Teaching your child to read & spell
Some children find learning to read and spell very difficult. They need multi-sensory and fun strategies that keep them engaged so that they are happy to repeat them regularly to reinforce learning.
I differentiate between solutions that teach reading and spelling and those that help children prepare for spelling tests. While the former will hopefully help children prepare for weekly spell tests, there are many solutions specifically designed to help learn the lists of words children are given. This will be handled in a separate section. See Preparing for Spell Tests.
Don’t wait!!!
Parents often receive well intentioned advice such as, “don’t worry your child is just a late developer.” Whilst I would agree you shouldn’t worry, I would advise you NOT to wait. The earlier the intervention, the better chance of catching up. Alternatively, they could fall further behind and then reducing the gap becomes even harder. Your child can only benefit from your support, so please don’t delay.
The earlier the intervention the better chance of catching up
Quick warning to parents
I need to warn parents that just because you find reading easy, doesn’t mean that you will find teaching a child to read straightforward.
The English language is extremely complicated, and for some, it is extremely difficult to learn to read. Teaching one’s own child how to recognise the 26 letters of the alphabet is a gross over simplification and will not be sufficient to overcome their difficulties with reading.
Thankfully, online training exists to help parents better understand all that is required when teaching children to read.
Get equipped to teach your child
I have pulled together some helpful resources for parents.
How Children Learn to Read – the Science of Reading by Sound
This amazingly comprehensive blog post by Marnie Ginsberg contains a wealth of information plus number of how to videos.
Helpful video for parents from Dyslexia Daily
Learn How to READ and SPELL helpful video if you want to help your child learn to read.
The speaker Liz Dunoon runs Dyslexia Daily https://www.dyslexiadaily.com/.
Dyslexia Daily sell a paid ‘ten minute a day’ solution but they also provide a lot of free resources on their YouTube channel. If you sign up to their email list, you will be informed when they are running offers.
Why phonemic awareness is so critical to teaching students to read
In this free webinar provided by Consortium on Reaching Excellence in Education - CORE, Dr.David Kilpatrick explains why phonemic awareness is so critical to teaching students to read. You must register to watch but I have not received any unwanted emails as a result. I’d be delighted if they did contact me with follow-up information.
Access the on-demand webinar here http://ow.ly/M6Z450wseqa.
Springboard - A Parent’s Little Guide to Helping Children Read
Dangers when teaching your children to read
Even if you are totally knowledgeable on how to teach a child to read, when it’s your own child, he/she can react differently to you and it can be more challenging.
Tutoring your own child can negatively impact family harmony.
Personally, I had three dyslexic children who needed my help at exactly the same time.
This is the reason why I personally opted to use technology (intervention solutions) rather than working directly with my own children all the time.
I found that the solution on the device became ‘the tutor’ and I remained ‘the mum’ who helped them to do the work the programme set for them. This helped to maintain family harmony and it was far more efficient, as it enabled me to work with my three children at the same time.
Another alternative is to find a qualified tutor. Unfortunately, in some areas demand is greater than supply.