Raising Readers #1
There is no doubt that literacy and language skills are critical to the development of young children. Children who enter school with a love of books are more ready to learn. If children struggle with reading, they’ll struggle with learning.
In this blog and the next we will be looking at some facts about raising readers.
There are six general developmental stages in a child’s reading abilities.
1. Emergent readers -This stage of reading development is usually associated with children from birth to five years old. It's never too early to start reading to your baby. A 3-month-old will love being cuddled on her parent’s lap and she begins to associate reading with warmth and love. Board books are made for babies to grasp, touch, feel and explore physically. As the child grows, she will soon be able to recognise the alphabet and is able to follow a story read to her with the aid of pictures.
Parents can encourage the child’s participation by:-
# making reading part of your child’s (bedtime) routine
# making the reading environment fun
# pointing to the words as you are reading. This will teach your child the direction of reading (from left to right) and help them identify letters and sounds that are familiar to them.
# encouraging pretend reading. As the child mimics what she has heard from the parent, it activates her creativity and memory.
# talking about the story. This helps to reinforce the narrative and promotes simple discussions.
2. Early readers - This stage of reading development is usually associated with children from five to six years old. At this stage children have a better understanding of the stories and are beginning to read and even spell on their own.
Parents can encourage their child’s participation by:-
# spending regular time reading with them
# being encouraging and patient with them
# giving pointers as to how to break the words into its component parts
3. Progressive readers - This stage of reading development is a natural progression of the early readers and can occur anytime between six and seven years old. Children become more efficient at sounding out words. They begin to recognise what they are reading which helps with the process. They begin to read in phrases and are able to recognise the mechanics of sentences.
Parents can encourage their child’s participation by:-
# challenging them to move on to new books once they are familiar with the previous ones
# assisting them to correct their own reading errors by checking on the meaning of what they said
# encouraging them to guess the words from context