In schools, early learning to read and write is different. Somewhere they say that a child should not be able to do anything - it’s better to learn from scratch than to retrain if something is incorrectly learned. Somewhere they demand that children come with already formed reading and writing skills, at least in the initial form - reading by syllables and writing in block letters. How to teach a child to read syllables and is it worth it?
In any case, this remains the decision of the parents. Many parents take their children to school preparation classes or hire a teacher who should teach the child to read. These services can be expensive. Therefore, those parents who have free time, as well as patience and enthusiasm, deal with the children themselves. How to teach a child to read syllables at home? This is worth dwelling in more detail. If you are one of these parents, it will be useful for you to find out how to gradually progress in teaching your child to read, so that the process is interesting and instills a love of books for life, and the result is well established.
Early birds
There are very different opinions on this. One point of view is that you need to teach your child to read syllables as early as possible. Ideally, up to three years. After all, the children's brain is very plastic, and a new skill will easily enter it. It’s about as easy and natural as the children learn their native language. We are all fluent in Russian, but learning foreign languages is always a difficult job. The brain of a young child is really very plastic and receptive.
The quieter you go, the further you'll get
But this position also has opponents. They say: "Everything has its time!" This amazing period, when the baby absorbs everything like a sponge, is given for a reason. And not at all in order to absorb all possible knowledge. At this age, the baby learns to express his emotions, control his body, communicate with other children and adults, learn the world in his own way. And if all his attention and strength are transferred to the mainstream, will not his emotional and social development be depleted? All parents dream of the harmonious development of the child, but do not want to grow a closed "nerd" who swallows tons of books, but does not know how to communicate.
To each his own
Probably one of the solutions to this dilemma is a compromise. And it depends on the individual characteristics of the child. If the baby is ready to receive knowledge - why not give it to him? And vice versa, if the process goes through force, out of a desire to accelerate events - why this rush? You can wait a minimum of at least 5 years. And to teach a child of 6 years to read in syllables, as you might guess, it is simply necessary - the school is ahead.
Whether the child is ready to learn to read, the following criteria will tell.
Advanced speech
The child speaks well enough. He correctly pronounces sounds, knows how to build long sentences and tell whole stories. Can retell the plot of a fairy tale or cartoon. The thing is that writing and reading are considered types of speech. Together they form written speech, which is more complicated than oral (speaking and listening, as psycholinguists put it), and is based on it. There are cases when reading is ahead of the development of oral speech and pulls it along. This happens when applying special pedagogical methods for deafness, as well as autism. Usually this is the so-called global reading - when the child learns to grasp the entire image of the word and associate it with the picture. Of course, some methods offer such a method of training and normal. And this is only beneficial if the images of words are familiar to the child. But still, by its very nature, reading is based on speech. While the child speaks poorly, you need to focus on the development of his oral speech and the correction of its defects.
Good sound pronunciation
As long as the child has incorrectly pronounced sounds, even if he began to read, he cannot advance too far through the ABC book, because he does not need to read the words with the corresponding letters. How to teach a child to read in syllables if he pronounces sounds incorrectly ?! This will only fix the wrong pronunciation in the speech, and the image of the letter in his presentation will be associated with this very wrong sound. Therefore, when he learns to pronounce it correctly, he will have to relearn it and read it correctly, that is, to do unnecessary double work. Therefore, focus on correcting sound pronunciation. If you decide not to work with a speech therapist, there are lots of recommendations and videos on how to set sounds and how to automate them, that is, to fix in speech, to form the habit of speaking correctly.
Interest in reading
The child should be interested in reading. In order for him to have a need to read, he must read aloud to him a variety of children's poems, tales, and stories. If it’s customary to read at home, the child may also be wondering what mother is so passionate about and what they write in her book. At some point, the mysterious black squiggles on the pages can seriously intrigue the child: adults can figure out this secret code, it would be good for me!
Perseverance
Readiness for learning is indicated by perseverance. This item is directly related to the previous one. First, you need to devote about 10 minutes to learning attempts, and if the child is interested, he will not be very distracted. But if he constantly tries to run away, is naughty and laughs, then perhaps the time has not come yet. By the way, the ability to concentrate also develops in all children in due time.
Space orientation
The child should be able to navigate in space and understand what is left-right, up-down. And where is the reading? Letters are characters that are located on a piece of paper. The letters themselves have a mutual arrangement of elements, in addition, they are added into words - not just like that, but from left to right, words - into lines, and lines go from top to bottom. For an adult, it is so obvious that it ceases to be noticed. While reading, we only think about the content. But the child has only to figure out all this intricate system!
Phonemic Hearing
The child should have a well-developed phonemic hearing. What it is? There is just a rumor - physical, with the help of which we distinguish all kinds of rustling, knocking and other noises, as well as perceive the volume of speech. Phonemic hearing is specialized more narrowly - it is aimed at distinguishing speech sounds. So the child can hear perfectly and hear perfectly the whisper from the next room, but still does not know how to distinguish C from Z or from Sh by ear. Of course, in this case he will be confused in letters. In addition, for reading it is very important to perceive the sequence of sounds in words, the position of a particular sound in a word. The child must hear and recognize the sound at the beginning of the word, in the middle and at the end.
Preparatory work
How easy is it to teach a child to read syllables? Before proceeding with the actual reading, you can develop all the skills from which it will be composed. What games are needed to train phonemic hearing?
You can call words starting with a specific sound. For example, "name the words on A." Many children love to play with words. They learn and study language in this way. If the child does not understand the task, tell him, give yourself a few words. Let him continue.
The word game. This is about the same as a game in the cities, but it’s too early for a kid to get involved with geographical names. This game will require more complex analysis - you need to determine the last sound in the word and come up with a new one, where it will be in the beginning. You say “lipA”, the child - “ArbuZ”, you - “Zakat”, he - “Pumpkin” and so on.
There is another game, popular among speech therapists and loved by children. If the child hears the named sound in the word, he should clap his hands (or stomp, as it is more convenient). For example, you make a sound “o”. You name different words: "cat", "house", "phone", "dad", "sister", "table", etc. In a word where there is a sound "o", the child should slam.
Work with the primer
Now you can begin to actually learn to read. How to teach a child to read syllables? For this, it is important to choose a good primer. In different primers, different techniques are used, and the letters go in different sequences. Speech therapists advise the Zhukova primer. It pays attention to the correct pronunciation of sounds, and they are arranged in order of prevalence in speech. The two vowels A and U are studied first. And then it is proposed to combine them - the combinations “Au” and “Wa” are obtained - the cry of a mushroom picker in the forest and the baby’s crying.
Having studied several letters, the child can already read the first words consisting of them. No need to rush forward and learn more than one letter per day. On the contrary, it is best to fix the studied letter - remember more words that begin on it. You can try to determine where this letter is in different words - at the beginning, at the end or in the middle. It is important that the child remembers the visual image of the letter well. To better study the shape of the letter, you can cut it out of paper, use letters from different materials to the touch. So visual perception is also supported by tactile.
No need to say the name of the letter, for the child it should be associated with the sound that he makes in a speech. That is, M is "M", not "Me" and not "Em." So it will be easier for him to combine letters into syllables, and syllables into words: not “me-a-me-a”, but immediately “ma-ma”. So you can teach your child to read words in syllables. As it turned out, not so difficult.
About the same can be done with cubes. First, learn a few letters and sounds. You need to be sure that the child has learned them. For example, he looks at the letter and the picture and says “A - watermelon”, “B - ram”. In this case, he understood the principle. So, you can put two cubes together and offer to read. Of course, first the child will name the letters separately: M, A. How to teach a child to read syllables together? We need to give him an example: let's merge them together, like this: “Ma!” This is excellent in the exercise with the tracks, which is in the Zhukova primer. There you need to move along the path from one letter to another and all this time pull the first sound. By the way, this is also suitable for reverse syllables, for example: “Ahhh!”
Useful Tips
How to teach a child to read in syllables so that he learns the material and love reading? Do not conduct classes during illness or when the child is only recovering. In this state, there may be increased fatigue, new skills will be absorbed worse. The learning process will be painful for the child, and this can lead to a dislike in him for reading and learning.
Shouting, threats, and punishment are unacceptable here. The child masters a new and complex world. What is obvious to us is for him for the first time. Therefore, it is not necessary to proceed from the position of “what is incomprehensible here?” If the process does not go, you should contact an experienced teacher. You are struggling with the question: how to quickly teach a child to read in syllables? Maybe a technique is not suitable for the child, or maybe he has not yet developed the mental processes on which reading is based.
But to praise for the slightest success is a useful thing. This will increase motivation and self-confidence.
To be engaged, as already mentioned, you need no more than 10 minutes. But in this case, too, some restless children find it difficult not to be distracted. Try to take a moving break. For a child to get up and jump or run is a natural need. Sometimes it’s a pity that we, adults, can sit at the computer for hours without getting up, and for a long time we don’t feel that the body needs a warm-up.