Teaching Letter Names and Sounds

Teaching Letter Names and Sounds
So, you want to teach your child to read, but before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn at least some of the letters in the alphabet, their names, and the sounds that they represent. To be able to read, a child must be able to recognize the letters, know the sound of the letters, and be able to recognize the letters quickly and say the sound without hesitation. There is plenty of discussion and disagreement on whether it's better to teach children using whole language programs or using methods which incorporate phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. I think the debate on this is settled when the National Reading Panel stated from their findings of reviewing over 1,900 studies that phonics and phonemic awareness produces superior reading results than whole language programs.
Teaching Letter Names and Sounds
There is also some debate on whether to teach your child only letter names, or only the sounds which the letters represent. However, studies have also settled this debate by finding that teaching a child alphabet names and sounds together produces the best results. In fact, studies have found that there is little value in teaching preschoolers letter forms or letter sounds separately. This was indicated by an Australian study involving 76 preschool children. The children received 6 weeks of training in either letter awareness, phonemic awareness, or control tasks, and then received another 6 weeks of training in either letter-sound correspondence or control tasks. The study found that training in either phoneme or letter awareness assisted with learning of letter-sound correspondences, and that the phonemically trained children group had an advantage on recognition tasks. The study found that there is little value in training in letter form or letter sounds separately. [1]
As you can see, there is basically no point in only teaching either the names of the alphabet letters, or the sounds the letters make. A child must learn the name and the sound of the alphabet letter. When teaching your child the alphabet, instead of simply teaching them the name of the alphabet such as "this is the letter A", teach them like so:
"This is the letter A, and the letter A makes the /A/ sound." (note: the /A/ denote the sound "A" makes, and not its name). Similarly, you can teach your child the other alphabet letters in this way including both name and sound of the letter. This is the way I teach my children the alphabet letters. Other studies have also determined that teaching the letter names and sounds together helped children learn.
58 preschool children were randomly assigned to receive instructions in letter names and sounds, letter sound only, or numbers (control group). The results of this study are consistent with past research results in that it found children receiving letter name and sound instruction were most likely to learn the sounds of letters whose names included cues to their sounds. [2]
To be able to effectively teach your children the sounds of letters, you must first master the proper pronunciation of the letters yourself. It is critical for you as a parent to be able to first say the sounds of the letters correctly before teaching your children, and this is much tougher than it may seem.

Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early

Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early


Advantages of Teaching Children Reading Early
Before a child learns to read, he or she must first learn the spoken language, and this is one of the first instances where family members such as dad, mom, older siblings, and grandparents play an important role in "teaching" the child the spoken English language. Whether young children realize it or not, they gain very early exposure to the alphabet when parents sing the alphabet song to them. They begin to develop language skills by being read to and spoken to. One of the keys to teaching children reading early on is by exposing them to alphabet letters, books, and reading to them often.
Reading nursery rhymes and children's books are an important part of getting children to understand printed text. Talk to your children, and talk to them often, whether they understand or not is not important when they're just babies. The more you talk and interact with your little ones, the better they will develop. The key is exposure, and repeated exposure. Once your child learns to speak, you can begin teaching them reading at home.
I often hear parents say that they don't want to "push" their child too hard. How can teaching your child to read at a young age be considered "pushing" them too hard? If you as a parent already have the mentality that reading is a chore, and teaching them to read is pushing "too hard", you certainly can't expect your children to be excited about learning reading. On the contrary, learning to read offers a young child an opportunity for a lifetime to learn, discover, and enjoy the wonders of reading. Parents (including myself) will often underestimate the abilities and learning capabilities of young children. When we first began our teaching reading program with our first child when she was 2 years and 8 months, little did we expect that in just a few short weeks, she would be reading not just words, but sentences and story books. After about 3 months, by the time she was 2 years 11 months old, our daughter could read "Step in to Reading - step 2 (pre-school to grade 1 level)" books with some guidance. The benefits of learning to read were apparent - improved speech clarity, and better reading ability and reading comprehension.
There are no shortage of studies which find many benefits in teaching children reading at an early age. For example, one study administered a Stanford achievement test at the start of kindergarten and then again at the end of grade one found that early language based skills were highly associated with later academic performance in school aged children. [1]Similar studies also found that a high level of letter knowledge in kindergarten can reliably predict better later literacy skills.[2] Having a home environment that's conducive to literacy growth is critical in a child's development, and directly affects a child's language and literacy development. Studies have found that responsiveness and support of the home environment is the strongest predictor of children's language and early literacy skills. [3] My point here is help make parents aware that children who enter kindergarten with highly developed early reading skills will achieve greater success with systematic reading education. [4]
It's never too late to start home lessons and programs to teach your children to read. Regardless how old your child is, starting a reading program at a young age will have ample benefits. Start with lots of talking, singing, and reading to your child right from birth, and once your child is able to speak, you can start a simple reading program.
Begin with teaching your child some basic letters and their sounds, and even as soon your child learn just a few letters and their sounds, you can begin teaching them simple blends using the letter knowledge that they have acquired. Work on ear training with your child on oral blending and word segmentation. One of the keys to teaching children read is developing phonemic awareness. Studies have shown that phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of reading success in children.

Notes:
1. Percept Mot Skills. 2001 Apr;92(2):381-90.
Relationship between language skills and academic achievement in first grade.
Kastner JW, May W, Hildman L.
Department of Pediatrics, Child Development Clinic, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216, USA.
2. J Exp Child Psychol. 1996 Jun;62(1):30-59.
Kindergarten letter knowledge, phonological skills, and memory processes: relative effects on early literacy.
Näslund JC, Schneider W.
University of New Mexico, College of Education, Program in Educational
3. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005 Apr;48(2):345-59.
The role of home literacy practices in preschool children's language and emergent literacy skills.
Roberts J, Jurgens J, Burchinal M.
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute,The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-8180, USA.
4. Psychol Rep. 1994 Apr;74(2):403-7.
Kindergarten predictors of first-grade reading achievement: a regular classroom sample.
McCormick CE, Stoner SB, Duncan S.
Psychology Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston 61920.


Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age | Children learning reading review

Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age

Did you know that 38% of grade four students have reading abilities below the lowest basic level as determined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)? The NAEP is the only ongoing survey of what students known and tracks their performance in various academic subjects for the United States. In their report, the NAEP found that 38% of grade four students had reading achievement below basic levels, with a basic level reading score being 208.
To put things in perspective, the US reading scale has an upper limit score of 500, with average reading scores for grade 4 (217), grade 8 (264), and grade 12 (291). The grade 4 reading achievement levels are categorized by the NAEP as Advanced (268 score), Proficient (238 score), and Basic (208 score), and the basic reading achievement level is defined as follows by the NAEP:
Teaching a Child to Read at an Early Age
Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read. When reading text appropriate for fourth graders, they should be able to make relatively obvious connections between the text and their own experiences and extend the ideas in the text by making simple inferences. [1]
Unfortunately, over a third of all grade four students read at levels even below basic. Is your child having reading difficulties? Research on Phonemic Awareness have found that early reading helps improves a child's reading and spelling abilities. In fact, the National Reading Panel has concluded based on their massive review of over 1,900 studies that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness produces better reading results than whole language programs.
There are numerous documented benefits and advantages of teaching children to read early on, and teaching them to reading using phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. It is clear that early language and reading ability development passes great benefits to the child as they progress through school at all grades, and that early language and reading problems can lead to learning problems later on in school. For example, a Swedish study found that children with a history of reading problems at school entry scores significantly below average on reading in grade 4. As well, children that shows very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored similarly low on sentence reading in grade 4. [2] This is just one of many studies which have similar findings, and this makes it an imperative for parents to begin exposing their children to books and reading at an early age.
So how early?
Good question!
There's no set guideline on when you should start teaching your children to read; however, you can start cultivating your child's love for books and reading as soon as they're born. Obviously, very young babies would not even know what books are, however, talking to your child and reading to your child will help them develop a keen liking for books and stories. As your child grows and gets older, avoid TV-sitting them, because as they develop a dependency on television as their main source of entertainment, it becomes very difficult to dislodge that need for TV entertainment, and get them to enjoy reading books. Instead, keep age appropriate books all around the house, and read to them often. You'll find that they'll start picking up books and pretend to read themselves, although at very early ages, they still cannot read.
People typically think that kindergarten or grade one would be an appropriate time for their children to start reading; however, this is not the best approach as studies have repeatedly found that children with good phonemic awareness before entering kindergarten continues to outperform, and achieve exceptional reading and spelling abilities as they progress through school. On the other hand, children who enter school with reading difficulties may continue to have reading and spelling difficulties.

How to Help Your Child Learn to Read

How to Help Your Child Learn to Read 
Help Your Child Learn to Read the ability to read is vital for success. It helps them build self-confidence, helps to motivate your child,  and helps your child succeed in school. Being able to read will help your child learn more about the world, understand directions on signs and posters, help them gather information, help them gather information, and allow them to find reading as an entertainment. Learning to read is very different from learning to speak, and it does not happen all at once. 
Help Your Child Learn to Read
There is a steady progression in the development of reading ability over time. The best time for children to start learning to read is at a very young age - even before they enter pre-school. Once a child is able to speak, they can begin developing basic reading skills. Very young children have a natural curiosity to learn about everything, and are eager to learn about the sounds made by those letters and they are naturally intrigued by the printed texts they see.  You will likely notice that your young child likes to look at books and thoroughly enjoys being read to. They will even pretend to behave like a reader by holding books and pretend to read them. 

Help Your Child Learn to Read
As parents, you're the most important first step in your children's journey into the wonderful world of reading. It is up to you to create the most supportive environment that turns your child on to reading - such as reading aloud to them often during the day and before bedtime, and placing age appropriate books for children around the house, so that the child will have access to plenty of books. Reading often to your child will help develop their interest in books and stories, and soon they will want to read stories on their own. With the help of parents, children can learn how to read. Make reading into a family activity, and spend time playing words games and reading story books. This will not only help you child learn to read, but it'll also help them build a rich vocabulary, teach them language patterns, and help them fall in love with books and reading. Below are some tips to help you teach your child to read. Talk to your child - before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn to speak. Talk to your child about everything and anything - whatever interests them. Tell them stories, ask your child lots of questions, play rhyme games, and sing songs with them. Read to your child consistently everyday - we're all creatures of habit, and enjoy having a daily routine. Set time aside each day to read to your child. Read to your child every night. Make this their "cool down" period before they go to sleep. This not only helps your child develop an interest in books and reading, it also help the parent bond with the child, and develop a healthy relationship. Help your child develop reading comprehension - typically, parents will take the time to read for their children; however, many parents do not put much emphasis or thought on whether their children understands what they've just been read to. Instead, occasionally, make an effort to question your child on what you've just read. For example, you read to your child: "Jack and Jill went up the hill..." You pause briefly and ask your child: "So where did Jack and Jill go?" Or alternatively, "Who went up the hill?" Young children may not catch on right away initially, and it may take a little practice, but they'll eventually catch on and begin to develop a deeper understanding of what they are reading. This is a very important step in helping your child develop reading comprehension. Of course, don't do this every single time you read, or your child will quickly get bored and lose interest. Do it at random times, and do not over do it. Help your child to read with a wide variety of books and keep reading fun - There is no shortage of children books, and you should always have a wide variety of children books, stories, and rhymes available. Reading is a lot of fun, for both parents and children. Read to your child using drama and excitement, and use different voices. Give your child the option of choosing what book they want you to read, instead of picking the book you want to read to your child. When reading to your child, read slowly, and point to the words that you are reading to help the child make a connection between the word your are saying and the word you are reading. Always remember that reading should be a fun and enjoyable activity for your children, and it should never feel like a "chore" for them.


The Definitive Guide to Teaching Children to Read



The Definitive Guide to Teaching Children to Read

Children learning reading review
How to Help Your Child Achieve Reading Skills Early On That You Never Thought Possible...
Is the development and education of your child important to you? Have you been searching for a program that will help you teach your child to read, but spending hundreds of dollars on unproven programs just doesn't make any sense to you? I can understand your frustrations, as I've been through much of the same experiences myself...



Children Learning Reading is a step-by-step program that helps parents to easily teach their children to read. The wonderful thing about this program is that as long as your child is able to speak, it will help you teach your child to read fluently. If you have any doubts to this statement - that even 2 and 3 year old children can be taught to read effectively - then please take a minute of your time and watch the following 2 videos below:





(Click "quality setting" and select HD quality for above video)


We originally developed the Children Learning Reading program to teach our own children to read, and you can see from the video above, the results were fantastic. We successfully taught our children to read before they were 3 years old. Did  you expect to see small, 3 year old children being capable of reading children's books?
Who Is the Program Designed For?
The Children Learning Reading program is designed for parents with young children between the ages of 2 to 7 years old. It is designed to teach toddlers and small children to read effectively. One important thing to keep in mind is that this program is not designed for extremely young children, or children who have not learned to speak yet. However, if your child has learned to speak, then you can use this program to teach your child to read.
The central goal of the Children Learning Reading program is to help your child learn to decode printed text quickly and learn to read fluently through the critical process of developing phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is arguably one of the most important aspects of learning to read and becoming a fluent reader. Children who lack phonemic awareness typically have reading difficulties, and end up being poor readers.
The Children Learning Reading program is an extremely simple, straight forward, and step-by-step program. The program includes simple exercises and practices starting with the very first lessons that work to help your child develop phonemic awareness and learn to read. Clinical studies, and even the National Reading Panel has stated that helping children develop phonemic awareness is one of the most effective ways to teach children to read.

How Does the Children Learning Reading Program Work?
The program is designed to be taught to your child in two stages, and each stage comes with it's own instruction book and step-by-step lessons. Stage 1 helps your child develop all the important foundational skills of learning to read and read fluently, while stage 2 lessons deal with slightly more advanced lessons helping to greatly advance your child's already impressive reading skills developed from stage 1 lessons.
There are 28 lesson in stage one that are smoothly laid out to teach your child starting with the building blocks of reading printed text. The alphabet letters and sounds are introduced to your child in a stepped, sensible, and intuitive order through the 28 lessons. Very simple words and blending exercises are introduced very early on, and more complicated words, sentences, stories, and rhymes are slowly introduced with the lessons as your child progress. By the time you complete stage one lessons with your child, your child will have already developed superb reading skills that will at times leave you even surprised and amazed.
Once you complete stage one, you can move on to stage 2 lessons, which involve teaching some more complicated matters dealing with reading. There are 22 lessons in stage two. One of the main focus of this stage is teaching your child letter combinations or also known as digraphs. The words, sentences, lesson stories, and rhymes here are more advanced, and work to greatly increase your child's reading skills and reading fluency.
Children Learning Reading Customer Reviews
The one great benefit of the Children Learning Reading program is that it doesn't force your child to explicitly memorize any phonics rules! Being parents, I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it would be to have toddlers and young children memorize rules to reading! The wonderful thing about Children Learning Reading is that throughout the entire program, your child learns to read, and develops phenomenal reading and decoding skills without memorizing any phonics rules. This is why our program is so effective at teaching children to read.
Another huge plus of this program is that the step-by-step lessons are designed to be quick and effective. Each lesson typically takes no longer than 5 to 10 minutes to complete, and some lessons take just 2 or 3 minutes to complete. As you can imagine, with the short attention span of small children, short lessons like these will be much more effective and productive than long, drawn-out lessons. To teach your child to read, all that you need to do is follow the lessons step-by-step, and spend 5 to 10 minutes each day consistently teaching your child to read. In just 12 short weeks, you will be extremely pleased that you have taken then time and effort to give your child the most important skill in life - reading.
>> Click here for the Children Learning Reading program, and start teaching your child to read today <<
Please watch the video below for a brief personal message from Jim & Elena..

3 Simple Tips to Help Your Child Become a Better Read

3 Simple Tips to Help Your Child Become a Better Reader

Learning to read at a young age confers great benefits for the development of the child. It helps them develop a better understand of their surroundings, allows them to gather information from printed materials, and provides them with a wonderful source of entertainment when they read stories and rhymes. Children develop at different rates, and some children will develop reading skills quicker than other children; however, what's important is that as the parent, you are keenly aware of your child's maturity and reading level to provide them with appropriate books and activities to help them improve.
Here's a video showing how a 2 year old toddler can learn to read:
Would you like to know how it's done? Click here to find out.

As parents, you are the most important teacher for your children. You will introduce your child to books and reading. Below we have 3 simple tips to help you teach your child to read.

Reading Tip #1: Teach Letter Sounds.


When you begin teaching your child to read, most parents will start with the alphabet letter names; however, the best approach to take - backed up by real science and research - is to teach your child alphabet letters and sounds at the same time. Studies have shown that children learn best when they are taught the letter names and letter sounds at the same time. In one study, 58 preschool children were randomly assigned to receive instructions in letter names and sounds, letter sound only, or numbers (control group). The results of this study are consistent with past research results in that it found children receiving letter name and sound instruction were most likely to learn the sounds of letters whose names included cues to their sounds. [1]
To learn more, we have this discussed in great deail here.

Teaching Tip #2: From Left to Right

It may seem so intuitive and natural to a parent that we always read from left to right; however, we're not born knowing this. This is why you'll often see small toddlers and young children try to read right to left at times.
This is why it's important to emphasize with your child that the proper reading order should be from left to right, and top to bottom.


Teaching Reading Tip #3: Final Consonant Blends

Teach final consonant blends first. Teaching words such "at" and "and" can lead your child directly to learning words that rhyme with these. For example, for "at", you can have:
Lat
Pat
Mat
Cat
Sat
Bat
Spat
Chat
For "and", you can have these rhyming words:
Sand
Band
Land
Hand
Stand
Bland
Brand
Grand
and so on...
You can start teaching blends once your child has learned the sounds of some consonants and short vowel sounds. You don't need to wait until your child has mastered the sounds of all the letters before teaching blends.
Learning to read is a long process, but it doesn't have to be a difficult process. Broken down into intuitive and logical steps, a child as young as two years old can learn to read, and older children can accomplish even more.



Children Learning Reading Review

Children Learning Reading Review


Recently I came across a step-by-step program that helps parents to easily teach their children to read, called Children Learning Reading Program. The wonderful thing about this program is that as long as your child is able to speak, it will help you teach your child to read fluently. I had some doubts initially when I saw that the program claimed that even 2 and 3 year old children can be taught to read effectively; however, my doubts were quickly put to rest when I saw their video proofs of small children reading.

Children Learning Reading Review









Who Is the Children Learning Reading Program Designed For?


The Children Learning Reading program is designed for parents with young children between the ages of 2 to 6 years old. It is designed to teach toddlers and small children to read effectively. One important thing to keep in mind is that this program is not designed for extremely young children, or children who have not learned to speak yet.
However, if your child has learned to speak, then you can use this program to teach your child to read.


The central goal of the Children Learning Reading program is to help your child learn to decode printed text quickly and learn to read fluently through the critical process of developing phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is arguably one of the most important aspects of learning to read, and becoming a fluent reader. Children who lack phonemic awareness typically have reading difficulties, and end up being poor readers.


Jim & Elena's Children Learning Reading program is an extremely simple, straight forward, and step-by-step program. Their program includes simple exercises and practices starting with the very first lessons that work to help your child develop phonemic awareness, and learn to read. Clinical studies, and even the National Reading Panel has stated that helping children develop phonemic awareness is one of the most effective ways to teach children to read.


How Does the Children Learning Reading Program Work?


The program is designed to be taught to your child in two stages, and each stage comes with it's own instruction book and step-by-step lessons. Stage 1 helps your child develop all the important foundational skills of learning to read and read fluently, while stage 2 lessons deal with slightly more advanced lessons helping to greatly advance your child's already impressive reading skills developed from stage 1 lessons.




Children Learning Reading review, There are 28 lesson in stage one that are smoothly laid out to teach your child starting with the building blocks of reading printed text. The alphabet letters and sounds are introduced to your child in a stepped, sensible, and intuitive order through the 28 lessons. Very simple words and blending exercises are introduced very early on, and more

Complicated words, sentences, stories, and rhymes are slowly introduced with the lessons as your child progress. By the time you complete stage one lessons with your child, your child will have already developed superb reading skills that sometimes leave you even surprised and amazed.


Once you complete stage one, you can move on to stage 2 lessons, which involve teaching some more complicated matters dealing with reading. There are 22 lessons in stage two. One of the main focus of this stage is teaching your child letter combinations or also known as digraphs. The words, sentences, lesson stories, and rhymes here are more advanced, and work to greatly increase your child's reading skills and reading fluency.


The one thing that really struck a chord with me about this program is that it doesn't force your child to explicitly memorize any phonics rules! Being parents, I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it would be to have toddlers and young children memorize rules to reading!


The wonderful thing about Jim & Elena's Children Learning Reading program is that throughout the entire program, your child learns to read, and develops phenomenal reading and decoding skills without memorizing any phonics rules. This is why their program is so effective at teaching children to read.


Another huge plus of this program is that the step-by-step lessons are designed to be quick and effective. Each lesson typically takes no longer than 5 to 10 minutes to complete, and some lessons take just 2 or 3 minutes to complete.


As you can imagine, with the short attention span of small children, short lessons like these will be much more effective and productive than long, drawn-out lessons. To teach your child to read, all that you need to do is follow the lessons step-by-step, and spend 5 to 10 minutes each day consistently teaching your child to read. In just 12

short weeks, you will be extremely pleased that you have taken then time and effort to give your child the most important skill in life - reading.