The earlier you expose your child(ren) to language the earlier they will become readers. Learning to read is a trained brain activity. While it may seem for some that reading is an innate ability that just happens, what is actually happening is the processing systems in our brain are functioning at an increased rate! This makes picking up language, oral and print, easily.
My son started to read words close to two years old and read books by the time he was three (he's four now). My daughter started reading words shortly after turning one year old and has been reading books a bit after one and a half years old (she's two now).
How is this possible? Follow this series of blog posts, "Grooming Stellar Readers" to learn how we are accomplishing this goal now.
In part five of “Grooming Stellar Readers” we wrote about the use of transitioning from sticky notes to index cards. Sight words that your child has learned are written on each index card and your child learns how to independently practice reading these words throughout the day.
At this point an increased number of sight words should be introduced to your child and these words can become the “Words of the Week”.
Words of the Week
‘Words of the Week’ are words you introduce on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (depending on your child’s ability) to your little one. You can start with two words up to ten. It all depends on how receptive your little one is to learning and is able to retain and recall what they have learned. Currently, I am exposing my little ones to multi-syllabic words to practice word exposure but also pronunciation and meaning. These words can start off as sight words but should eventually evolve into more complex words. These complex words can be multi-syllabic words. These are words that have more than one syllable in them. Some words that are repetitive in a book could be the focus for the week. These are words your child may not have been introduced to or read about before. Lastly, there may be words categorized by parts of speech (e.g., nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives) you may be interested in exploring with your little one. We suggest starting with sight words and transition to the Fry Word List. These words are similar to sight words but based on the most common words that appear in reading materials found in grades 3-9. The words are listed by their frequency so if you have been exposing your child to sight words they will be familiar with the first couple of grouped words. There are 1,000 words and based on your child’s current ability you will be able to match them to the correct group. Access to these words can be found here.
To learn more about how you can groom your child into a stellar reader, set up a free 30 minute consultation by contacting us at info@cuenye.com
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