5 PROVEN WAYS TO KICKSTART READING AND SPELLING IN YOUR CHILD

How can you as a parent enable your child to become a Pro reader and speller with ease?This means literacy with less struggles,without tears or expensive tutors.

According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Centre for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and author of Proust and the Squid:The Story and Science of the Reading Brain” A sentence is shorthand for a lot of information that must be inferred by the brain.We are forced to construct, to produce narrative to imagine”

According to statistics ,8 out of every child struggles to read.Although,it is  generally agreed that literacy is the road map to a brighter future but a gap still exist in the disssemination of knowledge in this regard.This is simply because poor reading and literacy skills will tend to lead to lost of opportunities,less achievement or under achievement in life.

As a parent, reading was a challenge for my second daughter.I had to device easier and fun ways to improve her literacy skills.

It is without a doubt many parents and tutors struggle to teach sight words to encourage reading capabilities in their students.However, it doesn’t appear the children are able to read unfamiliar or never seen before words or worse.

Why should such a fundamental and necessary skill become so difficult and frightening for these great minds?This beats me till date.

Well, here is the missing piece I adopted to get my 5 year old daughter on a clear and excellent path to literacy and spellings......

It’s called phonemic Awareness.....

This is the misssing piece most teachers, parents are lacking in effectively teaching literacy efficiently to their students without struggles.

So what is Phonemic awareness?This is basically the sounds in spoken words.It is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds of the language.

Teaching reading and spelling skills is not only of advantage to all beginning but struggling readers alike.It is the bedrock of reading and spelling fluently.

Did you know learning to hear is the first step to learning to read?If a child cannot or doesn’t understand the basic phonic sound of all alphabet, then it will be impossible for such a student to read or spell words correctly or accurately.

A visit to my sister in the United Kingdom gave me a great dissatisfaction in the way her 5 year old was been taught how to read.The poor girl is saddled with responsibilities of memorizing some common sight words instead of teaching the sounds each letter of the alphabet makes?

As expected, the child still struggles with literacy.

Teaching patterns or techniques adopted in the child developmental phase is very crucial.Small steps can make a whole world of difference.Though it could be bumpy, persistence is the key to achieving great success.

The simpliest and easiest method to teach reading and spelling skills is by the phonemic awareness and phonic sounds.

While phonics involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols,phonemic awareness is sounds in spoken words.

All 26 letters of the alphabet makes a sound.Get the children conversant and knowledgeable about each sound of the alphabet.

E.g to blend the word CAT......

C makes its sound Cooo, A says aaahhh,,  T says Taaa.Combining the letters together gives Cat.

D...O..G..

E...G...G...

S...U...N

P...O...T

Therefore, teaching using this method is quite effective and makes it easy to read simple sentences and as they progress, complex sentences are introduced and that way they are able to effortlessly spell bigger words.

Without knowing the letter sounds, children will continually struggle with reading and spelling out the words.

There are tremendous benefits linked to reading ...

Firstly such as  improving vocabulary:These exposes them to many new words that they might otherwise not come across in their day  to day activities or in school.

Secondly,they have a clear understanding of context of words.They are exposed to the different ways a word or words can be used.

Thirdly, spending quality time reading helps increases or promotes a longer period of concentration.To cultivate longer periods of concentration,books are the perfection medium.

Fourthly, a new skill can be learnt via reading which is less stressful than a school environment thereby encouraging more active learning.

Finally, Reading is a mental activity that helps our children keep their memory sharp,ability to remember facts and details is high,they are able to recreate a mental picture or physical picture of such an event.

In addition, they are able to tell their own stories in a fun loving and creative way.Every author began as a child.

Example: How many sounds do you hear in the word BIG?

                 Which of these words has the same beginning sound

                JUG, GIG, JET.

Kindly note that blending and segmentation are the two phonemic awareness skills that greatly impacts on reading and spelling.

I will be continuing from here next time.

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