Beginning Reading

Beginning reading instruction doesn't need to be scary. There are many programs available to parents each with different methodologies, activities, and lessons. Before you get started with one of these books (if you even decide to use one of these programs), here are a few strategies to remember.

1. Remember your response to your child's efforts will make a lasting impression on his or her future attitude about reading.

2. Be patient. Try to imagine yourself learning to read Chines. That's about what beginning reading may be like for your child.

3. The more encouraging and understanding you are, the more likely the day's reading instruction will be successful and the less likely a lesson will end with tears from all parties involved.

4. Remember, your ultimate goal when teaching beginning reading is to nurture a child who loves reading, not just one who can finish the worksheets.

Next you need to find a program that will guide you through the process.

As a teacher, I had a few children who learned to read using a strictly phonics based approach. I had a few others learn to read using a strict whole language (sight word) approach. Overall, a combination was the most effective.

Do you know if your child is a left brain or right brain learner?

This is one of those subjects that need to utilize the left AND the right brain. Learning to read is alot about timing. Children WILL NOT learn to read before their brain is ready. Many times the "reading" part of the right brain will develop first. Children will notice patterns in letters that make certain words. STOP is a great example of this. They first learn the word because they see it in association with the red octagon, and most children can recognize it in other situations as well. Teaching them to read STOP phonetically is challenging and usually happens several years later.

Children who read with their right hemisphere may only look at the first and final letter of a word and it's length to guess what the word is. They will see FRIEND and say FOUND or FLOOD. They might see the word DONWSTIARS and read it as DOWNSTAIRS without ever realizing it was misspelled.

Sight word reading (right brain activity) will often come first, but reading everything as a sight word is mentally exhausting and doesn't lend itself to good comprehension. It will need to be paired with phonetic and contextual awareness (a left brain activities) to be proficient. The reading center in the left brain and the connecting bridge-like pathway between the left and the right brain don't start developing until seven to nine years of age (some earlier, some later). It is this reading center in the left brain that allows children to match sounds to letters and enables them to sound out words phonetically. Now they can remember more accurately how words are spelled. Until this is developed, most reading should be limited to short "sight" reading material.

Once your child's left and right brain hemispheres can work together for reading, it still helps to understand their learning style. If you have a left brain learner, you will want to concentrate more on phonics. If your child is a right brain learner, the whole language approach with a sprinkling of phonics may be more effective.

Since children will require some phonics instruction even if they are right brain thinkers. All About Spelling has produced a series of "Bee Hive" beginning readers that fit hand in hand with their phonics based spelling program. You might want to check it out. It came out after my kids had finished beginning reading, so we didn't use it personally, but if it's anything like the spelling program it's worth a look!

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