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It’s never too early to start teaching your child to read. Encouraging them to learn sounds and recognise words at a young age will give them a head start when they begin school. Reading with your child is an excellent bonding activity, and often starts with reading them a bedtime story. Here a girls’ prep school in Oxford provides some top tips for teaching your child to read.
Read aloud regularly
As well as bedtime stories, take any opportunity to read to your child so they become familiar with different sounds and words. For example, if you go out for a meal read the menu to them while looking at the words or point out road signs while out driving. You could also listen to audiobooks in the car. At the park, use a stick to write words in the ground and tell your child what it says. Use any opportunity you can find to read words and sentences aloud.
Make use of technology
There are many apps you can download onto a tablet or mobile phone for your child to play that will help them learn to read. These are often visually stimulating for children, helping them to understand and retain new information in an exciting way. You’ll also find plenty of educational TV programmes aimed at teaching your child how to read which you can watch together and practise what they’ve learnt afterwards.
Activities involving reading
Take time to engage in activities with your child that involve reading. For example, reading a recipe when baking a cake or reading instructions for building a toy. Read instructions and directions aloud while pointing to the words and ask your child to copy you. Make sure you also keep lots of reading materials around the house which they can pick up and look at whenever they like. Even if they can’t understand the words yet just looking at letters and making sounds will give them a great foundation for developing their reading comprehension.
Use images and songs
To make learning to read more exciting, put up pictures around the house with accompanying words so your child starts associating words and sounds with certain objects or activities. Singing nursery rhymes and songs will also expose them to a range of vocabulary and encourage them to get involved.
Learning to read is a complex process which takes time, but you can support your child in their journey through encouraging reading whenever possible.
