Getting a child to read

[Belfaborac]

To me it sounds like you're agonising way too much, way too soon. Especially given that you've just moved and the kid has seen huge change. My first thought is that if you push too much, you could well put her off reading even further and end up with the opposite result to what you're after.

Taming's got the best advice as far as I'm concerned - play it cool, give the kid time and don't push.

I never went to kindergarten, started school at seven (we did back then) and couldn't read a word at the time. Despite growing up in a house full (almost literally) of books and where people read constantly, no-one ever went further than teaching me the alphabet. Within a year I was a fluent reader and by the time I was fourteen I had read pretty much every book in the house, including the ones in English.

[5thWiggle]

My twins were reading by three as well (as was I, come to think of it). Lots of reading to them, but we also made a game where my wife or I would change random words or names in the books we were reading. We'd start off doing it to a story they knew very well and for humour (ie: Humpty Dumpty sat on a pig...), and gradually work our way to more subtle changes in books we hadn't read before. We knew they were reading along when thay caught us out.

Also Reader Rabbit and other reading games. Lots available for PC, Mac, etc. Vtech Leapster handhelds have some great reading and math games as well. I haven't looked into what's available for iOS or Android lately, but a couple of years ago there wasn't much that weren't "read along" stories. Things may have changed.

[elemenoP]

I find it very surprising that kids are expected to know some words coming IN to Kindergarten. What happens if they don't? Where we are (NY), there are no prerequisites to Kindergarten. After all, some kids go to pre-K, and some kids don't.

When my daughter started K, she couldn't read at all, knew some but not all of her letters, and only wrote 3 out of 6 letters when asked to write her name. On the other hand, she always loved books and could tell you the entire story after you read a book to her. She just didn't want to do the hard work of sounding out words.

At the end of K, she was still a poor reader and I was beginning to be concerned. During the summer, I set up a reward system for reading books (alternating a book and a toy for every ten books she read) and she liked that. Her reading was still not great. In the middle of first grade (just before she turned 7), it all finally clicked and she started shooting up the charts. At every reading assessment, she skipped several levels. Now she is ending first grade (today!) reading at a mid-2nd grade level.

So all that is a long-winded way of saying, it happens when it happens. For some kids that's earlier, and for some kids it's later. The most important part of literacy at 5 and 6 is reading to your kids, every day.

eP

[steven522]

Don't read "to" the child, read "with" the child. One of the things I loved most was sitting on the couch with my daughter reading a book. We would take large books loaded with short stories, such as fairy tale collections, and she would follow along as I read the words. In the beginning it was mostly me reading and her admiring the full color pictures, but that changes eventually. The thing to remember is to not make it a chore for the child. You want the child to enjoy the time as much as you do.

Also, early on, we found a great series of books about one of her favorite cartoons. Each sentence contained a small picture in place of a word. I would start reading, pointing out each word and saying it and when I got to the picture, she would say that part. (One day [picture of Scooby Doo] and [picture of Shaggy] went for a walk.) In a very short time, she was actually saying the words she recognized along with the pictures.


Side note: In our area a child entering Kindergarten should know how to write their name and is expected to be able to recognize numbers and letters but not necessarily be able to do any major counting or to properly recite the alphabet all the way through.

[estelle58]

Originally Posted by steven522

Don't read "to" the child, read "with" the child. One of the things I loved most was sitting on the couch with my daughter reading a book. We would take large books loaded with short stories, such as fairy tale collections, and she would follow along as I read the words. In the beginning it was mostly me reading and her admiring the full color pictures, but that changes eventually. The thing to remember is to not make it a chore for the child. You want the child to enjoy the time as much as you do.

That's what I did with my daughter And last week I bought my 2 1/2 months old grand-daughter her first baby book and she loved looking at the pictures when her mommy showed her the book

[steven522]

Originally Posted by estelle58

That's what I did with my daughter And last week I bought my 2 1/2 months old grand-daughter her first baby book and she loved looking at the pictures when her mommy showed her the book

They're never too young to read to.

Also, they're never too old. My daughter is fifteen now and I still call her over and I read paragraphs out of books I am currently working on. Usually these are snippets that really don't need much explaining and are either humorous or relate to an incident we've personally experienced. Some times the short passages get her interested in the book and she gets them and reads them on her own. That's how she got into the Hobbit and the Dresden Files series.

[RainingLemur]

We're going through the same kind of thing with our 5 year old. He loves being read to, but he's got very little interest in trying to read (which is understandable - he doesn't know how to, yet).

He's starting to get more and more into it. He knows how to spell his name and, when he sits down to do it, can write it (in better penmanship than I can muster anymore). He knows his letters for the most part. It's been a slow process, through. We have flashcards, some fun workbooks, a crap-ton of magnetic letters on the fridge spelling out all kinds of things, and he has a couple electronic toy things that do alphabet and number stuff. More often than not, though, he just wants to play. And, most attempts to try to mix play and learning end up crashing.

But, it's best that we (parental units) keep from getting frustrated with it ourselves. It'll come in due time.

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by steven522

Side note: In our area a child entering Kindergarten should know how to write their name and is expected to be able to recognize numbers and letters but not necessarily be able to do any major counting or to properly recite the alphabet all the way through.

And what happens if they don't? They get sent back to pre-K or preschool? The parents get a stern talking to?

Another way I used to like to engage my child in the reading process: at night when we were going to read a book, I would choose three books (from the pool of picture books that we read over and over again) and ask her to tell me the "theme" or what the three books had in common. Examples: all featuring a princess, all books about the subway (yes that was an actual theme, we have a bunch!), all the same size covers, all books with black and white art, etc. When you know the books very well, you can do more subtle themes too. Then she gets to choose which of the three books we read. (I actually started this because I got sick of her choosing the exact same book every night! So I wanted to mix it up but still give her a choice!) Anyway, my daughter enjoyed this.

eP

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by steven522

They're never too young to read to.

Also, they're never too old. My daughter is fifteen now and I still call her over and I read paragraphs out of books I am currently working on. Usually these are snippets that really don't need much explaining and are either humorous or relate to an incident we've personally experienced. Some times the short passages get her interested in the book and she gets them and reads them on her own. That's how she got into the Hobbit and the Dresden Files series.

That's good to know because I dread the day when my daughter no longer wants me to read to her!

eP

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

..............................my biggest concern is that the school is requiring them to have some sort of ability to read simple words before being allowed in Kindergarten (which I've never heard of before and sounds crazy). This is a public school, not private................

Daft ..........

Being "allowed" ?


Don't they allow for the fact that children mature and learn at different rates ?

As an ex-teacher, I can understand the practice of perhaps putting back a child's admittance for a few weeks/days if the school felt it in the child's interest, that's acceptable practise, but to demand basic reading skills before admitting seems absurd.
But perhaps the school considers parents of all backgrounds, and reading abilities, better equipped to start children reading than trained professionals ?

Smacks of a touch of concern for the school's achievement/success rates, frankly .........and it does save the staff a bit of work of course........

[steven522]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

And what happens if they don't? ... The parents get a stern talking to?

Actually, yes. Our school system has a registration day/night for students at the start of each school year. A parent or guardian is expected to show up and turn in the papers and supplies and meet the teacher. At this point the teacher explains that the child must know how to print their name, etc., and the parent is expected to work with the child over the intervening weeks before school to help them achieve this.

We, as parents, have always been involved in our daughter's schooling and have participated in as much as we can for her. However, I have seen other parents who take the attitude of "that's why we send 'em to school" and don't really seem to care one way or the other.

[speakingtohe]

I learned to read at 3 by sitting on y grandmother's knee as if by osmosis. My brother sat on the same knee and did not. I taught my brother to read by reading comic books to him and pointing at the words, but he wanted to know how.

My sister can read but doesn't often for pleasure. She is 58 and her reading skills are not high but she can read the TV guide and entertainment magazines quite well, and enjoys crossword puzzles.

She was read to as a child and was the unwilling participant of flash cards, remedial reading courses etc.

My opinion which is only an opinion is that if being taught at home, whether by games, rewards, challenges is acceptable to the child than that is good. If it agitates or bores them then maybe not. Most children of my generation were taught to read in school and the vast majority learned.

Very harsh about the cereberal palsy, sounds like you love them both. My best wishes.

Helen

[carpetmojo]

The Scandinavian system takes a much more relaxed view about things, and time has shown there that a later start to formal schooling makes no difference to reading or academic ability.

( A bit like me planting my bean seeds at different times to get a continuous supply - it never makes much difference, they all catch-up to each other eventually, all seem to flower at the same time, and I still have a glut to get rid of ! )

[Lirael]

Goodness, this is making me feel old and I'm only 23! I think requiring children to read before they get to kindergarten is just plain nuts. Whatever happened to just letting kids be kids?

When I was a child we always had books in the house and my parents read to me every night, but they didn't teach me my alphabet and certainly didn't try to teach me to read - they felt that was better left to the teachers. (Though I think by the end of it they wished I would just read to myself, as I was always wanting one more story... :P ) When we started learning to read in school, I learned very quickly because I liked books so much and was impatient to read them myself! I think if I'd been forced to read I definitely wouldn't have liked it so much, and wouldn't have wanted to work so hard.

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by steven522

However, I have seen other parents who take the attitude of "that's why we send 'em to school" and don't really seem to care one way or the other.

I can't stand that attitude. I don't think kids really get ahead that way. They may meet status quo, but wouldn't you want them to strive to be more?

Anyway, thanks for all the tips and suggestions!

I did the first page in the activity book today, which was just recognizing letters and after reading them with her, I asked her to find certain letters, and was easily able to pin-point trouble letters for her (N, Q, U), but the nice thing was after that fist page (labled day 1), she wanted to go on to the next page. After completing a few pages, you get to put a sticker on the bottom of the page as kind of a reward. It even has exercise breaks like "touch your toes 10 times" in between some of the activities...really cool stuff!

Later that day she was much more open to answering questions I was asking while I was reading to her during my sons OT and Speech therapy session.