HOW TO TEACH CHILDREN TO READ: THE MOST EFFECTIVE TIPS - PARENTHOOD

How to teach children to read: the most effective techniques and the steps to follow

With the beginning of elementary school, children learn many new skills, including reading aloud. This is a very important stage for their development, because it will make them even more independent than before. How can you help and support them in this phase? some time and using the different supports available to do homework. Eye to technology: find out in this video what our expert thinks.

How to overcome the difficulties of teaching reading

With a growing interest in homeschooling, which we have discussed in this article, many parents have reinvented themselves as teachers and consequently have to mark the stages of school learning in a personalized way, but still suitable for the child's age.
It is quite well known that teaching a child to read is not always an easy path: there are pupils who are able to learn the mechanisms of reading faster and others do not.
How then?
Whether school education takes place within the walls of the home or at school, it is essential to create an easy environment for the child, who is preparing to unlock this important stage of growth. we will go and see it shortly, but the important thing is to set up your reading spaces so that you learn while having fun. Also you have to be the main figure of reference, so read and reread!

This moment does not necessarily have to coincide with the beginning of school (6 years), but on the contrary, several studies have studied how to bring children closer to reading even in preschool age has more than positive results: children are more self-confident, they develop a healthy dose of self-esteem and they will be the ones who will be most successful over the academic years.

So, when to start proposing reading aloud to children? If we are reading a book you can start right after birth, while for the teaching of reading the recommended age is 4 years, since in this phase of life children begin to wonder why things are and they are naturally more interested in their surroundings, like the letters printed on a beautiful color book.

Know that learning to read is still a long journey, so it is good to arm yourself with a lot of patience and small tricks in case of hitches.

The basics: the alphabet

Very useful for learning to read is to start with the teaching of the letters of the alphabet.
In fact, once the child has developed his ability to identify words, he begins to distinguish the different letters within the same word.
Repeating the alphabet by heart is the most classic tool to teach it, but you can try alternatives: rhyming rhymes or some songs can be useful; the important thing is to repeat them calmly so that the child will imitate you and later produce sound independently.

Find a way to make reading a moment of play, only in this way can you stimulate him and make him more interested in this activity. An idea may be to play bowling with cubes on which there is a different letter: the game is to make those pieces fall with the ball with the designated letter.

Another useful activity is to associate reading aloud with the basics of writing.
In fact, it has been demonstrated how the symbiotic learning of reading and writing facilitates the task for children and makes them feel more serene: they will recognize the sounds of the characters written by themselves and consequently will be more familiar with what they are doing.
Start with simple words, relating to objects that the child manipulates on a daily basis and whose meaning he knows well.

Start by explaining to them that some words start with the same letter, highlighting it in a nice bright color, so they can look up it in other words. There will be many mistakes, but don't scold them; rather encourage and reward them after each goal achieved.
Don't overload them with expectations - it could be counterproductive. The feeling for the child must be to experience a new game. Let's see some examples!

Vowels and consonants

How to teach vowels
Let's start with the vowels, which in our language are only 5 and therefore very easy to remember.
A nice game to propose to the child is to match a vowel to a finger of the hand (A thumb, E index and so on ..) so as to better remember how many special letters there are and visually bring them back on their hand, perhaps drawing it on a sheet of paper. White.

How to teach consonants
Each consonant needs a vowel to be pronounced, so the advice is not to make them memorize immediately. With consonants c "is one more step of learning, that is the passage from the graphic symbol to the pronunciation of the sound.
It is therefore easier for a child to start directly with the syllables, which is a repetitive and therefore reassuring exercise. Once you understand the mechanics, the rest will be easier to learn.
Of course, there are exceptions in Italian, but luckily children have an extraordinary memory and can memorize those special cases with ease.

To help the child read consonants with vowels, you can rely on cards that associate a syllable with a drawing and a "different syllable with another" image, so that they can better impress the association in their memory.
Start with the most frequent consonants found in commonly used terms such as N, M or P and R.

Phonemes and the Montessori method

One of the most important steps in "teaching to read is associated with the sound pronounced in correspondence with a letter or a pair of letters. It is" phonological awareness ", strongly supported by one of the most popular pedagogical teaching methods at the moment: the method Montessori.
In fact, if you prefer, you can skip the syllable step to teach the child to read directly from phonemes.

Through the method of Maria Montessori the child approaches reading and writing at his own interest and almost independently. By first observing the objects around him and then becoming interested, the little one becomes more and more curious about the surrounding environment, therefore the approach to reading does not involve counting the syllables, but the recognition of phonemes, or the small sound elements that determine a word .
Although decomposing each word may seem a more complex procedure than the traditional method of syllables, in reality for a child everything is evolving, and therefore also his learning methodology. It will just have to be routed and the rest will come by itself.
When the child has learned this skill, he will be ready to learn to read.

The learning of phonemes, if you opt directly for this choice, must be well organized: start from the simplest and arrive only later at the most complex. The initial phonemes must be very clear, better if they have an emotional value like Mmm amma o Cccc asa.

Rhyming words and decoding

Get your child used to the sound of rhyming words: thanks to the help of chants and short rhythmic poems you will help him to recognize phonemes and letters more quickly, as well as the most common words.
The peculiarity of teaching to read through rhymes is that these constructs have very precise patterns that repeat themselves, and once the child understands the cadence he will begin to discover the similarities of sounds that are created by joining more neighboring letters.

If you think that the little one has learned well so far you can move on to the next step, that is to make him practice in decoding.
Decoding is a very early form of reading a word and is based on the union of the individual sounds of each letter that distinguishes it, rather than trying to read it all at once.
Training to decode words aloud causes the act of reading to be broken down into two parts: the first concerns the actual reading of the term and the second is the understanding of the meaning. Keep in mind that the second step is something that will come later; if you are teaching your child to read focus on the first point.
Propose very short texts, such as rhymes, or lists of words; wait for whole stories and books.
By focusing on this limited set of terms, the little one learns more easily to pronounce a word, especially if it decodes aloud. Let him experiment with breaking the word down into parts. A trick? He can clap his hands to accompany the breakdown if he prefers.

Deciphering the words is a long process, it takes a lot of effort and progress is slow. You can try this technique when the child is about 5-6 years old; for a younger child it is complicated. However, if left to do, children are able to gradually activate their memory and automatically recognize words. Without realizing it I am able to read!

After learning to read

You have followed all our advice and now your child is able to read several words fluently; he can recognize many sounds and at the same time started writing. What a gratification! And now?

It may be that your "study" path has finally made him arrive at school, where the difficulties are greater and you have to do your homework. The teachers can assign special texts to train the little one to read at home too; why not help him tell these stories aloud by always encouraging him to recognize words and separate phonemes?
The more time passes, the more his understanding of single words and phrases will increase. At some point he will be able to understand what an entire fairy tale tells and the meaning behind it.
Although the goal is to support him in reading, do not scold him if he stops to admire the images of the books: a child needs to fly with his imagination and associating words and figures is an important tool for building his own vocabulary.

He integrates his homework in this way: after reading, ask to tell you what the story is about, perhaps with the help of his favorite puppets. You can interact by asking him questions about the story, which if in the early days will be very easy and direct , over time they can evolve becoming more abstract and complex.

Finally, don't forget to read for your child: even if he has passed all the steps and is now a good reader, nothing beats a good bedtime story told by mom or dad! You will continue to transmit to him the love for books and good reading and even if only by imitation, he will try to resemble you as much as possible.