Multisensory Reading Clinic

The Importance of the Early Years:

Preparing Your Child for Reading Success 

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​​What Does My Child Need to Know to Be Ready to Read, and What Can I Do to Help Him at Home?

 

Three necessary skills that your child needs to be ready to read:

1. Print Awareness - Knowing that we read words, not by looking at the pictures and guessing words.

2. Phonemic Awareness - Learning the sounds correctly and being able to manipulate the sounds.

3. Learning the Names of the Alphabet - Recognizing the names of the letters.

 

The first step is print awareness. You need to instill in your child that we read the words on the pages of books through the sounds of the language and not by looking at the pictures. Every time you read with and to your child, use your finger to track the words, paying attention to the sounds of the words so that he becomes aware that we are reading words in the text and not by looking at the pictures. Remember, we do not learn to read by looking at the pictures and guessing words.

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Phonemic awareness is the next step. Your child must learn the speech sounds correctly and be able to manipulate the sounds. If you know how to do it and he is old enough to learn it, you can even teach your child to connect the sounds properly so that he can start learning to read while continuously learning the other sounds; that is how we do it at Multisensory Reading Clinic. Our students have started learning to read during the first hour of their sessions, but we strongly suggest leaving this skill to the professionals or getting literacy training, as there are different levels on how to connect the sounds. However, it is possible for parents to teach the sounds correctly, and you might be able to teach your own child to read.

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Once your child has mastered the sounds, he is ready for the next level. The third step is learning the names of the alphabet. Why is it the third step? It could be at any step, but if the child is severely impaired, it is unnecessary during the early years of learning to read. We can start learning to read by just knowing the sounds correctly, even without knowledge of the names of the alphabet, because learning to read is not by knowing the letters but by sounds. The names of the letters are only useful in an advanced concept of literacy instruction. Furthermore, the names and sounds of the alphabet must be taught separately for most children because teaching them together creates confusion. You should be very careful when teaching them and should correct your child if he is confused about using them. For example, "h" is the name of the letter, while the sound of the letter "h" is /h/ (as in "hat").

 

How Helpful Are the Illustrations in Books for Literacy Acquisition?

 

After reading a page, you can examine the illustrations with your child before continuing to the next page for vocabulary development and background knowledge, such as learning the names of objects and what might happen next in the story that you are reading. You can ask: "Can you show me where the little bear is? How about the mama bear? Why do you think this is the little bear and not the mama bear?

 

What sound does the word 'bear' start with?"

1. Print Awareness - knowing that we read words, not by looking at the pictures and guessing words

2. Phonemic awareness -learning the sounds correctly and being able to manipulate the sounds

3. Learning the names of the alphabet. - recognizing the names of the letters

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to be continued...

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