Best Way to Teach Kids to Read
By: ChildrenLearningReading.com (CLICK HERE For More Info).
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.
Replace link with your own HOP LINK above.
1. National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel.
Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific
research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH
Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
2. Cognition. 1991 Sep;40(3):219-49.
The relationship of phonemic awareness to reading acquisition: more consequence
than precondition but still important.
Wimmer H, Landerl K, Linortner R, Hummer P.
University of Salzburg, Austria.
Comments
Post a Comment