Most children learn to
read by putting letters together that match up with the sounds that
they remember hearing. They learn the sounds that letters make. They
learn how letters join together to make words.
Words don't just belong in books. Look around you'll
see them everywhere:
- on signs and posters;
- in shop windows and newspapers;
- on groceries and football shirts; and
- in the titles of TV programmes.
You can use the words you see every day to help your child learn. One
of the best ways to do this is by looking at pictures of what the word
means or at the real thing.
Beginner readers also learn that print on the page actually means
something. Words name things, they tell us stories or give us information.
You can help by doing the following:
- Singing. Rhymes help children
see how letters make the same pattern in different words. Play odd
one out games'. For example, which word is the odd one in a list like
cat, mat, dog, sat?
- Play I-spy'. It is a great way of showing
that every word begins with a letter.
- At the shops, point out the names of different
kinds of food as you go past them (for example, apples, bacon, and
cheese).
- Encourage your child to choose a book for
you to read to them.
- Show your child the way words go from left
to right on the page by underlining them with fingers yours first,
then theirs!
- Don't keep them guessing for a long time if
they can't say a new word help them spell it out slowly using the
sounds of the letters and then say it faster together.
- Praise your child when they work out a new
word for themselves, or when they go back and put right a word they
got wrong the first time.
