Learning to read begins as early as when a baby learns to talk. Sharing books with your child; talking about the pictures and reading the words, lays the foundation for pre-reading skills such as page turning and memorising the sounds. It is important to remember that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates, and there is no substitute for the enthusiasm of a parent or teacher to spark a love of reading in a child.

Most of us will remember learning to read by matching pictures to words and eventually moving onto simple books. Understanding the way children are taught to read today can feel quite daunting.

In a nutshell:

Key words:
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.

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.

Phonics:
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.

Mixed methods:
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.

Reading whole words
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.

The role of reading schemes and support readers
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!

How parents can help at home
Demonstrating your own enthusiasm for books is possibly the best start you can give your child when learning to read. Hearing you read to them at bedtime and associating reading with pleasure will give them enormous benefits throughout their education and beyond. Once your child starts school, ten minutes each day spent together enjoying a short story from a good reading scheme is a fantastic investment in their skills. Enjoyable, regular and short practice really does make perfect! Look for a scheme that's especially written for home use and check with your child's school if you're worried.

Choosing a reading scheme and support reader series
Look for a scheme that:

• progresses in small steps
• has lots of repetition
• is colourful, fun to look at and has lots of child appeal!
• gives you the information you need to help your child
• contains funny stories and rhymes in simple language
• fits in with the way children are taught at school
• sounds as natural as possible
• is simple enough to give children a rapid, confidence-boosting feeling of success.

Reading Materials
Ladybird schemes are carefully planned by experts to fit in with the way children are taught to read at school.

Ladybird publishes two different reading schemes plus several support reader series. They are all appropriate for helping your child to read but cover different methods of doing so. But don't worry the end result will be the same. Varying art styles and stories appeal to different children and their parents.

This chart will help you to pick the right book for your child from Ladybird's three reading series.

	Key Words	Read it Yourself	Phonics
Starter readers	1a to 2c	Level 1	Books 1 to 3
Developing readers	3a to 4c	Level 2 to 3	Books 4 to 9
Improved readers	5a to 7c	Level 3 to 4	Books 10 to 12
Confident readers	8a to 9c	Level 4	-
Independent readers	10a to 12c	-	-