what are some good techniques to teach a young child how to read?

Question

I have a 4 year old who loves to "read" he makes up words to go with the pictures. He asks me what words mean, I tell him, problem is he doesn't seem to remember what the same word means on a different page in a different sentence. Is there anything I can do to help him? You can also send answers to [e-mail]

Answer 1

Does he know his alphabet? He should, start with one letter at a time and teach him what that letter is and the sound it makes, move at whatever pace suits him, don't rush him. Once he knows all his letters and what sounds they make start putting them together in 3 - 4 letter words. Make sure he can recognize the letters before you try forming words. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Read to him and point to the words. When you get to "challenge words," that is words that do not sound as they are spelled (and there are a lot of them), keep a note of them and go over them frequently.

The English language is VERY difficult because we do not use phonetic spelling and we "borrow" pronunciation rules from several languages including German, French, and Latin. If you are not well versed in the English language (proper pronunciation & grammar) you may need to brush up yourself.

Many parents wait for Kindergarten because they believe its their job to teach their children the basics but it can really frustrate a teacher when a child comes in knowing nothing. Alphabet, uppercase & lowercase letters, simple 3 and 4 letter words, and capitalization should be practiced before he starts school.

Answer 3

He's doing what is appropriate for his age, just don't rush him. You are doing everything right by reading to him and looking at books with him. You are getting him off to a good start, just keep it up. Work on the alphabet with him and as he gets closer to 5 you can start with simple phonics, and make sure he knows how to spell his name. There is a Leap Frog video called Talking Letters Factory or something like that, it's how my daughter learned basic phonics, then the next video is Talking Words Factory which is about forming words. But really, like I said, by being an involved parent and teaching your son to love books, you are already doing the right thing. My daughter is in 1st grade, her teacher told me at our last conference that she can tell which kids were read to a lot and which ones were not, the ones who were read to a lot are reading and comprehending much better. Good Luck.

Answer 4

Reading to him is the very best thing you can do! First, start on the sounds of the words. "Di" is for Dog, Dad, Dump truck, Dandelion. Once he hears the sounds, then start asking him what else starts with a "Di" sound. Once he can do that, start introducing the letters. Start with the letters in his name. Have him practicing tracing letters that you "dot out" for him. Keep associating the letters with the sounds they make. Once he can do that, have him watch the book while you read, pointing to the words as you read them. A great book that my kids LOVED to read (and soon COULD read by themselves) is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" By Eric Carle. It is repetitious and relies on the pictures to tell the story.

Most of all, keep him interested! Take him to the library to pick out his own books. Read him a story, then have him "read" it back to you. Good luck to you both. Sounds like you have a great start!

Answer 5

Continue reading and point to the words as you read. Also make up some flash cards, with simple words such as dog, cat, ball and a few things around the house like lounge,floor, bed etc. I also did different types of clothing and body parts.
Then turn it into a game, hold up a flash card read it and then spell the word then ask him to find it eg ball. Or get a bunch of items and lay them out on the floor and get him to place the flash cards with the word next to the items. With numbers get him to get 1 book, then 2 toys etc.
With the body parts, read out the flash card and get him to point to it on his body eg eyes, nose etc.
Its great fun and they slowly pick up the words as they go along.
My girls looooooooove these games. They have so much fun espeacially if they can read a few of the cards by themselves. Oh and also do names, like their name, Mum, Dad, Nan and names of friends etc.
I got my girls to help make the flash cards. I got big pieces of paper and they painted them. Then when they were dry I cut it up into card size pieces and wrote words, numbers and ABC's. Then laminated them.
If you do this then it will give him a great head start but dont expect him to be able to read properly straight away. By the time my daughter went to school she could read some words, most of the flash cards. But it wasnt until she actually went to school that she could read. It took her about a month to be able to read books.
And remember make it fun,they dont realise they are learning if they are having fun. And it is less stressful for them.

Answer 6

Just keep telling him the correct words and read along with him. When he gets in school, these words will be easier for him to learn.

Answer 7

Read to him as much as possible and point to the words you are reading to him. Use flash cards with the picture and word on them. Play memory card matching games to help increase his memory. Encourage him!

Answer 8

?coach the sounds jointly w/ their names. The sounds of the letters are often diverse from the call of the letter. In analyzing, this is the sounds that count selection. whilst u examine to the youngster to the letter C, working example, and say; "The call of this letter is [see] and it makes 2 sounds: [kkk] as in the word cat and additionally [sss] as in the word cent." Then ask infant to furnish u examples. don't be inflexible in how the youngster declares the sounds. interior of sight accents and week auditory skills make it annoying for toddlers to declare maximum sounds in academically superb way.settle for the lifelike attempt. comprehend that gaining awareness of sounds is basically an intermediate step to gaining awareness of to examine. ?coach decrease case letters first. Have u observed that each and every person ABC books for youthful toddlers coach top case letters first? yet capital letters account for below 5 p.c. of all letters. decrease case letters are a great way significant in springing up analyzing skills.

Answer 9

the best method BY FAR is phonics, where he learns the word elements, so he can build them up himself.

I have no idea how to teach it though, I left it to the professionals, and my son was reading confidently in about 6 months.

Answer 10

after he learns the abc's teach him pointing out what stuff spells like movies ect. also dr suess books are good !!! My daughter has been able to read the foot book for a while now and she is for as well !!! the leap frog interactive books are good to learn how to read as well as a leapster!! Good luck