Teaching Baby to Read - What is the Best Method?
Have you seen babies reading on TV or YouTube? Maybe you know someone whose baby can read.
Has this left you wondering what is the best method for teaching babies to read? If so, read on.
The best method of teaching babies to read from the age of 3 months - 3 years old is sight-reading, also known as the whole word method.
What that means is that we teach them to read a whole word.
We do not teach them each individual sound that makes up the word.
They will never read the words we teach them in a broken up way.
They will see the word goat and they will say goat.
While sight-reading is not the preferred way of teaching children 4 and older how to read, it is still used in schools to teach children words that do no follow the phonetic patterns.
That being said, it is an excellent way to teach a baby how to read.
Parents can start to teach their baby to read beginning at 3 months old.
This is done by showing your baby words that are presented in a font size much larger than we read in most books.
The words are first presented singly.
So, for example, you would show your baby a group of words and as you show them each word you word point to the word and clearly state what the word is.
Babies have the ability to take in the patterns of our language just by being exposed to written language in their early years of life.
What this means is that your baby is learning phonics by looking at whole words.
Although your baby will probably not learn the names of the letters through sight-reading, they will learn the rules of phonics which will allow them to be able to read new words phonetically, even though they learned to read strictly by sight-reading.
Knowing the names of the letters is nice but a child that knows the names of the letters will never learn how to read, unless they know the sounds those letters make.
Thousands of babies and toddlers are able to read without even knowing the alphabet.
If you want to teach your baby to read do not worry about teaching them the alphabet right away.
You can teach it to them in a short period of time once they are already reading hundreds of words.
The easiest way to begin a baby-reading program is to purchase a reading kit designed for infants and toddlers.
Any program that claims it will teach a 5 year old to sight-read should be disregarded.
Once a child has turned 4 years old parents are better off teaching them to read by learning phonics.
Has this left you wondering what is the best method for teaching babies to read? If so, read on.
The best method of teaching babies to read from the age of 3 months - 3 years old is sight-reading, also known as the whole word method.
What that means is that we teach them to read a whole word.
We do not teach them each individual sound that makes up the word.
They will never read the words we teach them in a broken up way.
They will see the word goat and they will say goat.
While sight-reading is not the preferred way of teaching children 4 and older how to read, it is still used in schools to teach children words that do no follow the phonetic patterns.
That being said, it is an excellent way to teach a baby how to read.
Parents can start to teach their baby to read beginning at 3 months old.
This is done by showing your baby words that are presented in a font size much larger than we read in most books.
The words are first presented singly.
So, for example, you would show your baby a group of words and as you show them each word you word point to the word and clearly state what the word is.
Babies have the ability to take in the patterns of our language just by being exposed to written language in their early years of life.
What this means is that your baby is learning phonics by looking at whole words.
Although your baby will probably not learn the names of the letters through sight-reading, they will learn the rules of phonics which will allow them to be able to read new words phonetically, even though they learned to read strictly by sight-reading.
Knowing the names of the letters is nice but a child that knows the names of the letters will never learn how to read, unless they know the sounds those letters make.
Thousands of babies and toddlers are able to read without even knowing the alphabet.
If you want to teach your baby to read do not worry about teaching them the alphabet right away.
You can teach it to them in a short period of time once they are already reading hundreds of words.
The easiest way to begin a baby-reading program is to purchase a reading kit designed for infants and toddlers.
Any program that claims it will teach a 5 year old to sight-read should be disregarded.
Once a child has turned 4 years old parents are better off teaching them to read by learning phonics.