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5 Tips To Make Learning To Read Easier

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To thrive at school and then develop the best possible career, your child needs to be an excellent reader. Just being able to read is not enough.

A child that enjoys reading will consume 2-3 books a week. That can be 10-20 times more than an average reader and so the gap opens steadily between the two.

Here are 5 techniques we use in our Easyread System to help a child develop a love of reading:

TIP 1 - Avoid Early Reading Books

You probably think I'm nuts now! But we have seen so many children who have travelled down the wrong path, because of early reading books. It isn't the right way for a child to first start reading.

A bright child will look at the text and use the easiest approach, which is to memorise some words and guess the others. That seems to work OK at first, but leads to more and more guessing as the books get more complicated.

This leads down a blind alley of despair, as your child gets more and more confused. And you will see a strong resistance to reading practice appear.

TIP 2 - "Dimensionalise" the Phonemes

We use 43 phonemes (the little sounds within words) to create every word in English. You can find them at the beginning of any dictionary. Your child needs to know them, to make learning to read easier.

Because they are just sounds, the phonemes are hard for a child to remember. So we create a visual image for each one. That gives them physical dimensions and makes them much easier to remember. For instance, for the letter E we use the eggs with little legs, the eagle looking regal and the earth full of mirth. Do you see how easily those get locked into your memory?

The majority of your child's memory capacity is visual.

TIP 3 - Play These Games

So what should you use rather than a book?

We find games like these work well:

Build-A-Word. Select 6 plastic letters, including two vowels. Repeat the main sound of each one. Then think of a simple word for your child to write with them.

Selec-A-Word. This is a simple reading exercise. Write three similar words on a piece of paper, like ten, pen, pin. Then read one of them out and ask your child to select it.

Nonsense Words. Using your plastic letters again, write a nonsense word, like leb, kib, teg, vod. Ask your child to try to read it.

Easyread-I-Spy. If you know the classic "I Spy..." game, play it using the first sound of the object, rather than the first letter.

TIP 4 - Less is More

You want to maximise the success of your child, so limit a reading session to 10-15 minutes maximum.

TIP 5 - Try Easyread TrainerText

TrainerText is a unique system that we use to allow a child to read without needing help. Just write the text with the images for the phonemes that you have created in Tip 2 floating above each word.

That will stop your child from getting stuck and is great for building confidence.

Using these techniques you will see a new confidence developing over just a few days. The children using Easyread are more enthusiastic from day 1 and have jumped forward in their reading within 3 weeks.