Read-with-your-child

Reading with your child

We all love to hear “Read this to me, please!” because it means that our children are interested in books. But do you sometimes wonder whether there are ways that you could improve your reading-for-enjoyment times with your children? The most important thing is for you to enjoy yourselves because that way your children will…

Phonemic Awareness: A Simple Guide for Parents

Phonemic Awareness: A Simple Guide for Parents

Research shows that for children to become enthusiastic, fluent readers, they need a firm grasp of phonics and the alphabetic code. That’s where phonological and phonemic awareness — the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in words — come into play. Having said that, we understand that it can sometimes be hard to know…

Letter sounds and names

Letter sounds and names

Before your child can learn to read, he or she must first learn some basic letter names and letter sounds. For example, the letter “A” makes the /A/ (ah) sound. (slashes denote the sound of the letter). To be able to read, a child must be able to recognize the letters, know the sound of the letters, and be able to recognize the letters quickly and say the sound…

Developing phonemic awareness

Developing phonemic awareness

One of the best ways to help your child develop phonemic awareness is through practising “blending”. Being able to blend and segment words helps children to read and spell. According to the National Reading Panel, blending helps children develop reading skills where printed letters are turned into sounds which combine to form words. Start blending practice with some…

The best way to teach your child to read

The best way to teach your child to read

What’s the best way to teach a child to read?  This is a hotly debated topic – especially when the debate revolves around phonics and phonemic awareness vs whole language method of learning to read. I can tell you decisively right now that phonics and phonemic awareness are far better methods for teaching children to read than the whole language method….