5 common mistakes parents make when teaching kids to read

The ability to read in modern society is a necessary skill learned in childhood. The process of teaching a child to read is the task of parents, preschool workers and primary school teachers. If in the last two cases, professionals who have specially trained in this work with children, then in the case when parents take up the work, problems may arise caused by errors of a psychological and methodological (technical).

Mistake # 1. Psychological pressure

Learning new things for a little person is a difficult, laborious process. The older generation forgets this, starting to demand high and quick results, intimidate, threaten, and put forward ultimatums. Most parents are familiar with the phrases: “You will become a janitor if you don’t learn to read!”, “If you do badly, you won’t go for a walk!”, “You are 6 years old! You should already be able to handle/do this! “, According to experts these words hurt badly to your children.

Learning to read should be comfortable, enjoyable, and motivating. Under these conditions, the child will love to read, he will have a craving for new knowledge gained from books.

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Mistake # 2. Reading from the cradle

In recent decades, the author’s methods of early development and education of children have been very popular in families. Some techniques allow you to teach the baby to read before he speaks. Often, to achieve this goal, it is recommended to use special cards, which, in a certain sequence and at certain time intervals, should be shown and voiced to the baby. Indeed, cases have been recorded proving that this is possible. However, it should be understood that this is rather an exception to the rule.

In most cases, things are not so positive and effective. The learning process organized according to such a system requires large physical, time and financial costs. Sets of cards must be purchased or produced for at least 2-3 years. Classes are held regularly several times a day. Not everyone can do it, you need to soberly assess the reality of life.

The downside is the inability of children to read words if they are written in a different font, color, and are not located on cards of the usual format, but in a regular book.

Whether it is worth conducting classes according to a fashionable method for several years from the moment of birth is up to you. Perhaps it will be easier for a 5-7 year old child to achieve similar indicators in a short period of time according to the traditional system of teaching reading.

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Mistake number 3. Using one type of teaching material

A huge selection of various aids for teaching children to read is presented on the market to consumers: cards, letters-soft toys, letters-magnets, letter-cubes. Use the manuals with extreme caution. Modern dads and moms listen to recommendations, buy a specific set, which they work with in the future.

It is obvious to an adult that the soft red felt letter is identical to that printed in black ink in a book. For a child, this may come as a complete surprise. It is necessary to focus the child’s attention on what this letter is, what it is called, but also tell what the letters are used for, where and in what form they can be seen.

Cards with letters and pictures side by side can be both useful and harmful. If a child constantly studies letters from such cards, then incidents often happen. For example, the word “Stork”. What’s the first letter? The child can answer the letter “Watermelon”, as usually on the card he saw an image of “A” and a watermelon next to it.

The use of one type of work material should be avoided so that stable incorrect associations do not arise in the child’s head.

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Mistake # 4. You need to learn the alphabet, then learn to read

Memorizing the alphabet does not help, since the reading process involves sounds, not letters. Initially, it is necessary to avoid talking about letters, but to lay down the concepts of sound.

Let’s take a simple example. One of the first words that a child learns to read is “mom.” Having learned the letters in advance, the child says: “Um, ah, uh, ah”, it turns out “Emaema, Emaema.” Children without a tip from their elders cannot guess that the mysterious letter “em” of the alphabet will become the sound “m” when reading.

Mistake # 5. Letter by letter

Many parents ask the child to name the letters in order, then combine them into a word. At the very beginning of teaching a child to read, this principle works quite well, because the length of words is mainly 3-5 characters. A small number of letters can be memorized by a child, retained in memory, and form the correct word. Difficulties begin when you have to read long unfamiliar words, because memorizing 10 letters in a row in the correct sequence is difficult even for many adults, and it is necessary to combine them together.

You need to teach to read by syllables, not letters, then the child will no longer need to do unnecessary intellectual operations. Therefore, it is impossible to start learning to read from books with solid text. It is better and easier for a child if at first to use literature, where each word is divided into syllables

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These are the main mistakes made by parents, but in fact there are many more of them. Before you start teaching your child to read, you should not neglect self-education, but read the recommendations and advice of specialists. This will help you draw up a plan of action, remember feelings from childhood, thereby understanding the state of a child with an open primer in his hands.