How to Teach My 6 Year Old to Read

Teaching your kid to read can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life! Here nosotros share ten tips on how to teach a child to read, from pre-readers all the mode to schoolhouse-age children!

When Do Kids Acquire To Read?

As a sometime first grade teacher, teaching children to read is one of my greatest passions! Only considering virtually children don't first really "reading" until around 6 years onetime (which is upwards of the targeted age range for my blog), I didn't want parents to feel pressured that their three-twelvemonth old needs to beginning reading (which, by the style, they don't!). All the same, the data shared beneath is full general data that is benign for children of all ages, whether your kid is ready to read or non. Don't implement all of these strategies at once, nor should you expect your kid to be able to do everything right away. Learning to read is a process and the information beneath is simply for you to implement when you feelyour kid is ready.

Once your kid is set up to brainstorm reading, yous will need to find a systematic and explicit program that teaches phonemic awareness and phonics. This is essential. Learning to read is like breaking a cipher lawmaking (and contrary to what the title of this post suggests, it is NOT like shooting fish in a barrel). Every child must larn the code and it makes the most sense to teach this explicitly rather than depending on kids figuring information technology out on their ain. Delight likewise recognize that although the suggestions beneath are labeled every bit "steps", they are not necessarily in consecutive club, nor are they in lodge of importance. The information yous volition observe here is but a guide to help you encounter how each of the components of reading fit together for your pre-reader. If your child is school-aged and you are looking for a curriculum on how to teach a child to read, I highly recommend Pathways to Reading Homeschool.

How To Teach a Child To Read

one. Read Aloudto your child

Teaching your child to read is truly a process that begins at infancy. No, I am well-nigh certainly Non advocating programs that claim to teach your infant to read using flashcards! What I AM encouraging yous to practice is to begin reading with your newborn inside days of welcoming her domicile! Not simply is ongoing reading time building a special bonding fourth dimension for the 2 of yous, it instills in her a love for books. Enjoyment while reading is ane of the single greatest predictors of reading success in school-historic period children. If children don't learn from an early age to enjoy reading, it volition most likely hinder their power erstwhile down the road.

How much y'all read to your child is completely upwardly to you and your family, but I suggest y'all aim to read at to the lowest degree iii-4 books a day, even while your child is very young. As she gets a fiddling older and can sit down for longer stretches of time, brand it a family goal to read together for at least 20-minutes each day.

Here are a few suggestions for the types of books to read to your child. Merely past all means, read whatever your child responds to and enjoys!

Birth-ane Year: Lullabies, Board Books (with real pictures), Cloth Books (with various textures), Song Books
1 Yr-3 Years: Rhyming Books, Vocal Books, Short-Story Board Books
three Years-5 Years: Alphabet Books, Song Books, Pic Books, Rhyming Books

2. Ask questions

Asking questions while reading to your kid is not but corking for encouraging your kid to interact with the volume, simply it is also extremely constructive in developing his power to comprehend what he is reading. You come across, if our principal objective in "reading" is getting our child to "audio out" words, we have missed the boat entirely. Fifty-fifty children who can decode words and "read" with not bad fluency still might not be able to comprehend what they are reading. If a kid tin can't embrace what he is reading, at that place really is no indicate to reading at all!

While your child is a babe, inquire him questions such equally, "Practice you see the cat?" while pointing at the picture of the cat. This will non only develop his vocabulary, it volition also encourage him to collaborate with the book that he is reading. As he gets older, ask him to signal to things in the book himself and make the noises of the animals he sees.

Once your child is almost ii or three-years of age, begin asking questions before, during, and later on reading the book. Show your child the cover of the book and ask him what he thinks the story is going to exist nigh (predicting). While reading, inquire him what he thinks is going to happen in the story or why he thinks a character fabricated a item choice (inferring). If a graphic symbol is depicting a strong emotion, place that emotion and ask your child if he has e'er felt that way (connecting). At the end of the volume, ask if his prediction(south) came true. Afterwards, ask him to tell you what he remembered happening in the book (summarizing).

Modifying each of these techniques during read-alouds to run across the developmental phase of your child is a great way to promote and increase reading comprehension!

3. Be a good (reading) instance

Even if your kid is fascinated with books from an early age, her fascination volition apace dwindle if she does not run into reading modeled in her home. If you are not an avid reader yourself, make a conscious effort to let your children see y'all reading for at least a few minutes each day! Read a mag, a cookbook, a novel, your Bible…it's upwards to you! But show your child that reading is something that even adults need to do. If you have a son, share this article with your hubby. Sons demand to meet their fathers read, peculiarly since it is not something that young energetic boys are naturally decumbent to doing.

Equally parents, we can sometimes go wrapped upward with what exactly our children should be doing to be successful. Just we often forget that children often acquire by example. Grab a book and take a load off…for your child'southward sake, of grade!

4. Identify letters in natural settings

Before our boys were built-in, we painted and hung large wooden letters spelling their name above the cribs every bit a decorative accent in their rooms. I would take never guessed that those wooden messages would have such a learning incentive for Big Brother! Effectually historic period 2.five, he began asking what letters were higher up his name. That's honestly how he learned to spell his name…and he tin spell his brother's proper noun besides because he has taken an interest in his letters also. In technical terms, this is called "environmental print" and includes all of the print nosotros are surrounded by–fast food signs, labels, traffic signs, vesture, magazines, etc.

Often times, we desire to strength our children to acquire letter names past a certain age. We buy flashcards or DVDs challenge to teach our children their letters. Nosotros drill our 2-year old over and over for minutes on cease. Don't buy into this…allow your kid to be a kid and take advantage of the "teachable moments" as they come up along! Children's minds are similar sponges and are certainly capable of memorizing the alphabet from drilling, but that's not the virtually effective method that will produce the best long-term results. Your child will be curious about the impress he sees effectually him and will ask questions. That's your chance to spring in with a practical awarding that actually has existent pregnant and significance to your child.

Don't misunderstand me and call up that I don't call up learning the alphabet is important. It is certainly important…but the method in which we teach them is fifty-fifty more than important! Always keep in mind that our ultimate goal is to foster a lifelong learner who loves to read, not a child who has simply memorized without whatsoever significance.

v. Incorporate multiple domains of development

Children learn best when multiple senses or areas of development are included. That'south why hands-on learning produces longer retention and more meaningful application. Once your child has shown an interest in letters and you have already begun to utilize natural settings for identifying those letters, begin implementing activities that contain as many senses as possible. Keep in mind that learning letter names isn't near equally of import equally learning their sounds!

There are a plethora of ways to incorporate multiple domains of development in regards to letter recognition and early-reading skills. Alphabet crafts permit your kid to larn the shape of a letter along with an association of the audio it makes all the while utilizing fine motor skills in the process of cutting, gluing, and creating! Playing games that involve gross motor skills (like tossing beanbags on the appropriate alphabetic character) are also wonderful ways to include movement. Of course, every child loves songs and rhymes! Have an inventory of your kid's strengths and areas of interest and target activities to fit them!

6. Classify the Genre

One time your child is around five and can recognize the difference betwixt existent and make-believe, I would propose starting to help your kid understand diverse genres of books during your reading time together. This might seem complicated, but it's actually not. In that location are around 5 unlike genres of children's books that I would encourage you to point out to your piddling 1. Of course you lot can use the term "type" rather than "genre" if that is easier to call up.

Nonfiction (real stories or facts about animals, places, people, etc)
Fantasy (make-believe, can't happen in real life considering of magic, talking animals, etc)
Realistic Fiction (a made-up story, simply it could technically happen in real life because the characters and situations arebelievable)
Alphabet Books
Song Books

When children allocate a book into a sure genre, they have to first summarize the book in their head and retrieve details. And so they have to use that information to decide which type of genre that detail books fits into. Finally, your child volition be recalling details from other books in the aforementioned genre, making connections between the 2. This elementary activity that might take 5-10 seconds of your time after reading a volume simply it certainly packs a punch of thought and processing in that immature brain!

Also, it's important to notation that not all books volition fit into one of these genres, peculiarly books that are considered "phonics readers." I would advise that you exercise this exercise but with high-quality children's literature, non with books that are attempting to get your child to "sound-out" on their own. Most film books found in children'south libraries will fit into one of these genres.

Call back, our goal is for our children to learn to comprehend what they're reading…otherwise reading will honestly practice them piddling good. When we encourage our children to think virtually and process the volume we've just read together, nosotros are inadvertently modeling what we hope they'll one mean solar day do independently!

7. Focus on Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

"Phonemes" are the smallest sounds in the English language (go here for a complete list of phonemes). These sounds are made upwards of consonants, short vowels, long vowels, and digraphs. "Phonemic Sensation" consists of learning those sounds and how to manipulate them inside a give-and-take. Digraphs are unique sounds comprised of individual letters like /th/, /sh/, /ch/, etc.

"Phonics" includes learning how to spell those sounds and the diverse rules that the English language follows. Learning the rules of phonics is an essential tool that helps a child acquire to decode and spell. I used the Pathways To Reading plan in the classroom as my phonemic awareness and phonics program and loved it! It made learning all of the tricky spellings so much fun! Pathways at present has a homeschool version, which is amazing!

9. Decoding

Decoding is often referred to every bit "sounding information technology out." Once your child knows the sounds each letter makes (which is taught in real, meaningful situations), she is set up to begin putting words together. Decoding is a process that requires strong phonemic awareness skills and gives way to orthographic mapping, the process by which words are stored every bit "sight words" in long-term memory.

As children decode words with more frequency, they will go more good at automatically identifying that word. Researchers say information technology tin can take between i-iv exposures of decoding before a give-and-take is transferred to long-term memory for automatic retrieval. Sometimes this task is tedious, and can't be short-inverse, so it'due south of import to find creative ways to make it fun. When I taught start grade, I used to buy niggling finger puppets that my students could utilise to point to the letters as they were decoding. This was a huge hit and fabricated this process so much fun!

x. Use a reading program with explicit, systematic educational activity in one case he/she is in kindergarten and beyond

Most of the skills up to this betoken are what I would consider "pre-reader" skills that we, as parents, can work on during our child's earliest years to make the process of learning to read much easier for our children. Once your kid reaches school-age, be sure that y'all are using a program rooted in the science of reading, with explicit and systematic instruction in both phonemic sensation and phonics. If your child is headed to school, ask to look over the curriculum to ensure it is strong in these areas specifically. Some children volition naturally learn the phonetic code more hands than others, equally Nancy Young'southward Reading Ladder suggests, simply ALL children benefit from early code-based instruction.

There is no amend foundational reading programme, in my opinion, than Pathways to Reading. The original curriculum has been used in classrooms and clinical settings for the last 20 years. The programme has been involved in numerous research studies, showing statistically meaning results. Pathways to Reading Homeschool now offers their groundbreaking curriculum for home educators, starting with Basic Foundational Reading (which is the equivalent of kindergarten-historic period instruction). All 5 areas of reading instruction, as identified by the National Reading Panel, are incorporated: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Reading Comprehension. This is such an incredible resource for families and I tin can't recommend it highly plenty!

Learning To Read is a Journey

In summary, here are some applied suggestions y'all tin implement every day based on the learning to read strategies shared with you in this post. Apparently, you tin can't implement all of these suggestions with children of all ages, so use your judgement about what is the best mode to teach a child to read.

Read to your child every day!
Inquire your child questions before, during, and afterward reading.
Let your child see you reading.
Look for letters while out and about and in the environment around yous.
When teaching letters and alphabetic character sounds, comprise every bit many senses as possible.
Read a variety of books and make a game out of guessing the genre.
Accept fun rhyming
Play these oral phonemic awareness games together (no materials required)
Encourage your child to sound out curt words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
Most of all, have fun together!

This post was first published Feb 2012. Updated 2018.

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Source: https://www.icanteachmychild.com/10-steps-to-teaching-your-child-to-read/