Three Ways to Teach Your Child to Read

When your child knows some vocabulary, is interested in pictures as well as in words, it may be time to start teaching your child to read. There are three stages: lap reading, shared reading, and paired reading.

Lap Reading

You can successfully teach your child reading by interacting with him or her. Just like teaching your child to walk and to talk, you have to motivate him or her. To please the parents is not enough; even pictures in books do not necessarily make the print look interesting. Your child must learn to appreciate the rewards of reading in order to work at learning it. Your child must realize that books provide pleasure: that people and things can be shown in pictures, that pictures can be read and talked about, and that pictures can both illustrate and tell stories. Besides creating an intellectually stimulating learning environment, you must above all be very patient when you are actually teaching your child to read.

Have your child on your lap.

Read  the  book  with  as  much  dramatic  expression  as is appropriate to the text.

Do not slow down by pointing to each word as it is said; the finger should move along under the sentence as it is read.

Occasionally, induce your child to read the words you have omitted. If your child does not recognize a word, help him or her get the right sound by telling your child to look at the first sound or at the part of the word that he or she already knows.

If your child does not know the meaning of a word, help him or her select the correct clue to get the meaning by discussing the context with him or her, by looking for other context clues, by making your child read on to the end of the sentence, or by re-reading the sentence.

The first storybooks should have big pictures and a small amount of text. These books are for reading through, not just being looked at and talked through. Of course, the story, its characters and events, and the pictures will be discussed, but reading the story itself is the essence of reading experience.

The choice of the first storybooks for lap reading should be based on the following criteria:

The stories should be popular or well known, for example, Cinderella, Snow White, or Pinocchio.

The stories should be short—preferably finished in one short session.

The illustration should be vivid and appealing.

The language should be appropriate for reading aloud.

The stories should contain some of the eternal virtues and vices, such as courage and cowardice, life and death, honesty and falsehood.

Shared Reading

As your child grow older and as his or her interest in books increases, lap reading soon gives way to shared reading. You know your child is ready for shared reading when he or she enjoys looking at books with you and enjoys your reading to him or her. Although lap reading is gradually replaced by shared  reading, the interaction in lap reading, however, should continue; reading and playing language games should remain the primary concern.

The ideal book to begin shared reading is one that is well within your child's ability to understand. Very often, your child's favorite book, which he or she has read many times and which he or she virtually knows by heart, serves that purpose.

Sit side by side with your child.

Introduce the book to him or her: the background, the events, and the character.

Read the text, running a finger under the lines of print.

Occasionally, pause for your child to provide the next word or phrase. “We’ll play a game. When I stop, you tell me what you think comes next!”

Encourage your child to watch your fingers and “follow the story” by holding his or her hand to point along the line of print.

The aim of shared reading is to encourage your child to become attentive to the text and familiar with scanning it from left to right. To establish the association between print and language, pause occasionally to ask, “What do you think will happen next?” Encourage your child to ask about the story and the way it is developing. Shared reading, involving your child’s active participation, makes him or her realize that print gives meaning and guessing gives sense.

Ask your child to read aloud, pointing to each word. At first, your child may go too quickly for the finger. Make your child slow down and coordinate what he or she says with where his or her finger is.

Ask your child to look for words so that he or she becomes familiar with the physical appearance of letters on a page.

Introduce new words that your child has never seen before and ask him or her to find them on the page.

Teach your child new words, especially those words that are different in the way they are pronounced and the way they are written. Sounding out those words can be challenging for a beginning reader.

Place the “sentence game” with your child. That teaches him or her to rely on his or her semantic and syntactic predictions. Your child has already learned to use such predictions in his or her understanding and production of speech. Here, your child can now apply that to reading.

Paired Reading

Paired reading takes place when you and your child read together with your finger running the line of print. It is learning to read reading. The main objective of paired reading is to enable your child to become an independent reader without experiencing failure.

Select a suitable book, which interests your child. 

Introduce the book to your child: the story, the characters, the background and the pictures.

Give your child the message: “First, I’ll read—you follow the story as I read.”

Read the book for one minute or two with finger running under the print.

Then ask your child  to read with you, “Now you read it with me and let’s see how we go.”

Praise your child for his or her efforts. “Let’s try it again. It sounds as if you can read it as well as I do.” Read the passage again, and pause a couple of times for your child to provide the next word or phrase. If your child makes mistakes or fails to supply the word or phrase, simply supply the correct word or phrase and carry on reading.

   “This time I’ll start you off, and then you will carry on reading, won’t you?” Read the first few words with your child, and then let him or her read the same passage aloud alone, supporting them if necessary. Praise them afterwards for trying and for reading so well.

Encourage your child to read aloud with confidence and clarity. The strategies for reading with confidence are as follows:

The  stories  should  be  short—preferably  finished  in  one  short session.

Set a good example by expressive speech and clear articulation.

Do not interpret your child’s speeches—that would unwittingly encourage this or her murmuring and mumbling; instead, say, “Sorry, I didn’t hear that. What did you say? Come again!”

Teach your child to read silently ahead before looking up and saying what he or she has just read.

Encourage your child to look at people when speaking to them and looking up when reading aloud, that is, good posture with head up and slightly back at all times.

Give your child a good model for copying.

  

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau