| As a parent, teaching your child to read and write is | | | | should not be prioritized from the outset. |
| one of the most important things that you will do for | | | | When you are teaching your child how to read and |
| them. Through taking the time to do this before they | | | | write, you should be careful to limit the vocabulary that |
| go to school, and continuing to offer support while they | | | | you aim to teach. The more vocabulary that you |
| are there, you can help your child to have the | | | | introduce; the more confusion and the more |
| foundations necessary to learn, share and | | | | overwhelming the situation will become. According to |
| communicate with others. Teaching a child to read and | | | | some lines of academic thinking it is suggested that |
| write is a harder task than many parents expect, not | | | | there are only 400 words a child needs to know in |
| least time consuming. You firstly need to start by | | | | order to be able to communicate effectively. |
| teaching them how to pronounce sounds, and from | | | | When your child starts writing much the same applies |
| there they have the vital components to pronounce | | | | as with reading. You should not be too concerned with |
| words and then sentences and so on. A child can | | | | a lack of firmness or preciseness in how they write - |
| generally start to learn the alphabet at around 4 years | | | | much of that will come with practice. The key is to |
| old, and then they can try writing what they can read | | | | teach your child to associate a character with a sound, |
| soon after. Many parents are concerned about trying | | | | and therefore to be able to graphically represent the |
| to introduce their child to reading at too young an age, | | | | spoken word. |
| however this is not something to worry about - the | | | | Teaching your child to read and write is something |
| truth is that it can only help. | | | | which should go beyond preparing them for going to |
| When you are starting to teach your child how to read, | | | | school. You should continue to do reading and writing |
| you should not concentrate on pronouncing capital | | | | with your child out of school as they may wish to |
| letters first. The reason for this is that learning lower | | | | clarify points with you that they do not want to ask |
| case letters is easier to aid learning how to read. This | | | | their teacher. Further more, through making reading a |
| is because lower case letters represent how one | | | | fun and recreational exercise for your child you can |
| speaks, and through combining lower case letters you | | | | ensure that their reading skills and ability to digest |
| start to understand how you can formulate words | | | | information will be much greater than it otherwise |
| stemming from them. When your child tries to repeat | | | | would be. |
| lower case letters you may find that they are slightly | | | | The author Rebecca Walker writes articles for He |
| off in how they say them. This is not a concern, and in | | | | also gives valuable information about child |
| actual fact does not relate to intellectual capacity. You | | | | development, home schooling & reading, child |
| should also not be overly concerned with grammar | | | | development & learning to read, active white board |
| either; this is something they will learn over time and | | | | are accessible on the internet. |