Learning to Read - Pre-reading Skills

Children need to read, not only for academic reasons but because reading is an important skill to develop. Many of life’s normal activities (e.g. filling out an employment application) involve reading. By laying a solid foundation of pre-reading skills, a child is better prepared to master essential skills when learning to read.

Never underestimate the intelligence level of a baby. From the moment a baby is born the infant is learning about the world through their senses, with particular emphasis on the sense of hearing. Since an infant is listening to the sounds around them, one of the best pre-reading skills a parent can do is to talk to the baby. This allows the child to hear words being pronounced correctly, and to catch the cadence of normal conversation. When the baby is able to sit up, place the child on your lap and read a book to them. Select a simple board book that is colorful, or perhaps one that has a “touch and feel” aspect. Read the same book over and over to allow the child to recognize the book, the cover of the book and the spoken words.

With toddlers, reading a book together should be part of the everyday routine. Now, you can ask the child questions about the story or the characters. When the story is familiar, encourage the child to act out the story with you. As you read, use an animated voice or change your voice to suit the characters. This shows the child the excitement of a book, and whets their appetite for more of the same. Drawing pictures is also an important pre-reading skill. A crayon drawing is often a child’s first attempt at story-telling. A connection is being made in the child’s mind between the verbal and the written word; crayons and paper allow this connection to develop.

As you and your toddler go through your normal daily routine, point out any words that you see. By seeing words on the cereal box, a stop sign or your street’s sign, the child begins to understand the vital link between reading and life’s activities. Words become a part of the child’s life in a meaningful way.

As the time gets closer for the first day of school, teach the child the alphabet. Show the preschooler the letters in their name and how to write each one. Reading should make up an important part of each day. Visit the library often and have the child select books. Ask insightful questions about the stories. These types of activities reveal the link between letters, their sounds and the words that are created. Perhaps the biggest goal to reach with preschoolers is to have them understand that words unlock exciting ideas and thoughts.

At every stage, from infant to toddler to preschooler, the one underlying activity that a parent can do to ensure academic success is to read to the child every day. Open a book and open a child’s mind to success.

Taking Specific Word Instruction Too Far

A lot of vocabulary is learned indirectly, however some should be taught directly. Direct instruction assists students when learning to read (particularly when learning difficult words and concepts). One of the direct instruction methods used is specific word instruction, which is teaching individual words prior to reading text. This also assists with reading comprehension. A student’s knowledge of a word prior to reading it in text will assist his understanding of what he read.

I recently read a National Institute for Literacy article which illustrated this concept perfectly. A teacher assigned the novel Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner to her class. The novel deals with a young boy who hopes to win a dog race so that he can pay his Grandfather’s taxes on his farm. A reader must understand the concept of taxes to comprehend the novel’s plot. Prior to reading the book, if the teacher adapted specific word instruction, he would discuss the concept of taxes or ask questions to make sure the students understood the concept. I thought to myself what a great idea!

Like most things in my life I tend to go too far. Yesterday morning while everyone was still sleeping, I decided to review our finances. A few minutes later, my seven year old son woke up asking what I was doing. I told him and then proceeded using specific word instruction to teach him various banking terminology. I also discussed the concept of gross verses net pay and the various components of a paycheck in detail. I thought this is great until my husband woke up and inquired as to what we were doing and when I told him he gave me a somewhat puzzled look – did I tell you it wasn’t even 7 am? Perhaps my son would have been better off reading a book or playing a game with me but at that moment (I was still drinking my coffee) I thought about the article and I wanted to expose my son to complex concepts.

Looking back I can now laugh at myself. It is important to educate our children every chance we get but it is equally important to remember they are children. When used judiciously, the direct instruction approach can be extremely beneficial to our children by exposing them to complex concepts at an early age. As with everything in life; there needs to be a balance which I sometimes need to readjust.

Skills Your Child Needs Before They Learn to Read

Prior to learning to read, research has proven that a child must possess six skills. Parents can assist in a child’s reading readiness by focusing on these skills early. Begin working with your child when they are very young (birth to two-years-old), and focus on the following six pre-reading skills:

Vocabulary

Children typically know between 300 and 500 words when they are two. Parents can assist by talking, listening and answering a child using short sentences and speaking clearly. Ask a lot of questions! Read to your child everyday and identify the pictures in the books. Research has shown a direct correlation between a good reader and a large vocabulary.

Print Motivation.

Simply stated, a child’s interest level in reading and enjoying books. Children who enjoy being read to possess the motivation to learn how to read. Begin reading books early with your child and make it a bonding moment for both of you. A child learns by example; so make sure they see you reading and don’t forget to visit your local library.

Print awareness.

The ability to recognize print, possessing the knowledge on how to hold and read a book (left to right, top to bottom). Familiarity with books and printed language assists children in understanding the usefulness of printed materials. Let your child hold board or cloth books. As you read point to the words and pictures.

Narrative Skills.

A child needs to possess the skills to describe events and things; the ability to tell a story. Tell your child stories and talk about what you are doing. Talk about your child’s day and listen to what they are saying. Try to ask questions. As always, read books. Talking to your child will assist them in comprehending what they read.

Phonological Awareness.

A child’s ability to identify sounds in words will assist a child in sounding out words when reading. Say and read nursery rhymes to your child; place emphasis on the rhyming words. A great activity to assist children in hearing the syllables in words is singing. Our family loves Miss Mary Mack which promotes phonological awareness via clapping, singing and rhyming.

Letter knowledge.

A child’s needs to be able to identify the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. Read alphabet books. Our family loves reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
As you go through the day point out letters and objects and talk about their size, shape and color. A great way to introduce the letters of the alphabet and their basic phonic sounds is to play Er-u-di-tion!

Source: A Parent Guide to Early Literacy for Early Talkers: Birth to Two-Year-Olds ~ PLA/ALSC, divisions of the American Library Association ~ Chicago, IL 60611

Vocabulary Learning - Don’t Dumb It Down

This post refers to certain words that we use when communicating with children. These words are not found in the dictionary or if they are we are not properly using them. Do they need to use the potty? Or do they need to go to the restroom? The primary definition for potty, chiefly used by the British (unless of course you are one of those “parents” speaking to a child), can be defined as trivial or of little importance. Yes, the second definition is a small pot for urination so I guess that makes sense if your child is still using the training “potty,” but otherwise, they are using a toilet - not a potty. How about “snacky?” I could not find that one in the dictionary.

Please do not misunderstand me or my point as I believe baby talk was cute and fun. It was even appropriate when my child was a baby and communication was limited. However, once children can effectively communicate and are learning to read, we should speak correctly (old habits are hard to break so don’t start them). Personally I think we are doing our children a disservice if we are not speaking correctly. Whether it is a restroom, toilet or potty - at some point you need to converse using the appropriate terminology.

My idea for this post originated from reading an article on the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) website discussing vocabulary learning. I was particularly drawn to the following statement, “Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language.”

Children learn vocabulary indirectly by engaging in conversations, listening to adults read to them, and reading on their own. The latter two methods are incorporated in most people’s evening bed time rituals or throughout the day. The one that interested me the most and triggered this post is the first one.

The NIFL article stated, “The more oral language experiences children have, the more word meanings they learn”. After reading that I decided to focus on teaching my children the correct word the first time! Aside for some minor terminology hiccups, I am pleased to write that I talk to both of my children like young adults and talk about almost anything. Of course some things are not up for an elaborate discussion at this point (e.g. Santa Claus and sex as my children are 5 ½ and 7 years old).

To conclude on a serious note, children learn words and their meanings by listening to adult’s converse or having a conversation with them. So with that being said, or read in your case, shouldn’t we teach our children to speak correctly? My immediate response is yes and yet five minutes ago I asked my daughter if she needed to go to the potty. I would prefer to say restroom, but as I wrote earlier, some habits are hard to break!

Mechanics of Learning to Read

Reading unlocks a lifetime of learning and opportunities. Learning to read is the single, most important step toward a successful future. This skill is best mastered when the parent or educator has a firm grasp of the mechanics involved in the reading process. A combination of phonemic awareness, word analysis, phonics and sight words are key principles that make the reading process both meaningful and manageable for young children.

Every word in the English language is made up of letters of the alphabet. Each letter or a combination of letters represents sounds of the spoken language. A child learns to associate the letters with the spoken word as well as comprehending the meaning of that word. This entire process is known as alphabetics and is at the foundation of the reading process. Alphabetics is taught and learned through several methods that include phonemic awareness, word analysis, phonics and sight words.

Phonemic awareness occurs when the young reader is able to identify phonemes in the spoken word. Phonemes are the smallest building blocks of spoken words and English has about 41. Phonemes join together to make syllables and words. In a similar manner, graphemes are written letters that represent phonemes. Together, the audible and the visible depiction of these sounds constitute the beginning of the reading process.

Word analysis is the next logical step with an important distinction. This stage has been described as phonics instruction, with a focus on the grapheme-phoneme, or letter-sound relationship. But this can sometimes narrow the reading instruction because of irregular words that don’t fit a precise pattern or the different possibilities of letter-sound relationships in varying contexts.

It’s at this point that the benefits of knowing sight words are seen. Sight word recognition and phonics are often taught together, since one fully complements the other. Sight words are words that a child can instantly recognize, read and speak. These words appear frequently in children’s books and learning them is a major step toward mastering the entire reading process.

Parents and educators rely on a variety of sight word lists – the two most prominent are the Dolch list, developed by Edward William Dolch in 1948, and the Fry list, generated by Edward B. Fry in 1996. Both men performed extensive research into the mechanics of reading. When a young student memorizes and is able to immediately identify these sight words, most of the written text becomes clearer to understand. That’s because sight words generally comprise more than half of all English text, and even more at the early elementary level.

Phonics is best taught alongside sight word recognition. There are several methods of phonics instruction, with each one having a definite purpose. Analytic phonics teaches children the visual and audible understanding of the letter-sound relationship after the word is identified. Using this method after the child has mastered sight words is especially productive.

Phonic in spelling helps a child use the sounds of the letters to write words. Contextual phonics demonstrates how to identify words within the context of a sentence or paragraph. With analogy phonics, young students use parts of words they already know to form and identify new words. Once again, this method works well after the child has successfully memorized a list of common sight words.

Reading involves a skillful manipulation and understanding of the combination of sounds, letters and their meanings. Through phonemic awareness, word analysis, phonics and sight words, a child is better able to grasp the concepts involved, which will result in an accelerated learning pace and greater comprehension.

Er-u-di-tion, the sight words game exposes children to the 26 English letters and their basic phonic sounds plus 284 sight words. Er-u-di-tion’s sight words include virtually the entire Dolch list and many of the Fry list. The game cards are categorized by difficulty level so more experienced readers can play with beginner readers.

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