We can encourage younger kids to read…in all sorts of ways. I was talking to a friend of mine this morning about how hard it is to get the younger school age children to sit down and focus on their reading and writing. They try to wiggle out of it, grumble and whine – it’s painful for everyone. It’s because it’s hard for them and it is hard! So, how do we help them through the pain barrier as quickly as possible so they can start to enjoy reading?
It wasn’t until our youngest boy (who has Down Syndrome), came along that we were taught a different approach to the whole literacy thing. The thing is – kids with Down Syndrome appear to be a bit whizzy when it comes to learning phonics and word matching because apparently they learn in a slightly different way. A much more visual way.
Now I’m rather visual myself so I was all up for a bit of that. It wasn’t long before we were spotting letters both at home and also out and about. They’re absolutely everywhere. Painted on the road, shop signs, newspapers left on trains and in cafés, road names, books, shopping bags, food labels… We concentrate on one letter at a time and try and find it as many times as possible in both upper and lower case. Then when FB has learnt it, we move on to the next. He’s 3 and he knows them all except ‘Q’. That’s this week’s letter.
This approach also works really well for the older kids and their ‘quick as a flash’ sight words. You know, the ones that defy all laws of the English language. The bigger kids really loved playing ‘can you see a (insert appropriate word)?’ or ‘how many (insert word) can you see on this page / paragraph?’ The excitement when they got it right was so sweet. The more fun and abstract the game, the longer they would spend working on it! Essentially the more word matching games you can play together the quicker they will conquer their tricky words. It’s also a great way to consolidate the ones they should already know.
Another good way to encourage younger kids to read is, while you’re out and about, find road signs and shops etc that are familiar to them, stop and work through the sign together. Then watch their faces as they slowly and painfully read through a word and realise that they actually recognise it and have got it right!
It’s actually really good fun!
The extra bonus is that the kids also feel they’ve had quality time with you – so it’s a win win situation all round…
Fab suggestions, reading is crucial, it encourages the use of imagination, learning to read, opening up creativity and I personally love actual books to reading books on iPads etc. Thanks for linking up to #brilliantblogposts
Thank you again for hosting #brilliantblogposts! Yes, I’m the same as you – there’s something very different about books isn’t there? I just see how difficult the little ones find it when they start and it’s so hard to reassure them that they will soon be hoovering up books and enjoying them. The quicker we can help them get over the hardest bit then the better I think?