Best Way to Teach Kids to Read
What's the best way to teach children to read?
According to the
National Reading Panel, "teaching children to
manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a
variety of teaching conditions with a variety of learners across
a range of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic
awareness to children significantly improves their reading more
than instruction that lacks any attention to Phonemic
Awareness." [1]
This is a statement made
by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in their report titled "TEACHING
CHILDREN TO READ: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the
Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications
for Reading Instruction.
" Phonemic Awareness instruction was selected for review by the
NRP in their report because studies have identified phonemic
awareness and letter knowledge as two of the best predictors of
how well children will learn to read in their first 2 years of
entering school. There is strong Scientific evidence to suggest
that phonemic awareness instructions are an important part in
helping children develop reading skills.
One study discussed the
presence of phonemic awareness in Austrian children aged 6 to 7
that were unable to read when first entering school. This study
found that many children had not one correct response in their
test of a simple vowel substitution task. However, a few
children who exhibited high phonemic awareness scored close to
perfect on this same task. The study further stated that "there
was a specific predictive relationship between initial phonemic
awareness differences and success in learning to read and to
spell." Even more importantly, the study indicated that it
was phonemic awareness abilities, and not IQ, that predicted the
accuracy of reading and spelling at the end of grade one.
Children with high phonemic awareness at the beginning of grade
one had high reading and spelling achievements at the end of
grade one, compared to some children with low phonemic awareness
who had difficulties learning to read and spell. [2]
In the National Reading Panel report, they also determined that
the beneficial effects of phonemic awareness on reading lasts
well beyond the period of training. While phonemic awareness
instructions are proven to significantly help children learn
reading, it is not a complete reading program. What it does, is
provide children with a foundational knowledge base of the
alphabet language. The NRP analysis also showed that phonics
instructions produces significant benefits for students from
kindergarten through grade 6, and is also helpful for children
with learning to read difficulties.
Children who are taught with phonics and phonemic awareness
instructions are consistently able to decode, read, and spell,
and even demonstrated significant improvement in their ability
to comprehend text. Even older children who receive these
similar teachings improved their ability to decode and spell.
The NRP made a key statement saying that "conventional wisdom
has suggested that kindergarten students might not be ready for
phonics instruction, this assumption was not supported by the
data. The effects of systematic early phonics instruction were
significant and substantial in kindergarten and the 1st grade,
indicating that systematic phonics programs should be
implemented at those age and grade levels."
However, I would like to
further expand on that by saying that children as young as two
years old can learn to read through phonics and phonemic
awareness instructions. If a young child can speak, then they
should be able to learn to read, even if they are as young as
two years old. In fact, I have proven this with my own children.
We started teaching our daughter at 2 years and 8months, and she
was very capable at reading by the time she was just 2 years and
11 months old.
>>
Click here to learn more about the simple, step-by-step phonics
and phonemic awareness program we used to teach her to read.
|