For some children, learning to read can be difficult. As a parent, you may become concerned if your child has not mastered the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet by the first half of first grade. It may be helpful to discuss these concerns with your child's teacher. Keep in mind that just as children learn to walk and talk at different ages, they also learn to read at different ages. Children also learn to read in different ways.

Some children, for example, seem to pay more attention to how language sounds and the differences created by different letters and letter combinations. Others seem to remember the whole word or phrase all at once, as if they took a mental picture of the word. Some children have great difficulty isolating the various sounds in words or blending the sounds of letters together to form a word. Others have trouble remembering the way a word looks from one time to the next, even on the same page!

As a parent, you are in a good position to help your child learn to read. With some children, the process requires extreme patience. Young children may respond best to short practice sessions that are conducted at a regular time each day. Fifteen to twenty minutes of your undivided attention can demonstrate to your child that learning to read is important to you. If you have trouble working with a child because of resistance, it may be helpful to find someone to work with your child who is less involved emotionally.

Learning to Read Involves Taking a Risk

Initially, reading is a process of trial and error for children. They may guess a word to see if it makes sense in a sentence, using letter sounds as clues. However, some children may be too fearful to risk making a guess. Others may not have a sufficient grasp of letter-to-sound correspondence, or they may be limited in their use of the language.

Children who do not master these basics by the middle of first grade often notice that they are behind their peers in reading performance. Unfortunately, they may become self-conscious of their delays and begin to see themselves as non-readers. If they acquire a non-reader image of themselves, they may become less inclined to "take a guess" about words while reading aloud or working alone, for fear that they may make a mistake.

Rereading Selections for Confidence

Children who are less confident readers may benefit from reading short books or stories with which they are already familiar. Rereading books is not a waste of time. Rather, it can provide children with a sense of confidence in their reading ability and contribute to their fluency as readers (Kemp, 1992). It also helps them to master a basic sight word vocabulary (e.g., and, the, for, by, and with).

In some cases, it may appear to you that the child has merely memorized a book and is not really "reading" the material. However, this memorization serves as a bridge for the child from the spoken word to the printed word. You might assist the child who has memorized a story by asking her to slow down and point to each word as it is said out loud. You might also say a word in the "memorized" text and ask the child to locate it.

Often children who are struggling with a word are asked to "sound it out." This can be a laborious process. It may disrupt the flow of reading so that the child loses his train of thought or the natural spoken rhythm of the sentence. It is often more helpful if you simply supply the unknown word for the child. However, if the child is rereading a passage, already knows the context, and stumbles on a word, taking the time to notice the letter sounds of the unknown word can be a good practice for improving reading ability.

Phonics or Whole Language

The two most common approaches used by schools for reading instruction are phonics and whole language. Learning to read with phonics involves specific skills, particularly being able to isolate and then blend together the sounds of letters and letter clusters. Learning to read with whole language involves all four processes of language learning: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In whole language instruction, children try to write what they can say, and then read it back to an adult. They may use invented spelling to write what they hear. Invented spelling can be a bridge for children to correct spelling and has not been shown to deter learning to spell correctly later on.

Educators are beginning to recognize the value of both approaches in teaching young children to read. A recent article in Education Week, for example, talks about using key elements of both approaches. (Go to Education's Week's home page at http://www.edweek.org/. Select the "archives" section and complete a search using the term "reading wars." The first article in the list, "3/25/98 - News: NRC Panel Urges End to Reading Wars," is the mentioned article.) The experts are beginning to suggest that it is probably best not to limit children's access to only one approach (Anderson & Fordham, 1991; Michel, 1994). More than likely, children will respond best to the approach that is most suited to their way of learning.

Tips for Parents in Helping Beginning Readers

Learning Sounds in Context

Some children are able to hear and see spelling patterns in words easily: The cat sat on the mat. The pig has on a wig. They may enjoy making lists of "word families"(make, take, lake, fake, rake). To avoid boring repetition, it is a good idea to take this method a step further and have your child make up more meaningful sentences with the words. It is helpful for children to work with the sounds of words in context (Lapp & Flood, 1997).

Phonics instruction can be taken from words in a sentence that is meaningful for the child. For example, if the child is rereading a familiar story, you might ask the child to pick out several words that begin with the same sound as birthday. In this way the child is asked to match the beginning sounds of familiar words, rather than to isolate the sound of "b."

This same technique can be used with ending sounds as well. Reading poetry out loud to children is one of the best ways to help them become aware of matching sounds in words. After they are able to identify rhyming words in two lines of poetry, they may be ready to attend to the similarities in spelling patterns. Children's poetry offers a playful and rich context for children to become more familiar with the connections between sounds and letters, and can offer a reason for repetitions which themselves are less monotonous. Ultimately, phonics serves as only one part of a total reading program in which meaning for the reader is an essential part of all reading instruction (Artley, 1996).

Learning Lists of Sight Words

If the child has a long list of words to learn to read, it may be best to break down the list into sections (Smith, 1991). For example, it may help to transfer the words to index cards, lay the cards out on the floor, and have the child pick up the cards she is able to read. Sometimes children prefer to make their own word cards to read along with the ones assigned by the teacher. For example, monster, race car, or dolly might be added to a list of am, was, be, and saw.

Sometimes it helps for you and your child to alternate lists or pages when reading orally, especially if the selection is long. Children enjoy "catching" your mistakes if you forewarn them that you might make one. It is also helpful for you to read to children on a regular basis and to be seen by your child in the act of reading (Landsberg, 1992).

Keeping a Journal

One way to help children learn to read is to write (with the child) a few short sentences each day in a journal. It is most effective when the child dictates to you what to write down. Next the child copies what you wrote and then illustrates the short "story." For example:

We had pizza for dinner. It was hot. Dad ate three pieces.

My dog is brown. His name is Rex. He barks at the mailman.

Mom likes to sew. She is sewing a dress for me. It is blue.

My brother plays the piano. Sometimes I sing with him.

Each time you and the child write together, the child is encouraged to review and reread some of the previous entries. The picture that the child draws will become a reminder of what the text says. In this way the child becomes familiar with common words that reappear frequently in reading (such as is, am, did, had, or it). She will begin to remember these words because of their frequent reoccurrence in natural speech. This method helps keep the repetition needed to remember these words from becoming monotonous or artificial.

Conclusion

Like other important learning tasks, learning to read takes persistence and patience, and some children require more than others. Keep in mind that we want not only for children to learn reading skills, but also, at the same time, to develop the disposition to be readers. Excessive pressures may damage that disposition. Children who do not learn to read as early or as rapidly as their peers might be helped most by a caring parent's patient encouragement and frequent practice. Children often benefit from review and repetitions of reading material they have mastered. It may help them to build a sense of confidence in themselves as readers.

Sources

Anderson, W., & Fordham, A. (1991). Issues in education: Beware of "magic" phonics programs. Childhood Education, 68(1), 8-9.

Artley, A. (1996). Controversial issues relating to word perception. Reading Teacher, 50(1), 10-13.

Kemp, M. (1992). There's more to listening than meets the ear: Interactions between oral readers and their parents as tutors. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 39(3), 197-223.

Landsberg, M. (1992). First encounters: Books to encourage the beginning reader. American Educator: The Professional Journal of the American Federation of Teachers, 16(1), 34-40.

Lapp, D. & Flood, J. (1997). Where's the phonics? Making the case (again) for integrated code instruction (point-counterpoint). Reading Teacher, 50(8), 696-698.

Michel, P. (1994). The child's view of reading: Understandings for teachers and parents. Old Tappan, NJ: Allyn & Bacon.

Smith, C. (1991). Help your child read and succeed: A parent's guide. Bloomington, IN: Grayson Bernard.