By Darlene Lewis, Academic Interventionist, More to Grow Cognitive Development Training
Contrary to popular belief, the ABC song we all learned as children seems unnecessary for learning how to read. For some students learning letter names actually complicates the reading process. Say aloud the letter C. Do you hear the /s/ sound? Try G, H, W. Do you hear other embedded letter sounds? (G says /j/, H has an /a/ sound and W has a /u/.) Why have a naive English speaker learn all 26 letter names first? Parents, instead of teaching letter names, let’s concentrate on teaching the letter sounds (phonemic awareness), and soon consonant-vowel-consonant words will be slipping off your little one’s tongue. Then sing the song all you like.
There is a program that builds upon the fact that we learn our language from hearing it and repeating it, not from reading it. As an academic interventionist I’ve found this evidence based reading program worked for children who were not successful with traditional or even Orton-Gillingham reading instruction. One by one, children who could not rhyme or blend after months and even years with talented teachers and tutors would succeed with this program’s one-on-one instruction.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was the top performing program in the single largest comparison conducted by the US Office of Education. Using letter sounds, rhyming, saying words slowly to hear each letter sound, it creatively and quickly develops reading confidence. Over ten thousand K5-3rd grade children from various backgrounds, including Indian reservations, poverty, middle class, rural areas, and cities, participated in the study and consistently proved the worth of this outstanding curricula. The successful results lasted years after the instruction was given, providing reading and language achievement as well as improved self-esteem. It is more effective because it controls more details that are important to successful teaching. This simple program can be started with 3 year olds and only costs $20.
Things to remember:
- Refer to letters not by name, but as sounds: “What sound is this?” Or “Write the sound /m/.”
- Children should be on a 2nd grade reading level by the end of the book, which facilitates moving to short chapter books such as The Magic Tree House or The Boxcar Children.
- When a child is reading picture books, cover the pictures so the child is decoding words for understanding, not using pictures as cues. Good readers visualize details in their minds as they read; encourage this process.
- Reading begins with phonemic awareness. Use flashcards to teach letter sounds.
- Give yourself the gift of intuitive flexibility. You don’t have to teach 100 lessons in 100 consecutive days. You may need to review letter sounds several days.
- If you face a difficult or disastrous lesson – stop. Practice the same words featured in the lesson with games, refrigerator magnets, or bath foam letters, or create a homemade book together featuring those words. Make flashcards with the known words and have children create and illustrate their own stories. Have fun, then start fresh the next day.
- Re-reading parts of lessons for making a video to share with grandparents can be fun.
- Respond to your child’s efforts, but also reinforce appropriate behavior and correct mistakes. Do not overlook mistakes and allow sloppy effort and poor habits.
- Compliment diligence and effort, “You are a really hard worker.” Compliment success with a measure of surprise showing they did more than you expected, “That’s amazing. You are really smart.”, “Wow! Wait until ____ hears you do that tonight! He’ll be so surprised!”
- If you want a more traditional approach, a strong user-friendly program is ABeCeDarian. This is another beloved proven reading series that has workbooks along with each skill.
- If reading is slow and laborious and creates many discipline issues, be curious. Could your child have a few foundational weak cognitive skills that make learning difficult? It may be time to seek an evaluation with More to Grow Cognitive Development Training to see if there is a weak working memory or auditory processing issue. If you are outside of Birmingham, AL, More to Grow is able to work remotely with you.
When schools were closed during the Coronavirus pandemic spread through the world in 2020, parents had to take on the unexpected challenge of virtual learning with their children. I had the privilege of helping reluctant, stressed parents become confident and equipped to use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons program on their own. Parents were successfully learning how to teach, as their children were learning how to read. I had the best seat in the house watching this magic.
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The mission of More to Grow Cognitive Development Training is to improve learning ability and function through cognitive exercises that meaningfully transfer to all educational and everyday life situations so individuals maximize their potential.