post*

Children are introduced to letters, sounds, and eventually words once they have started school, but it’s reading is something that parents should explore at home as well. Teaching another human being to read isn’t as straightforward as it may seem and you will need to be patient with your child as it will be a slow process. I have teamed up with a pre-prep school in Buckinghamshire to offer you some advice on teaching your child to read. 

Begin with some research into how to teach someone to read. Understanding the process will make it easier for you to find the right exercises to start your child on their learning journey. Try and wrap your head around phonetics and encourage your child to practise sounding out three letter words like cat, mat, dog, bag, etc, one letter at a time. Eventually your child will memorise these words and won’t need to sound them out. You can then move onto some trickier words, but don’t rush the process before your child is fully ready.

Use pictures alongside the words to help your child understand what each word actually means. Being able to read the word is different to understanding what it actually means. Perhaps you could use flash cards to help.

If you have an appropriate space in your home, pin up the alphabet chart so that your child is regularly faced with all of the letters. Also, it’s worth ensuring they have access to lots of age-appropriate books so that they can look at words, even if they don’t know how to say them yet. Sing the alphabet song too, because this will help your child become more familiar with what each letter sounds like. In fact, nursery rhymes and songs in general are a great way to help your child with their comprehension of different sounds and rhythm. 

When it comes to teaching your child to read, little and often is the best approach. It will just become boring for them if you try and teach them in large chunks rather than in short bursts each day.

*Photo source Pexels.

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