How do you actually teach a child to read?

[septemberremember]

I know they do phonics at primary school but I don’t know how they go about this and translating it into reading - obviously cat and dog are phonetic but what about other words? I was taught by a look and say method which was the rage in the 80s. But I believe that isn’t favoured now.

I always thought I’d teach my children loads and I haven’t

Well they start with the very basic phonemes and gradually expand on them. You blend sounds together to make words. Obviously you don't teach complicated words at first, just start them off with c-a-t and get them used to hearing the sounds in a word and go from there.

There's lots of information if you Google and our school ran information sessions for parents in Reception as none of us knew wtf phonics were either.

Thanks - I feel like it’s so complicated and don’t know where to start with it!

Have a look at Alphablocks on Cbeebies but tbh I wouldn't worry too much, wait for school to teach them their way or you could end up confusing them. I think counting and numbers and being able to recognise their name and write it should be ok for starting school.

Then I would say don’t try! Leave it to the teachers. Obviously, get your child to read the books they bring home (which will only contain sounds they’ve been taught) and read other books to them, to build love of reading and expose them to higher level vocabulary and so on. But don’t worry about trying to teach them stuff you don’t understand yourself.

If you look at the earlier Biff and Chip books they do this quite well. They start with the easier phonetic sounds. Then they focus on these to build simple words and simple stories alongside pictures. They go up in levels and introduce gradually more sounds and get slightly harder.
agree for pre school do watch Alphablocks, it’s fab.

I bought some old Peter and Jane books on ebay and used those because that's how I learned to read.

I volunteer at a local primary school and help kids in year 6 (10’yrs olds) with reading. There is a vast range. The ones who struggle either have some condition going on like dyslexia, or just haven’t been taught/ practised enough from step one, and COVID had a lot to do with that.
I worked through a useful book with one kid called Toe by Toe (which is a play on step by step, but broken down even more). Not suggesting you need this, as it’s a workbook for dyslexia, but the method was interesting -

First make sure the child knows each letter of the alphabet and each sound it makes (eg say Ah for A not Ay… variations come later but important for the child to know what sound that letter usually makes).
Then blend them together as pp says in very simple phonetic words, the cat sat on the mat.
Then look at slight variations in sounds and letter combinations like th, gh, ch etc. More practice with simple words.
Some words have to be taught by sight because English is a complicated language and rules don’t always work. Teach those by repetition.
Keep going building up in complexity - and presto, your kid can read!

Just do what school tells you to. You don’t need to start early, especially at the risk of messing them up. Just read to them.

When did this approach of ‘don’t teach them and leave it to school’ come in? Me and my sisters were well on our way to reading when we started school in the 90s, as were most of the class?

When you see so much about children not being school ready, is this attitude part of it?

Just read to your child. Lots of reading together. Sing rhymes lots. There are jolly phonics songs on YouTube but I wouldn't worry as school will have their own method of teaching phonics.

Another vote for the Biff and Chip books. Intensely annoying characters but my DCs learned to phonetically read the words.

We used Jolly Phoenics for our youngst as she was taught during one of the long covid homeschooling periods and we weren't impressed by the online material school provided.
You can buy a quite good handbook to Jolly and most like to all beginner reader books.
We used Peter and Jane as well as our oldest two used it and we had them. Jolly was more fun more modern I think with work books, memory cards and different stuff.

Some children work better with the Janet and John approach ie repetition of key words. Others like phonics.
I’d just read simple books to your child pointing out the words as you do so. And children don’t mind having the same book read to them day after day. In face they can get quite excited at anticipating what is happening.

I would really leave this to the school (depending on the age) the school should run parent workshops and give out information packs when the time comes.

Each school will have chosen a phonics scheme to follow - so if you try at home you run the risk of causing more confusion by teaching it differently!

Essentially though, you teach 'pure, initial sounds' 'm- a- t- d-s' as pictures first (mountain, apple, tower etc.) until children can recognise that all pictures have a corresponding word that contains sounds. Then you move into the letter name and the sound that makes, eventually building up to recognising multiple letters/sounds and blending them to make words.

I'm a nursery teacher and I'd encourage my parents to orally blend words eg; 'oh let's put on our 'c-oa-t' and get our 'b-a-g'. The children have to be able to hear sounds before they even attempt to read.

Alongside lots of nursery rhymes, action songs and stories!

In reception/end of nursery they rehearse the sounds they know and begin to read these in very simple books. Each set of books contains specific sounds to practise. Once the children know the sounds they can segment/blend in new words, so they don't need to be explicitly taught every single word, only the sounds they contain.

There are lots of 'sound charts' online that show the order the sounds are taught (read, write inc is my favourite scheme.)

Sorry for the rant, I'm very nerdy and passionate about early reading 😂

This is kind of what I’m worried about. My parents taught me to read and I was reading confidently by the time I started reception (I am September born, but my son is also one of the oldest with a December birthday.)

We do read books and he’s familiar with all the preschool literary heroes - all the Julia donaldson and tiger who came to tea, Jill Murphy books and so on, as well as a range of less well known titles. But I suppose I wonder if I should be doing more to support early reading and maths and the like (he absolutely will not watch alphablocks or number blocks!)

How old are your children?

DC primary school inivited us in for a meeting early on in Reception to explain the phonics scheme they use and where to find more resources online. We just followed their lead, all the reading books that come home are sounds/words DC has already practised in school.

Beyond that we just read a vareity of books to them for enjoyment.

Repetition and lots of reading favourite books helped with my DC, one loved reading, the other not so much. I helped out with reading in my DC2 class from reception through to year 3, you could tell the ones that never read at home, such a shame as they clearly wanted to learn and I always tried to help them more.

The best thing you can do to support them learning to read is to give them a broad vocabulary. This is the number one indicator for success at school. And the best way to extend vocabulary is through reading.
Read to them, don’t ask them to read yet. Rhyming books are especially good e.g. Julia Donaldson or Dr Seuss, books with repetitive phrases, books with sound effects like animal noises. Read lots.
Singing and nursery rhymes are good for helping them listen carefully to sounds which is key to reading. Go to the library, find story times to go to, surround them with books.

DS is four (December birthday so starts school in September.) My younger child is 18 months so don’t expect her to be reading! Obviously do read with her but she’s still into lift the flaps and touch and feel although she has started to listen to some more story type books.

Both my kids learnt to read using reading eggs, the year before they started school. Worth a try if they would engage with an app. My youngest also loved alphablocks.

I would start with learning the single letter sounds. You can buy read write inc flashcards which will explain the order to learn them in.

I had to teach both my children how to read in English because I live abroad and they wouldn't learn it in school until later on. You teach the letter sounds and then blending them (so reading cat as three separate sounds at first then blending those sounds together).
But tbh Reading Eggs pretty much singlehandedly taught them how to read, I just helped a bit.

Just putting this here in case any readers are home educating from the start. I used The Reading Lesson by Michael Levin, 3 of my kids were straight onto chapter books after this but the one who has dyslexia needed other support.

in 1999 the expectation was for the child to write their name
has that changed?

By when?