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5 Techniques to Accelerate Your Child's Literacy

By: David Morgan We live in an information society and literacy is the key to success in it. Being a good or excellent reader will be a huge advantage for your child over the coming years.

A child that enjoys reading will consume 2-3 books a week. That can be 10-20 times more than an average reader and so the gap opens steadily between the two.

So here are 5 things that will make a huge difference to your child's reading development. We employ all of them in our Easyread System:

TIP 1 - Avoid Early Reading Books

This may seem a bit crazy, but teaching a child to read with a book is a mistake. It's like teaching a child to catch a ball by playing basketball.

We all use whatever seems the simplest solution to a problem. If you have a bright kid, then the simplest option will seem to be to memorise the words that keep appearing in an early reader book. But, as the vocabulary increases, that gets steadily harder and you will see more and more guessing.

This leads down a blind alley of despair, as your child gets more and more confused. And you will see a strong resistance to reading practice appear.

TIP 2 - "Dimensionalise" the Phonemes

Your child needs to be familiar with the 43 phonemes we use. They are the little sounds that make up each word. You can find a list of them in any dictionary.

But phonemes are non-physical, abstract objects and very hard for your child to remember. So what we do is create strong visual characters to represent each one. For instance, for the sounds of the letter A we have the ants in pink pants, the ape in a cape and the ark in the park. Those are things your child can visualise and so remember.

Our memories work mainly with visual images.

TIP 3 - Play These Games

So what should you use rather than a book?

We find games like these work well:

Build-A-Word. Select 6 plastic letters, including two vowels. Repeat the main sound of each one. Then think of a simple word for your child to write with them.

Select-A-Word. Write three very similar words, like hat, mat and map. Say one of them and ask your child to select which one it is.

Nonsense Words. Using your plastic letters again, write a nonsense word, like leb, kib, teg, vod. Ask your child to try to read it.

Easyread-I-Spy. If you know the classic "I Spy..." game, play it using the first sound of the object, rather than the first letter.

TIP 4 - Less is More

You want to maximise the success of your child, so limit a reading session to 10-15 minutes maximum.

TIP 5 - Try Easyread TrainerText

TrainerText is a unique system that we use to allow a child to read without needing help. Just write the text with the images for the phonemes that you have created in Tip 2 floating above each word.

The great thing with TrainerText is that your child can work through the text without getting stuck and needing help. That is marvellous for developing confidence and self-esteem.

We see a new level of enthusiasm from day 1 and a leap in confidence over the first 3 weeks using these techniques. If you employ them, I am sure you will quickly see the difference.