Q: How can I help my kindergartner learn how to read? I don't know how to help him.
A: There are some simple things that you can do at home to support his learning at school. First and foremost, read aloud to him every night, without exception. Reading aloud is the perfect tool to promote the pleasure and enjoyment of reading and to offer him a good model (you) of what reading is all about.
Second, play language games to help him become aware of the sounds of language. In order to learn to read, children must be able to hear sounds in words and then begin to match those sounds to letters. By singing songs and clapping to the rhythm, by listening for words that rhyme in poems and stories, and by talking about words (those that begin or end with the same sound, those that sound alike) you will be helping your child think consciously about language.
Third, encourage your child to write — even if him is just making scribbles. Writing actually helps develop reading skills. By forming letters, children learn to recognize certain words like their names. They also learn that written language is a communication tool. You can play "restaurant" and ask your child to be the waiter who writes down your food order. Soon you will begin to see letters and even words mixed in with the scribbles.
A: There are some simple things that you can do at home to support his learning at school. First and foremost, read aloud to him every night, without exception. Reading aloud is the perfect tool to promote the pleasure and enjoyment of reading and to offer him a good model (you) of what reading is all about.
Second, play language games to help him become aware of the sounds of language. In order to learn to read, children must be able to hear sounds in words and then begin to match those sounds to letters. By singing songs and clapping to the rhythm, by listening for words that rhyme in poems and stories, and by talking about words (those that begin or end with the same sound, those that sound alike) you will be helping your child think consciously about language.
Third, encourage your child to write — even if him is just making scribbles. Writing actually helps develop reading skills. By forming letters, children learn to recognize certain words like their names. They also learn that written language is a communication tool. You can play "restaurant" and ask your child to be the waiter who writes down your food order. Soon you will begin to see letters and even words mixed in with the scribbles.
Q: What is phonemic awareness?
A: This relatively new term describes one aspect of language development that all children must acquire for the process of learning to read to be smooth. While the term may sound long and difficult, it really refers to something quite simple: the ability to hear sounds in language and do different things with the sounds, like break them apart and blend them back together.
Phonemic awareness has absolutely nothing to do with reading or even with associating letters and sounds. It is an ability that works purely on an auditory level. For example, if I say three words to you, such as "daddy," "hat," and "dog," and you can tell me which ones have the same beginning sound, then you have successfully isolated and heard the "d" sound. You do not necessarily have to know that the name of this sound is represented by the letter d to be successful in this task.
Similarly, if you can tell me which words rhyme in a set of several, then you have successfully identified parts of words that sound the same. Finally, if I ask you to change the beginning sound of your name to the "m" sound (for example, "Susan" becomes "Musan"), then not only can you hear and isolate sounds, but you can also manipulate them — change them around.
These are all skills associated with phonemic awareness. They are critical because they are the precursors of learning to decode words and also how to spell. If a child cannot hear or manipulate sounds in the first place, then she will have enormous difficulty later identifying them and even less success connecting them to specific letters in phonics lessons.
How to help: It's actually quite simple and fun to encourage the development of phonemic awareness in your child.
A: This relatively new term describes one aspect of language development that all children must acquire for the process of learning to read to be smooth. While the term may sound long and difficult, it really refers to something quite simple: the ability to hear sounds in language and do different things with the sounds, like break them apart and blend them back together.
Phonemic awareness has absolutely nothing to do with reading or even with associating letters and sounds. It is an ability that works purely on an auditory level. For example, if I say three words to you, such as "daddy," "hat," and "dog," and you can tell me which ones have the same beginning sound, then you have successfully isolated and heard the "d" sound. You do not necessarily have to know that the name of this sound is represented by the letter d to be successful in this task.
Similarly, if you can tell me which words rhyme in a set of several, then you have successfully identified parts of words that sound the same. Finally, if I ask you to change the beginning sound of your name to the "m" sound (for example, "Susan" becomes "Musan"), then not only can you hear and isolate sounds, but you can also manipulate them — change them around.
These are all skills associated with phonemic awareness. They are critical because they are the precursors of learning to decode words and also how to spell. If a child cannot hear or manipulate sounds in the first place, then she will have enormous difficulty later identifying them and even less success connecting them to specific letters in phonics lessons.
How to help: It's actually quite simple and fun to encourage the development of phonemic awareness in your child.
- Singing songs together is probably the best way to build these skills. Songs are filled with rhymes and sound patterns; when heard and sung over and over again, these sounds become part of your child's repertoire. Furthermore, because songs are rhythmic, certain sounds are accentuated, drawn out and highlighted.
- Playing language games is another way to build phonemic awareness skills. For example: One person names a word and then you both see who can make the most rhymes from it. Nonsense words are perfectly acceptable in this game (people, meeple, steeple, creeple, cheeple). Or make up sentences together with the stipulation that every major word has to have the same beginning sound ("Six silly snakes sat slowly on a sandwich").
- Read aloud to your child — and include poetry as well as stories. Poets must have a wonderful sense of phonemic awareness because their words sound so beautiful when read aloud. They prove that sounds and rhythm contribute to the beauty of a poem as much as the words and images themselves.