After ten years and hundreds of first-graders passing through my doors, I've discovered that several things seem to routinely affect a child's ability to become a successful reader and learner. Surprisingly, they appear to have little to do with reading at all. Fortunately, they are largely within our control. A child's experiences from infancy to kindergarten have a huge impact on readiness.
It is my goal to outline for parents six practices that will help you prepare your child. These ideas are free and require little more than a commitment of your time and energy. They reach far beyond the realm of reading.
1. Be sure your child can hear well.
If your preschooler isn't speaking clearly, have his/her ears checked. When children have recurrent ear infections or fluid build-up, they likely do not hear well, meaning there is a good amount of time they aren't acquiring language properly. Allergies may be to blame, especially if accompanied by the perpetual runny nose. Be assertive about making sure your child hears well. I've seen tubes make a huge difference in a child's speech and language development, especially when put in early.
2. Have conversations with your child.
From the moment your child is born, have conversations together. Now, I know this sounds strange, but the fact is that children acquire language through social conversation starting in infancy. The early years are critical. According to studies, when you talk to a baby, and they babble back, they are having a conversation and internalizing language. Make many opportunities to talk with your child, even before they understand what you're saying.
Did you ever wonder how children can spend countless hours in front of the TV and not have excellent vocabularies? That's precisely why they don't. Television does not provide social conversation. In addition, it interferes with attention and focussing, both of which are necessary for learning. According to studies, when you talk to a baby, and they babble back, they are having a conversation and internalizing language. Make many opportunities to talk with your child, even before they understand what you're saying.
Note: If children use poor structure, it may be cute at age two, but not at five. "Her gots a toy" isn't going to help them be readers. Almost every 1st grade child I've heard speak this way ends up going through our reading program. Very pleasantly and casually say, "Oh, SHE has a toy?" .
3. You are your child's world.
If you offer children a safe, stable world with comfortable structure and routines they grow up feeling secure and can devote their energies to being children while learning about their world. Trust me when I tell you I've literally seen children go from progressing beautifully to scarcely being able to read at all from one day to the next when they're in the midst of family troubles.
You are your children's idols, their role models. They need you to be present and available to them. I know we are all busy and sometimes have to work long hours to make a living. It's the above and beyond that takes it's toll. Children don't need a ton of stuff or limitless outside activity. They need you.
4. Provide a literature-rich environment.
If you want your children to get the message that reading is important, you need to let them see you reading and you need to read with them. Casually talk about what you just read in the newspaper or an exciting snippet from your adventure novel. This shows that books contain information and can be entertaining. Read children's books aloud so they experience the joy of reading and become accustomed to book language and how books work. Let them look at the pictures and "retell" the story or even make it up. How about re-instituting the bedtime story? Children adore this time with you.
Do you listen to books on CD? My sons and I absolutely loved listening to children's books on tape while traveling. Listening alone makes you focus on the language and create your own images. Talk about your favorite, scariest, funniest parts. Children are masters at knowing when you are trying to teach and will turn you off so be genuine and casual. Listen to silly songs and nursery rhymes. It's perfectly wonderful to listen to the same stories and songs over and over.
5. Explore patterns and categories.
This is a great tip for math readiness as well as reading. Make this pure play. Line up blocks, leaves, crayons or buttons in patterns using colors, shapes and size. Start with a simple every other pattern and progress to more complicated ones as your child masters them. Put things in groups by color, shape, size, similar and dissimilar items. Let your child decide how to group the items or which pattern to make too.
6. Allow your baby to crawl often.
Crawling is a vital developmental phase that parents sometimes sidestep. A little time in a walker is fine, but your baby needs to crawl. This skill gives babies vital sensory stimulation through their hands and knees aiding gross and fine motor development. It helps them discover spatial concepts and stimulates right and left brain hemispheres. Just as the eyes move left to right and back again through text (called crossing the mid-line), the eyes move from left to right and back again while watching the hands and crawling.
It's possible that your child may need extra help with reading, even if you've done an excellent job preparing them. Be assured s/he will still have a much easier time learning to read thanks to the language and concepts you helped put in place.
Val invites you to visit her website at http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com where you will find comprehensive information and videos about holistic health, stress relief and energy healing techniques.
Val lives in Northern New York near beautiful Lake Ontario where she teaches reading recovery and practices holistic healing methods. She enjoys nature, bicycling, reading and writing articles that are uplifting and educational.
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i talked to my kids constantly. if i picked them up, i'd tell them i was picking them up, so they learned what that meant, while i watched others just go through the motions. i had conversations with them, and listened to cassettes in the car.
i have a dog, a maltipoo, we got as an 8 week old, and he is now 2.
i have talked to him constanly, just like i would one of my kids, and as a result, he does everything i tell him to. go get your ball, go lie down on your bed, do you want to go to the mailbox=runs to the door. it just takes a lot of patience, and creativity, and the outcome is good for all involved.
Exceptional article! When I was a baby they didn't know anything about hearing and speech going hand and hand. I have a speech problem and had two operations as a teen. If they knew then what we know now, I wouldn't have gone through so many problems. Thank goodness children get get operated on as babies. Anyway, if children aren't responding properly parents should get their child checked for speech and hearing. I didn't know until I was in college, rather, late in life but I now know what was wrong with me and wished I had gotten checked much, much earlier!
Excellent article. I wish all parents would read this. And you are right, television is definitely not the answer. My children's father, an Austrian, learned English by watching 'All in the Family.' Needless to say, his vocabulary and grammar needed work!
Good job! Excellent advice. I am an avid reader. Read to my kids all the time. They read for a while, then lost interest through high school. Now my daugther reads all the time! I am still waiting for my son to come back around :-)
Hi Teresa, This is how it was with my boys too. Loved to listen to stories but not read. I never pressured. Imagine my pleasant surprise when in their 20's they show up with books that they talk to each other about. They both love to read. Happy me! Val Respond to this comment
Val, just a followup, my grandchildren, 4 and 5 are in preschool, they are using a leapster. You should see how advanced they are. Doing math reading, comprehension all increased. I was really impressed. best wishes.
No Val they are hand help units and strictly educational while in game format. Many teachers in our school district are aware of them and encourage parents.
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