Reading is an important skill, after all throughout school and later on the job we have to read a lot of papers, materials and books. Schools teach reading and writing to all the kids, but not every child gets the attention they need when learning these skills, sometimes because there are too many students in the class, sometimes because the teacher is inexperienced, and in the end some students end up reading much better than others. If you want your child to become as proficient as possible, you should help the school system and contribute to your child’s reading study at home.
You don’t have to wait until the first lessons in school, you can teach your child letters much sooner. There are a lot of games and children’s books that help with letter recognition, associating written signs with sounds, so you should get a couple of them to ease your child into the world of written word in a fun and casual way. You only have to make sure that you’re not forcing your child to play with letters and that it’s their decision to learn new ones, because otherwise you may push too hard and your child will get defensive and not want anything to do with letters whatsoever.
After your child gets familiar with the alphabet, you can move on to reading. The best and easiest way is to use simple children’s books with short words and sentences and big font, which altogether makes it easier for the child to put the letters into words. Beware of using books with full stories, as not only are they printed in a more concise way visually, but they also often include difficult vocabulary and can cause confusion being spelled much different than it’s pronounced.
Once your kid is already studying and improving reading skills in school, try to practice at home on materials different than exercise or course books. A lot of school books, especially those in lower grades, tend to use the same vocabulary, so it might be good to reach for texts that are outside the box. Celebrity scandal magazines might not be the best source of new words, but everyday things like receipts, junk mail, milk label or instructions from a mini mouse will be a great source. Try to find materials that may be interesting to your child in some way, a pet magazine for animal lover, atlas for a traveler or recipe book for a baking passionate, so that the subject of the reading influences the child’s will to read in the first place.
It’s close to impossible to survive in today’s world without reading skills, so you should make sure your child is at least at grade level with reading. A bit of extra encouragement, some fun practice that doesn’t seem like practice at all, and a delicate nudge into the world of written word will help develop your child’s skills and make it easier for them to learn other things, so instead of just watching cartoons, read comic books with your child, instead of telling them how to do something, read together instructions on how to put a toy together, basically use all kinds of opportunities to perfect your kid’s skill so it becomes a natural ability to them.
About the author:
Monika Barczak is a passionate writer working for a CPA Miami company.