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 six of “Grooming Stellar Readers” we introduced ‘Words of the Week.’ These words could vary from sight words, words from the fry list, and/or words categorized based on parts of speech. The whole point of introducing words of the week is to increase your little ones word knowledge, word meaning, and pronunciation. Not only will your little one see these words each day, they will recognize them in texts and speech.
Since your child is being exposed to a multitude of words it’s time to sort and display these words throughout the house.
It’s a Print Rich World
Your child has been learning a variety of words and now it’s time to display these words in areas of the house your little one frequents. Does your child spend a lot of time in the kitchen area? How about the living room? Or is it the playroom? The area(s) your child frequents is an opportunity for learning to occur. Displaying these words promotes a print rich environment. Your child will be immersed in language, spoken and print, daily which in turn will increase their language and word identification skills. You can create word walls around your house displayed in different ways. One way is the standard alphabet display with a few words and picture for each letter (be sure to refresh your word wall frequently). Another way is to categorize the words you have exposed your child to based on their parts of speech. The above image shows verbs not only written on index cards, but also picture representations of the words. Picture representations of words gives children the support they need in being able to remember the word and what it “looks” like in picture form. This website is a wonderful resource I use to print out visual representations of words.
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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