Reading 101

I was recently at a birthday party for one of my five year old’s friends when the conversation among the mothers turned to reading. Not what we had read recently, but who’s child is reading what and how early.  As a seventeen year veteran teacher of the deaf and hard-of-hearing, I feel I am beginning to put the reading puzzle together and the most important piece… phonics. As a parent, I have never bought a phonics program for my children. Why? Because my children naturally made the letter-sound correspondences through games, television, being read to at night, who knows? Some kids just get it and for the ones who don’t…phonics.

I am talking about systematic training in letter-sound correspondences and any parent can do it. How? With knowledge. Go to your child’s school. Talk to the teachers, the reading coaches and most importantly anyone trained in a phonetic approach to reading. Some schools have someone trained to work with students who are dyslexic and that’s a great place to start. Dyslexia training offers a systematic approach to phonics. It is very slow and controlled, exactly what struggling readers need. So what if your child has made the connection and reading comes naturally to them? Congratulations and remember to read, read, read.