The easiest, fastest, surest, and most interesting way to teach a child to read is to teach him the sounds of the letters (even before he knows their names), a few simple rules about how to combine sounds into words, and perhaps a dozen of the few common exceptions. He can then begin to read most of the thousands of words he already knows. One of the best reading programs around, for example, does all of this in the first semester of first grade, then devotes all its other reading books to delightful fiction and nonfiction with no nonsense necessary about word lists or controlled vocabulary.
To expect a child to decode written language without telling him the code is going to make him feel stupid, as well as encourage him to guess instead of think, to risk devastating failure and to deny him the pleasures of reading for unnecessary years. Children’s minds between the ages of 9 months and 3 years have an unparalleled ability and desire to absorb facts. The years between 1 and 5 are crucial to a child’s future. Since a child’s brain growth is 80 percent complete by this is the best time to begin fostering the ability to read and decode words to your child, instead of wasting this time in his life with gibberish and foolish baby talk.
Why not use this time more productively and teach your child to read at this time? One of the most important characteristics of a parent who wants to teach a young child to read is that he or she must be prepared to be a “professional” parent. One must be totally committed to teaching the child. This is not something that can be done randomly.
One way in which you can catapult your child to early reading success is to start off by using large pieces of poster board and writing the two words: Mommy and Daddy. Make sure that these are printed in large letters on the cards and are shown periodically to the child. The child both sees and hears the word. This beginning exercise of two words is expanded to words naming parts of the body (“self” words), followed by familiar objects and from there on to word groupings and sentences. As the child’s visual pathways develop, the size of the letters on the cards decreases.
Before the teaching can begin, the parent and the child must be totally at ease with each other. Sessions with the child should always end before the child wants them to; the parent must anticipate this time. Five minutes per session is suggested for small children. As the child grows, sessions will increase in length and may be held several times each day. Hearing the word and seeing it will constitute the learning process, and soon the child will be able to identify a particular word or series of words when they are grouped together.