Top Tips for Teaching Your Child to Read

One of the very first things that children are taught at school is how to read. They begin by learning their phonetics (the sounds which letters make) and they use this knowledge to slowly merge them together and create words. Reading of course is essential, not just for school but everyday life. Any practice that you can do at home will help immensely with their reading and writing skills. But if teaching isn’t your forte and you need some guidance, here are some top tips that were shared with us by an independent girls school in Hertfordshire.

Keep Things Simple

It’s a good idea to keep things short and sweet. There’s no need to over complicate matters when teaching children their phonetics. We recommend sticking to the lowercase versions of letters so they don’t have double the shapes to remember when it’s not yet needed. While it sounds simple, it’s an easy mistake to make as we’re so used to writing with capital letters.

Point to Real Life Examples

As we use words to communicate, there are learning opportunities all around. You can point to everyday items and point to the letters that you see. This will get your child to recall their phonetics and implement what they have learned.

Their Learning Needs

If your child’s having a difficult time reading, despite all the practice they’re getting, it may be that they have additional learning needs. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which can make the process harder. It affects reading, spelling, verbal processing speed and lots of different areas of school. Some of the symptoms may also be the result of another underlying issue, such as short sightedness. To be sure and rule out the possibility, first speak to your child’s teacher and see whether they also have any concerns. The next step then would be to consult with a doctor who will be able to provide you with a diagnosis. It’s a condition that is more common than you would think as 10% of the population are thought to have the learning difficulty. 

Read to Your Child

Reading to your child will also help. Even if they aren’t at the stage to read yet, it will widen their spoken vocabulary and help them to identify words when blending. 

Create Fun Activities

Young children can be a pain to teach. They have a short attention span which means that most traditional teaching methods won’t work. They need to be entertained and engaged. One way to do this is to create an interactive game which encompasses different areas of their learning. That could be a game of snap using a card sort made by yourselves. 

Have a Look for Online Resources

If in doubt, there are a plethora of learning resources that fellow parents and teachers have shared online. You may even be able to find online lessons for your child to watch that explain phonetics and the different language rules.

Phonetics Songs

Some of the resources that you will find include phonetics songs. They make it easy for children to remember the various phonetics as they are catchy and memorable. Once they are confident in them, they can begin blending and try to read. This step is one that you should take time on. If your child’s not yet 100% on their phonetics, they will only be confused later when you throw more at them.

These are just some of our tips and tricks that we hope help you in teaching your child to read. If you’re interested in seeing similar content like this, we have more parenting tips and guides that we will be posting soon!