Learning to read can be exciting and challenging for your child. Though you can't force her to embrace this new skill, you can encourage an interest in books by reading to her from a young age. Create an area where she can explore books on her own, and set a time every day or evening to read her favorite books to her. Healthy Children claims most children start learning to read at age 6 or 7, but some kids start earlier.
Start with Sounds
Children need to have a thorough grasp of the alphabet when they begin learning to read. Succeed to Read advises parents to review alphabet sounds with their children. Write each letter of the alphabet on a piece of paper and point to one letter at a time. Ask your child to tell you what sound the letter makes. Succeed to Read suggests creating an Alphabet Book if your child still needs to master many of the alphabet sounds. Staple pieces of paper together, sound out each letter and have your child draw a picture of an item that starts with each letter's sound on the pages. This will help him connect letter sounds to words.
Build Confidence
Children will learn to read more quickly when they are confident in their progress. When your child is learning to read, sit down with her and give her a book with which she is familiar. Ask her to read the story to you. She may read from memory or just interpret the pictures, not the words. This is okay. She is grasping the concept of reading and building confidence. If your child substitutes a word for another don't stop her, as long as the substitution makes sense. If she substitutes a word that doesn't make sense, ask her to sound the correct word out. Healthy Children suggests taking turns reading with her to demonstrate advanced reading skills. The site also suggests stopping the reading session before your child gets tired.
When she reads an entire story or even a few pages, she will be armed with confidence and excitement about reading.
Breakfast Lesson
Children spend a lot of time looking at cereal boxes at the breakfast table. Reading is Fundamental suggests using this time for a reading activity. Point to the words on the cereal box as your child sings the familiar jingle he has heard on commercials for the product. If he isn't familiar with the slogan or jingle for the cereal, write down the words on the cereal box on a piece of paper. Ask your child to compare the words on the box to the words you wrote. He will be excited to recognize the familiar words out of the traditional context.
