The idea of education and teaching your child how to read has changed drastically over the years. With children starting to go to school early the emphasis on learning how to read by the time your child is 2-3years old is much more than what it was a decade ago.
But the truth is most kids don’t start reading until around they are 6 years old. And the points shared below is general points to help you as a parent to understand “how one can go about teaching their child to read?” and this need not necessarily mean that your child is ready to read. Do not force your child to read, but instead help him or her slowly ease into it.
1. Read to your child:
Begin by reading to your child. By this we mean simply reading to your infant every day before bed time, without really expecting him or her to be masters in reading by the time they turn 3.
2. Lead by example:
It is no secret that in the early year’s children often follow their parents blindly and this holds true for reading also. If they see that one or both of his parents are into reading, then they might follow suit. In the initial day’s children are often fascinated by books because of the colours and characters. As they grow this fascination is however replaced by some other activity. To keep their interest going it is important you as a parent present yourself as a role model whom they wish to follow.
3. Learning from environmental print:
Under this kind of learning one learns from various letters that they are surrounded by. It is not restricted to learning from a book. Here children are exposed to different kinds of learning. It could be a restaurant menu or signs, labels, magazines, etc. This method makes teaching fun and a playful activity. As there are no restrict rules and it is a “learn as you go” method.
Above all as a parent to a growing child one needs to have patience and not buy into any kinds of stereotypes. For information to zap from the visual area to the auditory area and finally to the angular gyrus, the connection between these three — a special circuit that develops only with time and practice — must be fully functional, says Reid Lyon, Ph.D., chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Eventually, as a child grows older and develops both his vocabulary and his letter-recognition skills, information travels that circuit almost instantaneously, and reading becomes second nature.
Source: www.parenting.com | http://www.parenting.com/article/the-best-way-to-teach-kids-to-read
