teaching reading - I'm stuck!!

[Gracie123]

DS loves reading and is doing very well with some fairly long words now. The trouble is, I can't get him to understand that a sentence reads from left to right, or that we should read the left page of a book before the right hand side.

He naturally always reads the right hand page first (if there is only one word on each page) and if there is a sentence to read, he just picks out what he considers to be the important words (usually the longest) to read first, and skips things like 'and' 'or' 'the' 'a' 'is' altogether.

He is young to be reading, so I haven't really pushed it, it just seems a shame that he is so enthusiastic, but has been stuck at this stage for such a long time. Any suggestions?

let him read when and how he wants

when he wants you to read to him, do so in a conventional left-to-right manner

rinse and repeat without unwanted explanation or theorising until the penny drops

What's the hurry?

No hurry, just frustrating that none of the stories he reads me make any sense

You're right, I should just let him read however he wants, I was just wandering if there was some technique I was missing out on from lack of experience (he's my PFB!)

As you read aloud to him, you could try following the words with your finger to show him how you do it. I wouldn't necessarily do it everytime but it may help him see that that's how reading works.

Have you tried 'ordering' games? Cut up the answer to a question into bits and get him to fit it together to 'solve' it. Doesn't even have to be reading, do the same with a comic strip and get it to the point where the story makes sense. Quite young children can do this and it might help the penny drop.

Reading from the left hand page first and from the top of the page going left to right is a learned skill, not something children develop naturally. It's simply the way we do it in Western cultures.

Put a small pencil dot on each page at the beginning of the line where he should start, until it becomes a strong habit.

I recommend that if you want your child to have a trouble free introduction to reading you use a synthetic phonics programme. Learning to read is not a natural skill.

www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/teach_your_child.htm

HTH

When I read books to young children sometimes I play with it, holding it upside down, starting on the wrong page, reading the words wrong etc. If they don't spot my mistakes I'll 'spot' them, saying things like "something's wrong, this story makes no sense" and try to lead them into realising the mistake. I won't do this all the time, lots of times I'll do it right, but I will always do a running commentary about which way the book should be, where I start reading from, etc. That way something sinks in.

If he's missing out words, stop him and say "I didn't hear what you said there. What does this word say?" He may not have noticed the little ones!

Tanga's suggestion is an excellent one. Maverick's suggestion of a SP programme is also good. I will add www.phonicsplay.co.uk to the suggestions!