How to Teach a Child to Read

Start early.

Reading to your child is the best (and most fun) way to give your child a solid foundation for reading. You can start even while he is still in the womb. It’s never too early (or too late) to start reading aloud to your child. Here are some of the benefits of reading to your child:

1. It connects reading with fun and security.
2. It instills an interest in books and reading.
3. It helps to teach print concepts:
   • Reading left-to-right and top to bottom
   • Connecting letters to sounds
   • Understanding that letters make words and words make sentences
4. It builds vocabulary.
5. It develops knowledge and language skills.
6. It encourages critical thinking and comprehension.

Talk to your child. Ask and answer questions about everyday things. Establish a homeschool reading hour.

Sing to and with your child. Silly songs and nursery rhymes encourage children to “play” with language and help to develop the language centers of the brain.

Letters, Sounds, and Words.

Start with basic phonics. Teach your child to associate the letter name and sound with the written letter. Start with more familiar letters, like the letters in your child’s name. Progress through the whole alphabet. Play games like bingo or memory to associate letter names with sounds and capital letters with lowercase letters.

Having a well-written, comprehensive phonics program is essential for laying a strong foundation in early reading skills. Pathways for Preschool and Footsteps for Fours from BJU Press Homeschool offers systematic instruction in letters and sounds. Focus on Fives continues the systematic, explicit teaching of phonics for early readers.

Once your child knows the letters and sounds of the alphabet, begin blending and segmenting activities. You can do these activities orally (using only the voice), as well as pointing to the letters on the page.

1. Blending sounds to form words: Say the individual sounds that make a word, then blend them together as a word. For example, say /m/ /ŏ/ /m/ while pointing to the letters in the word. Then, slowly blend them while running your finger under each sound: mmmooommm, mom.
2. Segmenting words into individual sounds: Say the word, then say the sounds that make up the word. For example, say “dog”; then say the sounds /d/ /ŏ/ /g/ while pointing to the letters. Then it’s your child’s turn.

*Note: when saying individual sounds, be careful not to add an obvious vowel to the consonant sounds. For example, do not say ‘duh’ for /d/ or ‘guh’ for /g/.

“Sight” Words.

Sight words have many different names, such as “service words” or “high-frequency words.” The term “sight words” sometimes makes it seem like these are words that young readers cannot decode (sound out). Thus, we often teach children to memorize them “by sight.”

The truth is that fewer than half of the most common words in text are considered non-decodable. We can divide typical lists of common words into two categories:

1. Decodable words: A child can sound out these words based on phonics rules. We drill these, even though they follow phonics rules, to improve the child’s fluency. Some of the more common words will become decodable as your child learns more phonics rules. These are words such as and, at, but, had, him, in, and not.
2. Non-decodable (tricky) words: We drill the tricky ones because, well, they’re tricky! These words do not follow all the phonics rules. I, a, the, said, give, was, and come are a few examples.

How to Teach “Sight” Words.

1. Find lists of high-frequency words online. The Fry Word List or Dolch Word List are two examples. Choose a few words to start with.
2. Point out the sounds that do follow the phonics rules and then discuss the sounds that do not. For example:
   • In the, the digraph th follows the regular digraph pattern and says /th/. The vowel ‘e’ has an unusual sound—short u instead of long or short e.
   • In said, s and d have their regular sounds. The vowel team ‘ai’ is a short e instead of the long a.
3. Make flashcards for the words. Write the phonetically regular sounds in one color and the unusual sounds in another color. For example, the, said.
4. Create fun activities to drill these words, such as matching, memory, or bingo. Practice a few of these words each day. Add new ones as needed and remove ones your child has mastered.
5. Provide opportunities for your child to practice reading these words in context. This will not be hard since many of these words appear even in phonetically regular text.

Interactive Fun.

Consistent and direct teaching lays the foundation for learning to read, but keeping the experience fun is just as important. Engage your child with short, lively lessons that feel exciting rather than routine. Make practice enjoyable by incorporating multi-sensory activities that spark curiosity and enthusiasm. When learning is both structured and joyful, children are more likely to stay motivated and thrive.

Practice writing the letters the child is learning.

Have your child write his name and other simple words with crayons, pencils, markers, or even shaving cream. Put sand (or another coarse substance) on a baking tray and have your child trace letters and words with his finger. Draw pictures outside with sidewalk chalk and label the drawings. Spell words with magnetic letters on the refrigerator.

Enjoy many types of books together.

Try books with flaps, hidden pictures, or buttons with sound effects. Listen to an audiobook while looking at the book together and pointing to the words. Expose your child to all kinds of reading material. Fairy tales, magazines, early chapter books, wordless books, and nonfiction books are all great choices.

Choose books with engaging art and repetitive words to help encourage fluent reading. Take turns reading aloud to each other—a word, a sentence, or a book at a time. It’s okay if your child chooses to read the same book over and over. Repetitive reading encourages fluency.

Use your local library.

Make library trips something to look forward to. Enjoy all the resources the library offers: story times, craft times, computer games, puzzles, and—of course—books. Check out some books for yourself so that your child sees that you enjoy reading too.

Vocabulary and Comprehension.

As your child gets older, their vocabulary and comprehension skills will grow as he reads and you read to him. Daily exposure to new words will cement them in his mind. It takes much exposure to a new word before it becomes part of your child’s working vocabulary.

You can build your child’s background knowledge by exposing him to all kinds of reading materials and topics. This will improve his comprehension skills. Here are some tips to boost your child’s success in these areas:

Discuss any unfamiliar words in the text.

Talk about what the word means and use it in a new sentence. Give synonyms of the word. As your child’s skills advance, encourage him to keep a list of his favorite words with his own definitions or illustrations.

Ask questions in a friendly, conversational way.

Before your child reads a new story or book, glance at the pages together. Notice the title, headings, and illustrations. Ask your child to predict what the text is about.

During reading, pause periodically to ask a clarifying question or ask what he thinks will happen next.

After reading, ask several types of questions:

1. Simple recall: What happened? Who did what?
2. Critical thinking: Why do you think that happened? What do you think would have happened if . . .?
3. Evaluative: Did you like that story? Why or why not? Do you think the character could have made a better choice?

This blog post on Teaching Reading Comprehension dives deeper into the “Before, During, and After” approach.

For more teaching tips and advice on grading, check out the post Teaching and Assessing Reading Skills.

You can do it!

Teaching your child to read is a big and important task. But you can do it and even have fun on the journey. Be patient and consistent. Celebrate the little victories and look for progress, not perfection. If you and your child hit a slow patch, check out this blog post for some fun ideas to help a struggling reader.

If the reading journey becomes a constant battle for you or your child with little or no evident progress, reach out for help. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to call on an expert. For example, you could get an evaluation from a qualified reading specialist or consult your pediatrician for a referral.

I wish you joy, fun, and success on the rewarding journey of teaching your child to read.