By
Fernando Chapa (Chatsworth, CA United States)
I have taught three children to read trying various methods at different stages in their development.
After researching & almost one thousand dollars on reading programs I finally settled on "Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons" for my two year old son. My research has led me to several conclusions, among which are:
* Different types of reading programs may work better at different stages in your child's development. For example, "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" by Glenn & Janet Doman, works best for children under two.
* If your child is approximately 4 years or older and DOES NOT HAVE ANY LETTER RECOGNITION, then a program like "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" may work best.
* Hooked on phonics may work well for children over the age of six who already have some reading skills, but are having problems.
* Bob First (Scholastic) books are good for kids 4 and up. Younger kids may have problems with the Bob First books because the print is too small.
* Do NOT teach the alphabet to kids under 3 years old. They will learn to read more easily if instead, starting with lower case letters, you first teach the sounds a letter makes. They can easily pick up the names of the letters once they are well into their reading program.
The first lesson in the 20 Easy Lessons book starts by introducing your child to the sounds made by five of the most commonly used letters in the 500 most commonly used words of the English language. Whereas the book recommends spending up to 5 minutes on one page, I only spent about 15 seconds per session and two sessions per day, for a total of 30 seconds per day. Just long enough to point out the letters and say the sounds. The first couple of times (I introduce any new concept) I do not ask my child to repeat anything. The next couple of sessions, I asked my child to repeat after me while I pointed to the letters. After another couple of sessions, your child will be saying the letter sounds as you point to the letters. After a few days, we were going through half a page a day, and repeating each page two or three times. After a month of this, you will be able to cover one page at a time (instead of half pages).
Every so often, the book has a worksheet that may not be developmentally appropriate for your child (e.g., matching letter sounds to a picture of an animal that starts with the same sound). Skip these worksheets if your child is too young.
My child is on lesson 7 and can easily read sentences like "Pam got a fish in the pet shop. The cat wants the fish, but the cat can not swim." He is able to read words that he doesn't know by sounding them out.
I few more tips to consider.
* Do not teach your child if either of you are in a bad mood, hungry, or distracted in any way.
* Get rid of all distractions during a lesson (e.g., T.V., radio, ringing phones, talking people, etc.)
* Teach your child every day, including weekends.
* Make the lessons short. Start with 10 to 15 seconds per session. At 2 years 8 months old, my son's sessions are now about 1 minute long, once or twice per day.
* If your child is reluctant, try the following. "Would you like to go outside and play after your reading lesson?" or "Lets play with the Play-Dough after our reading lesson".
* Sometimes you can use hand puppets to help with the reading lesson.
* I have a Rubbermaid container that I call the Treasure Chest. It is filled with many little toys I purchased at the 99 cent store. Sometimes I use this by saying, "Let's have a reading lesson and then you can pick a treasure from the treasure chest."
* Do not force your child. If he or she doesn't want to do the reading lesson, take a day off and try a different tactic the following day.
* Read books to your child on a regular basis.
* When out and about, point out words to your child that he or she already knows.
* If your child makes a reading mistake during a session, do not say "No" or "That's not correct". Sometimes you can just let it slide. Other times you can help them by telling them the answer.
* Try not to pressure your child to show off his or her reading skills to other people.
I have many more ideas and opinions, but not enough space.
I think that kids 2 years to 5 years old will get the most benefit out of this book.