Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Teaching kids to read?

I am full of questions lately!

My DS6 is PG. He taught himself to read literally overnight when he was 4 years 8 months old. Just woke up reading and within a couple months he was reading chapter books silently. No instruction.

My DD4.5 really wants to read like her brother. She asks me to teach her all the time. We read all day long, there are TONS of books and other print in our home. I see the benefit of independent reading when I observe DS. No matter how much I read to him, he can read more.

My question... did any of you teach children to read? Pros/cons? What did you use? Etc. Thanks!

No formal teaching here. We read to our DD frequently, and she had tons of access to books. She watched Word World, and we had a group of Leapfrog videos dealing with phonics that she viewed obsessively. I can't think of anything else we did.

Our library had BOB books with audio CDs and DD listened to them in her room, as well as other audio books. I listened to her read the first couple set of BOB books, and then she was reading easy readers like Go, Dog, Go; or Are you My Mother? Other than that I did not really do much to teach her, I think it was mainly the audio books that helped.

With DS it was basically the same thing but I don't think he's ever listened to an audio book. He has always been better with decoding and learned very rapidly in preschool when I had him read easy readers to me once or twice per week.

With both kids the BOB books seemed to make things click in terms of word blending, but I only used a couple sets then moved onto to "normal" books.

My question... did any of you teach children to read? Pros/cons? What did you use? Etc. Thanks!


Yes, DD was taught-- at about the same age as your DS, and with about the same results. Within six months she had moved on to Harry Potter and voracious consumption of any print material she could lay hands upon. She was never a read-aloud kid, either-- silent reading almost from the start.

I should preface this by stating that she already knew phonemes, the alphabet, etc. and could reason symbolically quite well (was doing math without manipulatives or physical representations). So she had better foundation skills than a lot of kids who are two or more years older than that.

We probably COULD have "taught" her decoding skills about two years sooner with the exact same result. (Long, long, LONG story why we didn't-- and not that relevant.)

We brought home a couple of sets of phonetically controlled readers (though she hated the BOB books and preferred something which is out of print now but was colorful and snarky).

It was the blending/decoding that she needed to be explicitly shown. That took a couple of weeks, working with her a few minutes each day.

I taught basic phonetics and blends (e.g. th, sh), vowel sounds, and short sight words. The sight words were the most helpful. He independently read his first book just after his fifth birthday and was reading chapter books within six months.

I want to add that I felt DS was "ready" to read, was deeply frustrated that he wasn't reading, and needed only very basic instruction to get him there. I've seen several of DS's friends learn to read a year or two later (generally around mid first grade), and catch on quickly.

Thank you all. Cammom... that's exactly what I feel like I see in her right now. She is so frustrated that she isn't reading. She knows the letters, the sounds, and a bunch of sight words. She could take off like he did three months from now (when he did), but who is to say? I just feel badly because she wants to read and is conflicted because she has some books memorized and will say sadly, "But I'm not REALLY reading the words."

Not sure whether to wait or help her a bit.

I used a set of these Brand New Reader books with DS as well and they aren't bad.
http://www.brandnewreaders.com/

Teach? Yes and no - and this may be the only place I can say this: we come from a family of early readers and I just ASSUMED my kids would learn to read before they started school - and they did.

What I did do: read to them CONSTANTLY, exposed them to LOTS of "sight words," and our home is a super text-rich environment.

My DC seemed to pick up reading from the sight words, because those were the first words I noticed them reading. I do think that if they read enough sight words, they really do seem to just "figure out" or "understand" the rest. Honestly, from there, they simply figured out decoding - they are both EXCELLENT decoders. Then, when I'd read to them, I'd notice they were no longer simply listening, but following along (they would CORRECT me if I started to improvise, which I sometimes do when I'm getting tired ).

To be fair, I don't think my DC are "typical" - but neither are most of the DC on this list.

Sorry that your daughter is so frustrated. Reading can be very developmental and despite her want to learn it it might not come as easy to her as her brother. I know a very gifted young lady, who despite being obviously gifted and being taught all the right stuff didn't read till the beginning of 2nd grade but then took off and never looked back. I'm just saying this to reassure you that precisely when you learn to read isn't directly tied to your intellect.

My younger child (DS15) taught himself to read when he was 3 with very little help except for the fact that there was a lot of print in the house. We did have the Bob books, and I do remember reading them with him at least once.

On the other hand my older DD (19) started to learn to read in K, but struggled and didn't learn to read well until 3rd grade. She didn't have a major problem picking up phonics, or the simple site words. At the start of 1st grade she was reading above grade level but then she slowed down and the rest of the class zoomed by her. (She does have language LD's) I used the Bob books with her. And reading, reading, reading. Pointing out the words while I read. She watched T.V. shows like Between the Lions, and edutainment programs that probably now don't even run on modern computers.

Aiden was like that, and he had learnt all the letter names and sounds on his own. He recognised names of shops already and was reading a few words here and there on signs etc.

I had no idea how to teach a child so young how to read - he was not yet 3 (any child actually) and so I printed out words and we played games with them. Words for household objects like door, wall, window, tap, cupboard etc. He would choose a word, I would read it to him and let him repeat it. Then he would stick it to that object and choose another word. This way he could match words easily.

At the same time he started knowing random words in books and seeing the repetition of common sight words (and, it, as, is, was etc). He loved bigger words more than smaller words so we used themes that he chose and we made word walls. I would write the word in black marker and we would both draw little pictures of the words before sticking them on his bedroom wall.

So we just played games. I found a puzzle set with words spelled out and other easy to use games.

In hindsight it was lucky I did it this way - he is actually a whole word reader so it worked out so well for us. Phonetic anything confused him until just this year when suddenly the blends started making sense.

Nathan was different. He just woke up reading also very very young.

Now Dylan is the frustrated one and is doing as Aiden did, but seems to enjoy phonics and whole word, so we are doing a combo of bob books, games, and the word wall. (well we will once my current exams finish)