IS YOUR CHILD FINDING IT HARD TO LEARN TO READ?
HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN TO READ?
There are many different skills and abilities needed to learn to read. Please keep reading below to understand what your child needs to learn to read, and the methods Art of Reading use to improve your child’s reading. Finally, there are a couple of recommendations for what you can do to help your child.
THE SKILLS YOUR CHILD NEEDS
Phonemic Awareness
Blending and segmenting
This skill is an essential foundation to learning to read. This pre-literacy skill is purely oral. It requires the child to be able to listen to sounds in words and identify them, as well as manipulate them.
Phonics Knowledge
knowing the sounds that the letters make
While learning the alphabet is important, knowing the sounds that each letter makes is essential to being able to decode words. Once children have learnt the sounds of single letters, letter blends can be learnt.
Orthographic Knowledge
using letter and word patterns for letter and word recognition
As well as being able to sound out unfamiliar words, using the child’s visual memory to read whole words is important for fluency. A multisensory approach can be helpful for children whose orthographic knowledge is delayed to learn to read sight words.
Fluency
reading quickly and naturallY
Reading fluently, with expression, is key to comprehending the text. Children will need to be able to read words automatically, thus drawing upon their orthographic knowledge. Fluency can be improved by reading a text or list of words a number of times.
Text Comprehension
understanding what is being read
Another important aspect of reading is understanding the texts that are being read. While children are learning to decode words and read fluently, decodable readers can help with working on their comprehension.
Vocabulary Knowledge
understanding what words mean
Immersion in language can improve vocabulary. If your child is not able to read at a level which is commensurate with their language abilities, providing opportunities for them to hear books being read can increase their language immersion.
THE METHODS WE USE
Synthetic Phonics
Explicit and systematic teaching of phonics
Children are taught explicitly and systematically the sounds that letters or groups of letters make. Phonemic Awareness is an important foundational skill needed, as children are then taught to read words by blending (synthesising) the sounds together to make a word, or segmenting the sounds apart to write the word. This approach is evidence-based and is essential for teaching children to read unfamiliar words.
Multisensory
Seeing, hearing, saying, AND touching
Children are taught using methods which engage all of their senses. This approach is evidence-based, and has been found to work well for students with reading difficulties.
Multifaceted
covers a range of aspects of reading
A program is tailored to suit your child’s needs, and can include phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary development, handwriting, spelling rules, and writing.
Diverse
drawing on a number of programs
A range of different programs are used to teach children to read, such as Spalding and Little Learners Love Literacy. This ensures that the best elements of the different programs are able to be used, and it enables us to cover the range of skills that children need to develop their literacy skills.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
read to your child
Reading to your child is not only a bonding experience, it will also enlarge their world, develop their vocabulary and their language. If they are struggling to read books at an age-appropriate level, reading to them can provide the language enrichment they need. No child is too old to be read to - just choose a book which meets their age-related interests and language abilities. Audiobooks can be a good alternative for time-poor parents!
VISIT THE LIBRARY
Become a member of your local library. It’s free and easy to do. Make a trip to the library a regular activity in your child’s extra-curricular activities. It gives your child access to a range of books they may otherwise not have at home. Borrow books at their reading level for them to read themselves. Let them choose books to borrow which interest them that they would not be able to read and read these to them! Audiobooks can also be borrowed at the library.