Advantages of teaching children to read early
Before a child can learn to read, they must first learn the spoken language, and this is one of the first cases where family members such as dad, mom, older siblings, and grandparents play an important role in “teaching “to the child the spoken English language. Whether young children realize it or not, they get very early exposure to the alphabet when parents sing them the alphabet song. They begin to develop language skills by reading to and talking to them. One of the keys to teaching children to read from an early age is exposing them to the letters of the alphabet, books, and reading to them frequently.
Reading nursery rhymes and children’s books is an important part of getting children to understand print. Talk to your children and talk to them often, whether they understand or not is not important when they are just babies. The more you talk and interact with your little ones, the better they will develop. The key is exposure and repeated exposure. Once her son learns to speak, she can start teaching him to read at home.
I often hear parents say that they don’t want to “push” their child too hard. How can teaching your child to read at an early age be considered too much “push”? If you, as a parent, are already in the mindset that reading is a chore, and teaching them to read is pushing “too much,” you certainly can’t expect your children to be excited about learning to read. Rather, learning to read offers a young child a lifelong opportunity to learn, discover, and enjoy the wonders of reading. Parents (including me) often underestimate the abilities and learning abilities of young children. When we began our teaching reading program with our first daughter when she was 2 years and 8 months old, little did we expect that in just a few short weeks, she would not only be reading words, but also sentences and storybooks. After about 3 months, when she was 2 years and 11 months, our daughter was able to read the books “Step to Reading: Step 2 (Preschool to Grade 1)” with some guidance. The benefits of learning to read were clear: increased speech clarity and improved reading ability and reading comprehension.
