What do you think about teaching pre-schoolers reading?

[Caththerese1973]

Hi
I was just curious what people thought about teaching pre-schoolers to read. My daughter is nearly four and just about to start to kindy, but I've never tried to teach her to read (beyond singing the 'Alphabet Song' they used to show on Sesame Street when I was young - what a shame they don't do that anymore! I STILL have to sing it to myself sometimes so I can remember whether 'o' is before or after 'p'....). I have read a lot of stories to my daughter, and she can write quite a few letters, but this is all off her own bat, or maybe her daycare lady has shown her how to do some letters - I've never shown her how to write a letter except for the letter 'H' (the first letter of dd's name). I don't think she knows which letters they are, either: she's just become very used to seeing printed words because of all the story books.
I was inclined to think it best NOT to intervene and try and teach my pre-schooler to read, as I really have no idea how to start, and fear that whatever approach I take might just confuse her when she starts proper school. But the other day I visited my aunt, who is a retired primary school teacher, and she has actually taught her 2.5 y/o how to read a little bit, or at least how to recognise a few words (eg 'Mum', 'Dad', 'Nana', 'Hi' etc). My aunt suggested I should try the same thing with my own child, as she seemed to think it would give her an advantage. Also, according to my aunt reading is not taught as effectively as it used to be, and in her view, if one wants to guarantee a child's literacy in later years, it is best to start very young. We live in Australia and the there is indeed a big problem here with childhood illiteracy here (I know most Mumsnet posters are from the UK: the school system might be better there).
I'm not at all a pushy Mum, or determined that my child has to prove herself a genius, but like any mother, I naturally want my child to learn to read and be reading at an age-appropriate level as she gets older (sadly, many kids in Australia are well below the age-appropriate level reading-wise).
What do other parents think?

Message withdrawn

Hee hee colditz
I feel the same at having to spell every goddammed thing everywhere.We'll meet Mrs Jones out on our walk and d.s will say'who's that' I reply 'Mrs Jones' and he will say 'Jones' 'Jones begins with J' whats next? and go on and on and on until you tell him.Sometimes I want to howl!

I was taught to read by my mother before I went to school and I taught my son likewise. Why deprive anyone who is capable of it and genuinely wants to do it of the pleasure of reading? We don't say, 'ooh, I won't teach my child to kick a ball, weild a cricket bat/paint a picture/bake a cake because I'm not a qualified sports instructor/artist/professional chef.
If your child wants to read, I recommend Jolly Phonics. Ds picked it up in a snap. Children are all different. Some will be a whizz at football at 4 and swim like a fish, some, like my ds, will be total klutzes but love to read.

here here

D.s love of letters started with the Dr Seuss ABC book.
A is for Aunt Annie's Alligator
B is for Baber,Baby,Bubbles & a bumblebee
etc etc etc
We had to read this dang darn book a hundred times a day-it filled him with glee.
Then came green eggs & ham......O Boy how sick was I after three weeks of that book..grizzle...

Another speller/counter here. I sometimes wonder if people think we are freaky pushy parents. Ds1 is just genuinely interested in numbers and letters so we feed his need

Dr. Seuss ABC book started it off for us as well on the reading and spelling. Not sure how the math got going so much but I think it was me I can be a little OCD sometimes...

I didn't.

DD1, now in Y1, appears not to be educationally held back as a result. In fact she's grasping reading more quickly than anyone else in the class. Even I haven't managed to file this omission under the heading of my general inferiority as a mother.

Take the lead from your child.We have unofficially started teaching ds1 to read, not because i am a pushy parent but because thats what he wants. Always asking what words say or how to spell them.. he ismre than capable of writing anything you spell for him and enjoys it too!!! In fact, i am having trouble NOT doing it!! he is just so desperate to learn.

Hello lovely Jabberwocky
Hurray for Dr Seuss and Silly Sammy Slick (our fav)
just sent you another huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge email...sorry.

I agree with Twiglett and Colditz

My four year old starts school later this year - she was always interested in letters etc and I did think I would start to teach her stuff, but then I realised it bored me topless so I gave up and just answered questions

So I didn't bother but she can already read a few words and writes me simple notes e.g. MUM LOVE YOU FROM DD which are legible

Also she write shopping lists, most of which are illegible but make me laugh anyway

She has a Princess Laptop which does simple sums (she finds herself a bowl of counters e.g. pasta to help her) and spellings and she gets absorbed in that while I read the paper, which is great

She seems to have taken a lot in and I'm sure she will enjoy school anyway - she is a bit of a swot and will probably find it quite easy but will work really hard to be Teacher's Pet anyway

I taught my son to read before he went to school because I think the teaching methods that many schools use are Cr*p.

see

www.rrf.org.uk

or www.syntheticphonics.com

It is a national scandal that 20% of children who leave primary school cant read. It is ridiculous to suggst that they are all dyslexic or stupid or have parents who don't care. Many of these children are confused by mixed methods. I believe that many of them have suffered from dysteachia. I wanted to school proof my son.

I wanted my son to learn by pure synthetic phonics and not to be encouraged to do anything like guessing from pictures. I used Jolly Phonics and followed the Jolly phonics manual to the letter. My son learn letter sounds instead of letter names and was shown how to blend letters together into words. Following Jolly Phonics has allowed him to experience success at every stage.

It is important that teaching reading is fun. Little and often is better than a large session as a typical four year old does not have the concentration for long periods. Fun things like making letter shaped biscuits is more effective than flashcards.

Reading books to children helps comprehension and language skills. However I don't think many children are lucky enough to learn reading by omosis.

Enjoy the early years and good luck.

Can you stop a child from guessing? Ds's school uses Jolly Phonics, follows the programme to the letter, yet as soon as ds was let loose on a book, he would use the first sound and guess.

The school wasn't using mixed methods. He was.

i didnt with dd1 and she got really left behind when she started school

dd2 knows almost all the 'reception' words already (4), will see how she gets on - swimmingly I should think

I taught DS2 to read before school because he asked - actually he asked at 2.5, but I didn't do anything about it until he was over 3. I used Jolly Phonics too and, if you are interested in teaching your daughter, would recommend it; it is pretty self-explanatory and nothing you teach a child from it will have to be 'unlearned'. DS2, now 5 and a bit, is (not just my opinion) a rather phenomenal reader and speller.

DS2 was adding and subtracting a bit at 3 and, though he is not particularly keen on maths, is interested in multiplication and is playing a little with negative numbers.

I didn't teach DS1 because he didn't want to learn, though he too knew all letters and a few sight words before school.

Synthetic phonics has to be the sole method of instruction for the early part of primary school other wise it doesnt work. Many primary schools encourage children to use a range of strageries.

Sometimes parents and teachers are too impatient to give a child a reading scheme book before they are read. If a reading book decoding level is beyond a child then the only way they can make any sense of it is by guessing. Admitally it is boring but children need to be confident blending simple words in word boxes before attempting to read books. The first books should be decodable so that a child experiences sucess.

In the meantime reading stories to a child can help them enjoy books.

I would have concerns about confusing the child with your system and whatever they use at school. However you could start with learning letter sounds ie. phonics and explaining that each word starts with a sound - perhaps starting with her name and other words begining with H.

Yes, that's my concern too that I'll not teach dd the same way as they will at school. Dd is another who loves books and writing, and at the moment I'm just concentrating on getting her to recognise all the letters and numbers and copy them. And not in a pushy way either , it's just what she loves doing.

If anyone ever helps their pre-schoolers with writing please don't allow them to write in capital letters - it takes a long time to get them out of the habit!

I'd help them to read if they seemed interested - I'd follow their lead.

Ds1 wasn't interested before reception but, luckily, his school do synthetic phonics and he soared ahead with his reading.

Ds2 is 4 and will start reception in September. When we are reading books he will point out letters that he knows from names (so he'll say 'that's n for Nathan' for example) and he is writing his name on his own. Otherwise I don't really do anything with him in the sense of teaching him to read. Plenty of time for that later.

Thankfully my son's primary school teacher has very similar views to me. She is a brilliant teacher and the other children in her class are doing well as well inspite of the fact that many of them have special needs and the school is in a poor area. A quarter of families are on benefits.

Ofsted visited my son's school recently and they found that the reading and writing levels for reception were exceptionally high.

In the UK 20% of kids do not learn to read by the time they leave primary school. Many of these kids are intelligent, well behaved, they are from good homes and their parents have tried their best to support the school. What has gone wrong? Does giving a label like "dyslexia" do anything to help them? Is the label of "dyslexia" over used? It is a tragic waste and these children have little support at secondary school.

You might find this link interesting.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4700537.stm

www.syntheticphonics.com/links.htm

www.dyslexics.org.uk/

I think it is very reasonable to want your child to learn how to read. Provided that you don't too long on reading activites your child will have plenty of time for play.

Most good readers benefit from a varied approach. They need to be able to decode, and Jolly Phonics is excellent for this, but they also need to build up a sight vocab, and need to be able to guess the word from context and the overall look of the word. Some 'brilliant readers' who use entirely phonics to get the word, have no idea what they are reading even though they appear to read exceptionally well, and cannot make the jump from reading aloud to reading between the lines (a real understanding of what it is they are reading).
Most reading schemes fall down when they are too heavily dependent on one method of learning. It is a fact that we learn best when different parts of the brain are all learning together. It actually strengthens the learning. These different methods don't swing in different directions. They compliment each other.
Another point - any reading scheme is as interesting as the person teaching it. You can make any book dull or the most exciting thing... honestly.

I also worked in a school with reading/writing/mathematics well above the national average.

Dd 6.7 & has been reading fluently for about a year. I felt she should have been reading earlier so I tried to teach her letters before she started school but not much interest. She learned to read in her own time. So ds (3.5) is allowed to "read" his books in peace without mummy trying to get him ahead. Best advice: read stories aloud regularly. That way, they develop the curiousity & desire to read themselves.

dysteachia