How to Get Children Reading
Children most often begin reading around five or six years of age. While it may appear that for some children reading is something they just ‘pick up’, this is rarely the case. In order to achieve reading fluency, children must first develop a number of literacy skills that enable them to both decode texts and understand what they are reading. Fluent reading is not simply the ability to sound out words, but rather it is the more complex ability to move quickly through a text, simultaneously pronouncing the words correctly and understanding what they mean.
There are a few things that are helpful to remember when teaching a beginning reader:
Have good books
If you want your child to learn to read effectively and enjoy what they’re reading, it’s helpful to have good reading material on hand for them. Make sure you have a variety of different books, including books that appeal to their interests.
Visit the library and bookstores
Take the time to use a local library or bookstore. These are great places to introduce your child to a variety of different kinds of books.
Reading should be fun
Try to make the activity of reading as enjoyable as possible. If you make the activity of reading a fun, your child will stay interested and motivated to read and therefore learn more effectively.
Use a good reading program
Researchers have found that the most effective reading programs address five key literacy areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Within the most effective programs, kids are taught all five of these interrelated areas concurrently, with no one area taught to the exclusion of the others. Development of each literacy area is essential for kids to achieve a high level of reading fluency and comprehension.
ABC Reading Eggs teaches children reading skills through systematic reading lessons that incorporate each of the five essential literacy elements into the structure of its lessons. Each lesson has a number of parts that specifically instruct in the different literacy skill areas, with each part working together to create a bank of progressive learning resources for young readers.
ABC Reading Eggs has as its goal children reading text for meaning. A child reading real books is the goal of every ABC Reading Eggs lesson. At the end of lesson nine, children read their first e-book, which relates directly to the content of the lesson. All books are read aloud to the student, modeling the fluent reading of a text, and all books are carefully matched to a child’s reading ability so that he or she can experience both success in reading and a desire to continue learning to read.
Thank you for this wonderful, interactive program! We have students who were non-readers or reluctant readers, suddenly become fully engaged with the reading process, achieving success and making progress. It has been very successful and is very motivating for all students. Brenda Carige, St Patrick's Primary, Gympie
My child LOVES Reading Eggs! This program has been exactly what I’ve been looking for. We tried two other popular reading programs and while they were fun, just didn’t translate to my child becoming a reader. He’s a reluctant reader, capable but frustrates easily. With Reading Eggs I have never witnessed an ounce of frustration, just watched my son having fun. And even better – I’ve watched him start to read in such a natural progression that is a beautiful thing to watch. Thank you, Reading Eggs! C. Bryant
The importance of reading to young children http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/beststart/bscprvol13no1.pdf
Children reading with Starfall http://www.starfall.com/
Helping children read http://www.readingrockets.org/article/333/