Learning to read is not a skill which we are hard wired for in the same way that our brains are hard wired for speech. Learning to read takes persistence, skill and benefits greatly from the enthusiasm of parents and teachers!

Read on to discover more about the various methods used in teaching children to read.

 

This is our alphabetic system and how it works - the letters and the sounds they represent. Understanding this helps children build up words they don't know.

This method teaches children a sight vocabulary of complete words through repetition. Many important words have to be taught by repetition because they cannot be sounded out using phonics.

The words most frequently used in the English language. One hundred of these words make up half the total number of words found in children's reading. These words are usually taught as look and say sight vocabulary.

A combination of phonics, key words and look and say methods. This combination helps to ensure that children develop many different strategies to help them to learn to read.

Helping your child learn to read is not just about skills, it's also about interest, understanding and boosting confidence. Ladybird's full range of reading materials give lots of support to children who are just starting to connect the words they hear with writing on a page while also providing enough challenges to keep children interested as they make progress.

Some very common words cannot be made from alphabet sounds. Words such as 'they', 'said' and 'was' need to be recognised as whole words. These are usually taught to children through reading schemes which repeat the words a lot in a story which gives them meaning. Reading schemes are often supported by flash cards which help children to memorise and recall a word on sight, helping them to learn the spellings to use in their own writing.

Schemes have a very important part to play in teaching children to read. Carefully planned first and early readers help children to recognise important words on sight (key words), and to understand the relationship between sounds, letters and words (phonics). Some schemes concentrate on developing phonics, others on key words - and some schemes combine phonics and key words. Good reading schemes also develop children's confidence in reading, and are so lively and exciting that children want to read them - and go on reading!