4/20/2019 3 Methods of teaching reading to children

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3 Methods for teaching reading

Submitted by Meredith Cicerchia on Thu, 11/16/2017 - 00:18

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Learning how to read is one of the most important things a child will do before
the age of 10. That’s because everything from vocabulary growth to performance
across all major subjects at school is linked to reading ability. The Phonics
Method teaches children to pair sounds with letters and blend them together to
master the skill of decoding.

The Whole word Approach teaches kids to read by sight and relies upon
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The Whole-word Approach teaches kids to read by sight and relies upon
memorization via repeat exposure to the written form of a word paired with an Login
image and an audio. The goal of the Language Experience Method is to teach  
children to read words that are meaningful to them. Vocabulary can then be
combined to create stories that the child relates to. Yet while there are various
approaches to reading instruction, some work better than others for children
who struggle with learning difficulties. 

The most common kind of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, causes individuals to

have trouble hearing the sounds that make up words. This makes it difficult for
them to sound out words in reading and to spell correctly. Dyslexic learners may
therefore benefit from a method that teaches whole-word reading and de-
emphasizes the decoding process.

Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach that has been particularly effective

for dyslexic children. It combines visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning
to teach a program of English phonics, allowing children to proceed at a pace
that suits them and their ability.

No two students will learn to read in exactly the same way, thus remaining
flexible in your approach is key. It can be useful to combine methods, teach
strategies and provide the right classroom accommodations, particularly for
students who have specific learning differences.  Remember that motivation is
key and try to be patient so as to avoid introducing any negative associations
with school and learning.

Learn more about motivating children to read (/motivating-kids-to-read), different

kinds of dyslexia (/different-types-of-dyslexia), identifying dyslexia (/identifying-
dyslexia), the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading (/orton-gillingham-reading-
instruction), and strategies to help children with dyslexia (/teaching-students-with-
dyslexia) in these posts.

Pre-literacy skills
Children begin acquiring the skills they need to master reading from the moment
they are born. In fact, an infant as young as six months old can already
distinguish between the sounds of his or her mother tongue and a foreign
language and by the age of 2 has mastered enough native phonemes to
regularly produce 50+ words. Between the ages of 2-3 many children learn to
recognize a handful of letters.
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They may enjoy singing the alphabet song and reciting nursery rhymes, which Login
helps them develop awareness of the different sounds that make-up English
 
words. As fine motor skills advance, so does the ability to write, draw and copy
shapes, which eventually can be combined to form letters.

There are plenty of ways parents can encourage pre-literacy skills in children,
including pointing out letters, providing ample opportunities for playing with
language, and fostering an interest in books. It can be helpful to ask a child
about their day and talk through routines to assist with the development of
narrative skills.

Visit your local library and bookstore as often as possible. The more kids read
with their parents, teachers and caregivers, the more books become a familiar
and favourite pastime. Young children should be encouraged to participate in
reading by identifying the pictures they recognize and turning the pages.

Discover more about fostering pre-literacy skills (/6-early-literacy-skills).

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1. The Phonics Method

The smallest word-part that carries meaning is a phoneme. While we typically
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think of letters as the building blocks of language

(http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics), phonemes are the basic Login

units of spoken language. In an alphabetic language like English, sounds are 

translated into letters and letter combinations in order to represent words on the
page. Reading thus relies on an individual’s ability to decode words into a series
of sounds. Encoding is the opposite process and is how we spell.
 
The Phonics Method is concerned with helping a child learn how to break words
down into sounds, translate sounds into letters and combine letters to form new
words. Phonemes and their corresponding letters may be taught based on their
frequency in English words. Overall there are 40 English phonemes to master
and different programs take different approaches to teaching them. Some
materials introduce word families with rhyming words grouped together. It’s also
possible to teach similarly shaped letters or similar sounding letters together.
 
The Phonics Method is one of the most popular and commonly used methods. In
the beginning progress may be slow and reading out loud halting, but eventually
the cognitive processes involved in translating between letters and sounds are
automatized and become more fluent. However, English is not always spelled the
way it sounds. This means some words can’t be sounded out and need to be
learned through memorization.

2. The Whole-word Approach

This method teaches reading at the word level
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_language). Because it skips the decoding
process, students are not sounding out words but rather learning to say the word
by recognizing its written form. Context is important and providing images can
help. Familiar words may initially be presented on their own, then in short
sentences and eventually in longer sentences. As their vocabulary grows,
children begin to extract rules and patterns that they can use to read new words.
 
Reading via this method is an automatic process and is sometimes called sight-
reading. After many exposures to a word children will sight-read the majority of
the vocabulary they encounter, only sounding out unfamiliar terms.
 
Sight-reading is faster and facilitates reading comprehension because it frees up
cognitive attention for processing new words. That’s why it is often
recommended that children learn to read high frequency English vocabulary in
this way. The Dolch word list is a set of terms that make-up 50-75% of the
vocabulary in English children’s books.
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y g
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Learn more about teaching sight-reading (/teaching-sight-words) and the Dolch List
 
(/blog/what-are-dolch-words).

3. The Language Experience Method

Learning to read nonsense words in a black-and-white activity book is not always
the most effective approach. The Language Experience Method of teaching
reading is grounded in personalized learning where the words taught are
different for every child. The idea is that learning words that the child is already
familiar with will be easier.

Teachers and parents can then create unique stories that use a child’s preferred
words in different configurations. Children can draw pictures that go with them
and put them together in a folder to create a special reading book. You can look
for these words in regular children’s fiction and use them to guess at the
meaning of unknown words met in a context – an important comprehension
strategy that will serve kids in later grades.

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Tips for parents

No matter which method or methods you use keep these tips in mind:
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No matter which method or methods you use, keep these tips in mind:
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1. Read as often as possible. Develop a routine where you read a book
 
together in the morning or in the evening. You may start by reading aloud but
have the child participate by running a finger along the text. Make reading
fun, include older children and reserve some family reading time where
everyone sits together with their own book to read for half an hour—adults
included!

2. Begin with reading material that the child is interested in. If he or she has a
favourite subject, find a book full of related vocabulary to boost motivation. 

3. Let the child choose his or her own book. When an individual has agency
and can determine how the learning process goes, he or she is more likely to
participate. Take children to libraries or bookstores and encourage them to
explore books and decide what they would like to read. 

4. Consider graded readers. As a child develops his or her reading ability, you
will want to increase the challenge of books moving from materials that
present one word per page to longer and longer sentences, and eventually
paragraph level text. If you’re not sure a book is at the right level for your
child, try counting how many unfamiliar words it contains per page. You can
also take the opposite approach and check to see how many Dolch words
are present.

5. Talk about what you see on the page. Use books as a way to spur
conversation around a topic and boost vocabulary by learning to read words
that are pictured but not written. You can keep a special journal where you
keep a record of the new words. They will be easier to remember because
they are connected through the story.

6. Avoid comparisons with peers. Every child learns to read at his or her own
pace. Reading is a personal and individual experience where a child makes
meaning and learns more about how narrative works as he or she develops
stronger skills.

7. Don’t put too much pressure. Forcing a child into reading when he or she is
not ready can result in negative reactions and cause more harm than good. 

8. Do speak with your child’s teacher. If your child doesn’t enjoy reading and
struggles with decoding and/or sight reading it may be due to a specific
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struggles with decoding and/or sight reading, it may be due to a specific
learning difficulty. It’s advised you first discuss it with your child’s teacher Login
who may recommend an assessment by a specialist.
 

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Learning difficulties
If reading is particularly challenging and your child isn’t making progress there
could be a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or ADHD that is causing
the problem. Conditions like dyslexia are hereditary and it’s not unlikely that
another family member will also have a hard time with reading (/my-child-has-
dyslexia). Visual processing, visual impairment and hearing impairment can also
cause reading difficulties.

In the case of the latter, if you can’t hear the words it’s hard to identify the sounds
inside them and develop an understanding of phonics. Hearing impairment
based reading difficulties are a common issue in teaching children with Down
syndrome (/teaching-children-with-down-syndrome-to-read) to read.

Orton-Gillingham
Orton-Gillingham is an approach designed to help struggling readers. It’s based
on the work of Dr. Samuel Orton and Dr. Anna Gillingham and has been in use for
the past 80+ years Orton Gillingham allows every child to proceed at a pace that
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the past 80+ years. Orton-Gillingham allows every child to proceed at a pace that
is right for him or her and introduces English phonics in a multi-sensory way. Login
 
For example, children may see a letter combination, say it aloud and trace it in
the air with their finger. Rich sensory experiences help to enhance learning and
can be provided using different materials like drawing in sand, dirt, shaving
cream or chocolate pudding. Children may form letters using their hands or
move in a rhythmic way that mimics the syllables in a word. Singing, dancing, art
activities (https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/kids-stories) and plenty of
repetition develop reading skills.

Learn more in this post on taking a multi-sensory approach to reading (/multi-

sensory-approach-to-reading).

Touch-typing and multi-sensory reading

TTRS is a touch-typing program that follows the Orton-Gillingham approach and
teaches reading in a multi-sensory way. Children see a word on the screen, hear
it read aloud and type it. They use muscle memory in the fingers to remember
spelling – which is particularly important for children who have dyslexia-- and
practice with a set curriculum of high frequency words that builds English
phonics knowledge and decoding skills. Learning happens via bite-size modules
that can be repeated as often as is needed. Progress is shown through
automatized feedback and result graphs build confidence and motivation.
 
Children as young as 6-7 can begin learning to type as soon as their hands are
big enough to rest comfortably on the keyboard. Discover more about teaching
kids to type (/teaching-kids-to-type) and the benefits of typing (/touch-typing-benefits)
in these posts.

For more information and a free trial of the Touch-type Read and Spell course for
home or school use, sign up below button or just get in touch with our team!

Apply for a free trial (/trial-course)

 

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About the Author 

Meredith Cicerchia (/about/our-experts/meredith-cicerchia)
Meredith Cicerchia is a teaching affiliate at the
University of Nottingham, an education
consultant, and a freelance writer who covers
topics ranging from speech and language
difficulties and specific learning differences, to
(/about/our-experts/meredith-cicerchia) strategies for teaching English as a second
and additional language.

Reviewed by 
Chris Freeman (/about/our-experts/chris-freeman)
Chris Freeman has a BA cum laude in Sociology,
and has undertaken post grad work in education
and educational technology. She spent 20+
years working in public health and in the charity
sector.
(/about/our-experts/chris-freeman)
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(/about/our experts/chris freeman)
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JanineJacobs • 5 months ago

gerat article thanks so much
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Meredith Cicerchia Mod > JanineJacobs • 4 months ago

Great to hear it was helpful!
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Watch 2 yr Old Reading Video • a year ago

My daughter is 3 and just learned to read, what helped him was when we read to him
we would use our finger on the book so he could follow along. If she knows the letter
and their sounds then you should work on helping her sound out the words. Its kind of
frustrating at first but just keep practicing with her and she'll get the hang of it. Practice
makes perfect.
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Meredith Cicerchia Mod > Watch 2 yr Old Reading Video • 7 months ago
Thank you for sharing this with us!
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