Parents understand that learning to read and write are amongst the most important skills a child must learn and want their child to master these skills.

In the beginning the formal process of learning to read involves knowing how to crack or master a code. The English Alphabet Code.

Your child must understand that a word is made up of sounds that he or she has learned to make as a baby.

It is very important that you check your child can hear and speak these sounds.

Having your child’s hearing and sight checked before teaching them how to read is a really good idea.

Often young children learn the alphabet early, probably through the books you have shared, from television programs and even from family games.

Once your child understands that the letters of the Alphabet are symbols for the sounds in words they are ready to begin formally learning to read.

The English Alphabet is comprised of 26 letters written as capital letters (Upper Case) and small letters(Lower Case).

The English Alphabet Code is a little complicated because there are only 26 letters to spell (represent) around forty four sounds. This means that  two, three and sometimes four letters are used to spell one sound or sometimes a letter is used to spell a number of sounds.

 Learning these letter sound combinations can be easy if taken slowly and integrated with reading books. I must emphasise that cracking the Alphabet Code is only one aspect of learning to read.

Your child must learn to integrate a number of skills such as:

• understanding lots of words can’t be easily decoded or sounded out.
• reading for meaning by using the story and pictures.
• drawing on the general knowledge they have to add to the information from the text they are reading
• drawing on their knowledge of language. 

The best way to develop your child’s reading skill is to discuss topics and ask and answer questions. Encourage him or her to express ideas and opinions.

Play lots of games together.

Sharing good books with your child will be one of the greatest gifts you can give.

Future posts to this BLOG will be about the types of reading material suitable for the ages and stages young children pass through.

If you would like information about phonics (letter sound relationships) I have written an eBook outlining a systematic approach. This book outlines step by step the phonics knowledge your child needs to understand and provides downloadable activities that make learning fun.

Please go to www.superlearner.com.au to find out more.

I welcome any queries and questions you may have.

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Tags: kids learning, learn to read, phonics for kids, reading phonics

This entry was posted on October 3, 2009 at 7:01 PM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in phonics for kids by Marilyn Martyn No Comments Yet