Reading is Fundamental

 

When is my child old enough for books?

Enjoying books is something a child can only do with your help. Young children are attracted to books from a very early age (6-9 months). When you share a book with a baby all sorts of good things happen. The baby is on your lap having your undivided attention. The baby feels good ... and you are sharing a book. Everything you are doing is promoting a positive feeling towards books, 'The Cuddle Factor'.
 

Sharing Books with Babies

A Baby loves to listen to your voice as you talk about the pictures or tell a story, say a rhymn or sing a song. Without knowing it the baby/toddler is learning many things.

• The right way up to hold a book
• To start at the front and read to the back
• To start at the top of the page and work to the bottom.
• That pictures can help you understand words.
• That words are separated by blank spaces.
• That stories have a beginning a middle and an end.
• That stories follow a predictable pattern.
• They learn about colour, shape and size
• 
   

What do children learn from books ?

• They learn to talk - Books provide an excellent opportunity for conversation with your child. If you ask questions about the book and listen to the comments you encourage your child to talk and show you are interested in your childs opinion.
• They learn to think - Stories help children to think about consequences, What happens next?  Why did it happen?  They learn to reason about what is absurd and what is funny, what is right and what is wrong.
• They learn about sound - they learn the sounds of words and develop an ear for rhymes. They find out that words can sound similar but have diffeerent meanings and spellings. Alphabet and nursery rhyme books are specially designed to help develop the ability to listen to sounds and discriminate between them.
• They learn to look - Children look at pictures and learn that they represent the real world. Pictures help children to grasp things : a  sad face or a desert,  what the story is about. Pictures form vital clues for developing readers.

They learn to love books

They learn the basics of reading  

Children who have early expierience of books tend to acquire reading more easily at 5/6  because of the things they have learnt shaing books. It is very important to realise that the main reason for sharing books with young children is not to teach them to read but to teach them to enjoy books. 
             

Learning to Read

The process of learning to read can be thought of as three separate developmental phases.

Beginning Reading:

Talking:-There is a strong link between language development and learning to read. Children who are good talkers tend to become good readers.
Listening: This skill is essential in the first stages of learning to read. Children have to learn to listen through practice. By listening to a story a child learns new words, new sentences and new expressions.
Rhyme and Rhythm- Recognition of rhyme is crucial in learning to read. Children who find it hard to recognise rhyming words often have difficulty learning to read.

Developing Reading:

Fostering a Love of Books - It's never too soon to start encouraging a love of books. Children who choose reading for pleasure go on to use reading for learning.
The Role of the parent - Parents are very important partners in helping children with reading. You are the best person to give your child confidence .
Developing Reading Skills: Children become successful readers by learning to use a variety of strategies to understand the meaning of a text. Successful readers use as many of these strategies as possible.

• phonics
• word recognition and graphic knowledge
• pictures
• grammatical knowledge
• knowledge of context.

Reading aloud together - The process of reading aloud together is the best way to bridge the gap between reading to a child and getting the child to read to you. Decide what the child wants to read and you read the rest. Try  these

• Books where some of the nouns in the text are replaced with pictures
• Your child picks a key word or words to read (the main character in the story, their favorite item     eg tractor or teddy bear) and you read the rest.
• Your child reads the first phrase or sentence on each page
• You read alternate sentenses . . . paragraphs . . . pages

Independent Reading:

Children need continued support even when they can read to themselves if they are to develop into keen readers. With so much else on offer,the television, compeers, magazines, etc. it can be difficult to persuade children to be enthusiastic about books  These beautifully illustrated books entice children to read explore and imagine.They are developed with the aid of educational specialists and are widely used by educators

Spend a short time each day (10mins) listening to your child. When he has finished reading ask about the story and what might happen next
 
 
 

For futher information or to order books E-mail: christine@e-kidsbooks.co.uk