6 Ways to Encourage Your Toddler to Read That Don't Involve Singing the ABCs
As parents, we walk a tightrope every day. While we want our kids
to learn important skills, it's difficult to establish a balance between doing
too much and not enough.
My mum, who taught a variety ofgrades, likes to tell me a story about taking me to the zoo when I was a kid.
She kept trying to get me to describe the animals and colours, and
I requested: "Can't you just stop being a teacher and let me just have
fun?"
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When it feels like drills, it
stops being engaging and children don't feel invested in the activity.
Essentially, when it becomes a chore, they no longer want to participate.
Reading is one of those
obviously necessary parts of early education, but it's hard to know how to best
prepare kids. While, yes, drills and flash cards work, as does phonetics, for
many children, this type of environment may not be conducive to learning.
Having taught literacy and
literacy intervention strategies for many years, I'm confident that encouraging
reading is about so much more than flash cards and word games. Here are some
simple strategies to get your kid to not only read but love it, too.
1. Read with them as often
as possible.
One of the literacy proficiency
tests kids take in kindergarten is to see whether or not a child knows how to
hold a book, turn the pages, and identify some words.
This basic skill, including
knowing which way is up and reading from left to right, can be picked up by
frequent exposure to books.
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2. Begin to point out
words in books and in life.
Simple activities like grocery
shopping are a great way to sneak in some low-key reading. As you grab
ingredients off the shelf, point out some basic words.
These sight words help children
establish the relationship between words and objects and that those squiggly
lines actually mean something.
3. Use a children's dictionary.
If your child is one of those
who constantly asks "why?" or "what's that?," then they
might get a kick out of an illustrated children's dictionary.
If a kid asks what something
is, this is a great way to begin teaching them to look something up. Talk your
way through the actions, skimming past the other letters and reading the
definition in the book for them.
4. Think aloud when
reading to them.
I'll be honest, this is
probably the most difficult task because it's not entirely natural. When we
read something, many of us ask questions in our heads and make little
exclamations.
The trick with this strategy is
to say those things aloud as you go, allowing children to think analytically
and encourage their buy-in with the text.
Even a simple book like Eric
Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar is perfect for this technique. "Huh, I
wonder why he's so hungry?" and "That sure looks yummy, I like ice
cream, too," are simple enough phrases that will help children enjoy
reading.
5. Letter identification
is more important than knowing the alphabet.
While it is adorable to hear a
3-year-old sing the alphabet, that's not a skill that's going to help kids
read. It's more important that children know what sound each letter makes, be
able to identify them, and maybe think of a couple words that start with that
letter.
This can be taught by
encouraging children to play with letters as often as possible.
Blocks, magnets, drawing, and
other phonetic toys are great ways to encourage this skill.
6. It's important that
they see you read.
It doesn't matter what you
read, one of the biggest indicators that a child will be comfortable with
reading is seeing their parents do it. Study after study supports this.
So, making family reading time,
even if the kids are just thumbing through picture books, is a vital part of
their education.
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