Reading is a basic skill that should be taught to every child. Without being able to read it is difficult to gain the knowledge you need to succeed in life. Yet, you may be surprised to find that roughly 10% of the world population remains incapable of understanding written text.
The situation is gradually improving but it’s important that you assist your child with reading from as early an age as possible.
Reading at Age 4
Four is a good age for children to start developing and building reading skills. But, if your child is four and doesn’t yet know how to read you don’t need to be concerned. Reading takes time to learn and patience to do. Unfortunately, most four-year-olds don’t have the attention span to learn how to read.
Even if they can read the words it doesn’t mean that they are able to fully understand what they are reading, they are simply putting images and words together.
This is a positive sign of personal development and one that should be encouraged by you and their child care center.
Aiding Reading
The first thing to note is that pushing your child too much is likely to deter them from wanting to read. It’s very important that reading is fun, this will encourage them to do it more often. How much time you spend with them reading will depend on the even of reading they currently enjoy. If they are finding it hard to read simple words then the effort of reading will quickly tire them and they’ll lose interest. In this instance, reading one word is all you need to focus on, just try several times during the day.
There are several things you can do to help your four years old develop their reading skills:
-
Read To Them
You can read to your unborn child while they are in your womb. You can also read to them from the moment they are born. This will help them to learn spoken words, become accustomed to your voice, and see that you enjoy reading. That’s a powerful inspiration for them later.
-
Let Them read Words they Know
When you do show them books for them to read make sure it is one word and a picture. This helps them to know what the word is even if they can’t actually read it. You can then repeat this regularly, allowing them to memorize the shape of the letters that form the word.
This will encourage their brain to remember it. To help further you should sometimes let them read words they know. This will help them to feel confident and want to read more.
-
Make It Fun
Reading must be fn. This is actually true for all ages if you want to do it as a leisure activity. While a scheduled read at bedtime is nice for building routine and word familiarity, random moments are better the rest of the time.
You can pick words wherever you are, they don’t have to be in a book. Simply, show your child a word and let them try to read it. You can help them sound it out and make sure they know they’ve done well when they have read it.
Over time it will improve and they’ll want to read books themselves.