A Simple Plan for Learning to Read
You’ve likely heard about some parents whose children learn to read simply because they were read aloud to. Don’t feel bad if this hasn’t happened with your child! Learning to read involves recognizing patterns and applying rules. Some children pick it up easier and quicker than others.
You can start simple and gradually get more difficult.
Also, newsflash: There are different ways of learning to read. Just look at some old time books and you’ll see ways people learned to read 100 years ago might be different than what your child may learn. Some of these ways are better than others and some are about the same.
The progression that I have seen my own children go through (and multiple tutoring students) goes something like this:
Memorize the letter sounds (short vowel sounds and consonants).
Rhyming words: Hear them and recognize them (and make rhyme)
Initial letter sounds: Listen to the name of an object and tell what letter it starts with.
Read 3 letter words called CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). This takes a while, and you might find some vowels are easier for your child than others. Remember to keep the vowels short.
Read 4-5 letter words that have the short vowel sound. Include blends (2 or 3 consonants together, like st or fl) and digraphs (2 letters that make one sound, like ch or th)in the short vowel words.
Finally, introduce the “magic e” (also known as “silent e” or “vowel-consonant-e”). This takes some practice getting your child used to the long vowel sound and recognizing when to use it.
Next, you can introduce the “bossy R” (also known as the “r controlled” syllable). The R will make the vowel make another sound than long or short: er, ir, ur, or, ar. Read words like “barn” or “fort.”
After that, you can show your child some common suffixes like. -s, -es, -ly, -ed, -ing. You might find that by this point your child ALREADY knows some of them. Suffixes on the ends of words make the words longer. Knowing how to read and recognize suffixes helps children read longer words.
By the way, several of these steps can be learned out of this order sometimes just from exposure from reading certain books.
Vowel teams come next. There will be exceptions, of course, but I teach vowel teams gradually as they appear in words in the books my children read. I use a handy little visual called the Reading Handy Helper. Sometimes teachers or a specific reading curriculum will teach a few of them at a time.
By this point (steps 1-9), if your child has been reading books that are at an appropriate level, then he/she will likely never need additional instruction.
Continue reading books to your child and with your child. Gradually introduce books that are a little more difficult. These are opportunities for your child to see words with various patterns that have been introduced in steps 1-9.
If your child still is struggling. . .
There are some steps you can take to teach your child how to recognize syllable types (which can help your child break longer words into chunks). If you are interested in teaching your child syllable types, I have a free download here and I’m releasing a new course soon called “Next Step Reading.” It will teach you what the syllable types are and how to help your child learn them. Email Rebecca@TheParentTeacherBridge.com for more information.
Remember, YOU are your child’s most influential teacher.