How to teach your child to read

WorldNetDaily ^ | December 15, 2003 | Vox Day

[Tribune7]

An estimated 22 percent of Americans are considered functionally illiterate. SAT scores have dropped so low that the test was rejiggered. Huge percentages of children are failing the oft-mandated reading comprehension tests despite the low scores required to pass them.

But it is no mystery to me why so many children have a difficult time learning how to read. Unlike the vast majority of Americans, I have adult experience in learning how to read using competing whole-word and phonetic systems.

Japanese features three reading systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are both phonetic syllabaries, wherein each of the 46 symbols equates to one phonic. Kanji, on the other hand, is a whole-word system wherein one pictograph or combination of pictographs equals at least one word.

I mastered both kanas in about six weeks. After six months, however, I only had about 250 kanji down, less than 1 percent of the approximately 50,000 total, and not quite 8 percent of the 3,000 required to be newspaper-literate. It proved to be too arduous a task, and I finally gave up.

From this experience, I conclude there is simply no comparison – if you want to teach a child to read, you must use phonics, not whole language or sight reading or whatever they're calling it now.

Nor is it difficult to teach a child to read if you use phonics. A computer with Impress or Powerpoint is ideal, but paper flashcards will also suffice. Here's how to do it:

1. Create two slideshows, one consisting of the small letters of the alphabet, one in capitals. Use Times New Roman fontsize 200 to help them get used to serif characters. Run through each twice every day. Once they have mastered an alphabet, randomize the slides. Don't move onto the next step until they are reliably perfect with a random slideshow. You can begin doing this pretty much anytime after the second birthday.

2. Create a slideshow of base phonics, one for each letter. Add a clipart picture of an animal for each letter. Run through it twice every day, saying b – buh – bear and e – eh – elephant and having them repeat it. Once they know them all, drop the letter – just say the phonic – and also randomize it to confirm their mastery before moving on.

3. Create a slideshow of around 50 combination phonics. CA as in cat, DO as in dog and so on. It may take a while before the light bulb goes off on this concept, so don't be impatient. They will determine the speed of progress, not you.

4. Create a slideshow of simple three-letter words. C-A-T. D-O-G. At the same time, create a slideshow of all 200 English phonics and begin running through them. Be prepared for some skepticism regarding the "silent gh."

5. Buy Bob Books A1 and begin having the child read them to you. They start out very simple and get progressively more difficult.

This process works very well. In one year, I have seen a 3-year-old go from reading a page consisting of "Mat sat" to: "'Thank you, Mouse,' Toad gratefully said. 'No problem,' said Mouse, as the two went into the house. 'I am always happy to help a toad across the road!'" (Bob Books C1 "The Visit")

The entire process never takes more than 15 minutes a day, and can be used for any language. Some languages, like Italian, are even easier for the children, as there are fewer phonetic irregularities than in English. If you're interested in classics, it's very easy to teach them to read Greek at this time, since to them all the symbols are equally meaningless. They don't know that they're supposed to believe that zeta or pi is strange – although for some reason, the children I've been teaching find tremendous humor in upsilon, and the whole notion of two sigmas is downright hilarious.

Of course, you can always wait two or three years and hope your child will pick up reading through osmosis and mass whole-language drill.

There is a potential downside to teaching your child to read this way, of course. Seeing the profound intellectual development of your child in comparison with his peers may cause you to wonder if it makes any sense to place him in a classroom where everyone is several years behind him.

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For links on where to find the resources mentioned here, visit Vox Popoli.

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[Tribune7]

For any homeschoolers

[Pete]

Here is what we did. We starting reading Dr. Seuss' ABC book to our daughter when she was a about 14 months old (Not to try to get her to read but because it was her favorite). By the time she was 18 months old, she knew the alphabet. When she was 2 we moved on to Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop. A few months before her 3rd birthday, she was reading 3 letter words - like pop, top, dog, etc. At 3 1/2 she was reading 1st grade readers. Then, at about 4 1/2, within a span of a month, she was reading at a 4th grade level. Something must have just clicked. She never looked back. We homeschool and we were sure to cover phonics in her schooling, even though she could read, just to make sure.

She was the first of four. All the rest knew their ABCs at 18 months. The second was reading at 4. The third is reading 3 letter words now at 4. The baby, 2 1/2, has known her ABCs for a while and we are starting Hop on Pop.

Number one thing? Read to your kids!!!

[EuroFrog]

Hooked on Phonics works great.

[expatpat]

Both my daughters learned to read merely by sitting on my lap as I/we read childrens books (no methodology). Oddly, one child clearly learned to read by whole-word recognition, the other phonetically. The first one learned to read faster, but had trouble with words she hadn't encountered before, while the second had no such trouble.

[Gabz]

Number one thing? Read to your kids!!!

And number two - let them read to you.

One of the things our 5yo loves to read are the directions on packages or recipes when I'm fixing dinner - or anything else for that matter. So in addition to practicing her reading she is learning abbreviations and measurements.

[thesummerwind]

yes.......yes

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Vox Day.

Although this article appears to be the exception, it seems to me that they could find someone with a little more intelligence to write is column which is included to add appeal to the Gen X-ers. ;->

But even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn, which is the catagory in which this article falls.

Their other young author Kyle Williams is exceptional, however...

[I got the rope]

BTTT.

[twigs]

That's the reason I believe in using both phonetics and whole-word recognition in teaching children to read. Each works better for different children and I suspect that most children learn to read using both.

[ChocChipCookie]

Spalding is another great reading/writing system.

[July 4th]

I completely agree with the phonics approach. In my family, I was the last one to learn phonics in the public schools - afterwards, my younger sisters were taught with other methods. Their futures have been compromised because of those sub-standard methods.

[Diamond]

How to teach your child to read

I'm lazy. I did have to teach the first one (at a very early age) but after that I had him teach the others (which they also learned very early ages:^)

Cordially,

[Eva]

This is really bad advice because it assumes that there is only one style of learning. Visual learners do better with the sight method and auditory learners do better with the phonics. Some types of dyslexia preclude a child from learning phonics at all, and this is where the problem comes in for auditory learners who have dyslexia and attention deficit. Often times dyslexia can go undiagnosed in children with high IQ.

It would be far better to state that this is one method that seems to work for many people, but may not be the answer for everyone. There is no one size fits all method of teaching.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

We homeschool and we were sure to cover phonics in her schooling, even though she could read, just to make sure.

You almost have to homeschool bright kids. Otherwise they get bored with the dumbed down govt. school curriculum and often times act up.

[ChewedGum]

This is the way to do it. We have some early reading curriculum which basically does the same thing. With very minimal effort, my 4 year old can read most 3 letter words now. We also have some 8 page books which she can read by herself (all short words).

My favorite was when the sentence was about a bug, but she thought the picture was of an ant. She saw that the word started with "B" but wanted to say "ant". So she read it as "Bant".

Gum

[meow]

Good point, and exactly correct - teaching kids to memorise words doesn't work, and I can use myself as an example. Memorising words was how we were taught to read in the American schools I went to, but when my father was transferred overseas, the school I had to attend there used the phonetic system and I was caught up and advanced in no time - although I started out at the bottom of the class.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Holy cow... I'm a visual learner who also has attention deficit (self diagnosed, of course). No wonder I can't read!

Will someone please start a Free Republic, in pictures only, mirror site? Discussion only through posting pictures.

[biblewonk]

As a homeschooler of 8 I've learned that it is literally easier to teach a child to read than to teach them to do the dishes. What does this tell you about the public school system?

[Constitution Day]

BUMP.

[Lady Eileen]

Bump and thanks for the post.