Top Tips for Teaching Your Child to Read

Reading marks the beginning of your child’s independent learning, where they are able to learn and discover new things for themself. Once they are able to read for themselves, they can start to explore their own passions, create their own beliefs and shape their own identity. To help, we have paired up with a private girls school to share top tips for teaching your child to read.

Practising Phonetics

To help your child with their reading, spend extra time with them at home to make sure that they have their phonetics nailed. These are the building blocks for reading and writing. Without being 100% confident, your child may struggle at school. To help, you can create flashcards of the different sounds with pictures of things that begin with the sounds on the reverse. To get them engaged, you can play snap with these or get them to think of their own. Children love nursery rhymes, and you can find plenty online to help support their phonetics. 

Read to Your Child

By reading to your child, you can increase what is known as their listening vocabulary. These are the words that are spoken to them that they are aware of. When trying to blend, having prior knowledge of words can make it easier for them to click in your child’s head, allowing them to identify what they are. To boost their vocabulary, you can even encourage your child to use those words for themself.

Make the Words More Apparent

At first, when blending, the words won’t jump out at your child straight away which is where you can sound them faster and faster until they do. Just be careful not to give the answers away!

Alphabet Toys

There are no rules to teaching. You can experiment with different materials to find what works for your child in helping them remember. You can make learning their ABC’s fun by using unconventional resources like alphabet magnets. To solidify their learning, point towards different letters and ask them what their sounds are. Where they make mistakes, gently guide and encourage them as this will help them to remember for next time. 

Focus on Sounds and Not Letters

To avoid overcomplicating things, throw out everything that you know and ignore the names of letters. Teach your child their phonetic alphabet by focusing on the sounds of letters as opposed to their names by referring to letters like ‘L’ (el) as ‘luh’.