Parent Question: How Do I Help My Four-Year-Old Become a Reader?
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This question comes from our archives…
Question:
How do I help my four-year-old son to develop a love of reading? He struggles to sound words out, and doesn’t seem to be interested in reading on his own. How can I help him learn to love reading?
Answer:
Books can be our best friends. But to struggling children, they can also be the enemy. Children are aware of our expectations, and they recognize our desire for them to read. To avoid disappointing us, children with reading issues may just push books aside for activities that don’t require so much effort.
Strong reading skills are the foundation for learning, so they are a critical skill to develop early on. Luckily, an aversion to reading at a young age can easily be overcome.
Sometimes different approaches are the solution to getting reluctant readers to embrace books and reading. Our Little Readers program is developed to help children as young as three learn to become strong, competent readers who love books! We help kids learn the sounds that make up the building blocks of our language. Kids become able to sound out words and develop confidence in their ability to try to read new words.
Remember that learning to read can be a struggle for many children, but if you give your son the skills that he needs to be a successful reader, a love of reading will follow eventually. Continue to make an effort to share reading time with your son, and encourage him every step of the way!
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Why Phonics Builds Better Readers
Your three-year old daughter has memorized all the words to her favourite bedtime story.
Your three-year son plays with the refrigerator magnets and asks you to name the letters for him.
It’s time to teach your child to read.
The first step is to take a trip to the library to pick out books together; it’s an important part of the reading process—it helps kids feel a sense of ownership and an excitement to read. But more important than selecting what books to read is the method used to teach a child how to read.
That’s because of the two main reading instruction methods—whole language and phonics—only phonics teaches children how to become active thinkers as they begin the process of understanding written language.
Infants first hear language by listening to their parents. They hear sounds, learn to distinguish the differences between these sounds, and then learn to blend these sounds together. Once that skill is mastered, children begin to understand what the individually blended sounds (words) stand for.
Once children can speak, the next step is to learn the alphabet. The building blocks of words are letters, and there are only 26 of them.
Phonics, as an instruction method, uses the same structure that children have already been using to comprehend language: it breaks words down into their component sounds. To kids, this makes sense, because they have learned language using the same structure.
On the other side of early language instruction, the “whole language” method teaches that words themselves—not letters—are the building blocks of the language.
This approach can be confusing for young children because it isn’t intuitive—it’s just memorization. Can you imagine having to memorize by sight every single word in the English language?
The whole language method encourages a number of practices that can be detrimental to future learning. It encourages and rewards memorization, as well as estimation—if you don’t know the word, guess. Phonics, on the other hand, teaches that there is precision and a logical flow to understanding how things work. It teaches that persistence leads to understanding.
Not only does the phonetic method of language acquisition lead to stronger reading skills, it leads to better thinking and learning abilities. It teaches kids to have confidence in their abilities. This pays dividends in the classroom.
When it comes to reading, the best way to ensure that young readers don’t get frustrated is to sound it out.
For over 25 years, Oxford Learning’s Little Readers® program has been using the phonetic method of language acquisition to help young readers develop the skills that they need to be strong readers for life.
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Whole Language versus Phonics Part 2
Viewed from a holistic perspective
Whole Language versus Phonics Part 1
When we throw away phonics as the first and primary method of decoding and switch to whole word (whole language) method, we are telling our kids something that isn’t true. We are saying that there is no code — that there is no order to the development of language. That words themselves are the blocks of the language.
But words cannot be used as parts of a whole. In other words, you make words from letters but you don’t make new words by splicing two or three other words together. So, in fact, words are not the blocks of the language — letters are!
However, that’s not what we tell our kids. By depriving them of the understanding that letters, not words, are the blocks of the language, we are making language incoherent. It can’t be understood; there is no pattern; it can just be memorized. Can you imagine having to memorize by sight every single word in the English language? Well that’s what we condemn kids to do when we teach them whole words instead of letters.
This causes another problem — the problem of thinking. If we begin by the whole word method, we are encouraging a number of practices. We encourage and reward memorization and we encourage estimation — if you don’t know the word, guess. In fact, by allowing students to think that meanings are interchangeable, that if you don’t know what it really means, guessing is okay, we are pretending that words don’t have specific meanings. But every word stands for one, and only one specific concept.
It is not true that any old meaning will do. It is not true and it is not fair to the student to imply it is. It says that accuracy is not important and that fuzzy or “sort of” thinking is all right.
So we encourage kids to memorize and match, tell them that accuracy is not important, forgive and allow fuzzy thinking and pretend that creative (inventive) spelling is fine. Then what happens? High school, university, college and life happens. Students end up thinking associationally, not conceptually. They can’t problem solve, don’t take academic risks, need structured programs and lots of help and guidance — all of which impede the development of real self-esteem.
They don’t “get it,” don’t make the connections or see the relationships. They are disorganized, not motivated, sometimes confused, angry or defensive. They are not achieving their potential because they haven’t learned how to think critically.
Ask any high school English or Math teacher, go to a university and inquire of the English, philosophy, business or psychology departments, or speak to business leaders, about the literacy of many recent graduates. You will see we already have this problem. It’s not going away, it’s going to get worse.
And it begins when we cast the first seeds of doubt in the pristine minds of our children. A child who has learned to speak already knows (implicitly and probably without the words to defend himself or herself) the importance of accuracy. Watch kids play and observe how carefully they keep each other accurate. Even understanding a single word means that that child understands that there is something the same as other words but that there is an important something different as well and that child is capable of understanding that difference. That child insists on clarity, honesty and integrity in his or her dealings with the world.
Then we tell the child to ignore all that he or she knows about how to learn. We say accuracy isn’t important and that our written language doesn’t have a code. Some schools forbid teachers from telling kids that words are made up of letters which have specific sounds. In other words, we imply that how the child has been using his or her mind is wrong.
What they figured out for themselves can’t be trusted. They are wrong for life! If one thinks of the amount of struggle an adult goes through in order to understand life and then considers that this same struggle is occurring daily in the hearts and minds of our children, one might begin to see why it is so important for them to feel that they are capable of understanding. Their very survival depends upon it.
But our reading programs pull the rug out from under our children. We discount the achievement of their minds and the confidence and pride they have developed as a result of that great achievement. In fact, what a child accomplishes in learning to speak is probably the greatest achievement of his or her life. It is certainly the hardest.
Instead of celebrating this great achievement — one that required precision, logic, understanding — we tell them to memorize and trust. We drive a spear into the very soul of their self-confidence and feelings of self-esteem and it is no wonder that they prefer to memorize and live in a structured universe. If their own minds are not safe or competent then the only other option is trust and follow.
But it’s just a reading program, you say. And teachers love kids and want to help them and school boards don’t want to cause problems, they want to educate kids as effectively as possible. Yes, all that may be true, but it doesn’t change the facts.
All the good intentions in the world will not change the principles of a bad program and will not lessen the severity of its effects. Whole word or whole language reading programs are not teaching our kids to read well and are a major part of the reason why students are not thinking more clearly and effectively.
We have known how to teach kids to read for centuries. Modern teaching methodology has produced creative and effective teachers. Let’s use these strengths to marry excellent teachers with effective programs.
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Whole Language versus Phonics
Viewed from a holistic perspective
Whole Language versus Phonics Part 2
Whole Language versus Phonics is a subject engendering much discussion these days. Parents are demanding a return to the teaching of reading by phonics while school board trustees and administrators are claiming their whole language reading programs are effective. Teachers are often confused and kids are stuck in the middle. It may be possible to understand this issue better if we examine some of the primary principles underlying the act of reading.
Children first hear language by listening to their parents. But they do not merely copy the sounds of their parents. A child must make an enormous mental step in order to begin learning this language. Every word in our language represents a particular and single concept. When children first learn language, they first have to understand — in a mind that has no language at all — that the strange sound they are hearing is connected to whatever the parent is pointing or referring to.
For example, when you say “Mommy” to the child and point at yourself, how will the child know what you are doing, or that the sound you have made even has any meaning at all? Understanding that the sound refers to one specific concept is a feat that requires the child to understand that it is necessary to categorize information in order to make greater sense of his or her universe.
Without language, we can only think about what is in our conscious mind right now. All the learning of the past would be lost to us. Without words to summarize and represent concepts, we would have to develop each concept anew every time, much like the lower order animals do.
Children learn language through their ears. They hear sounds, learn to distinguish the differences between these sounds, learn to blend diverse sounds together, learn what concepts are, and what the individually blended sounds (words) stand for. All this information is filed in the subconscious and the language is verbal.
The next step seems logical. The child already understands all the concepts of language implicitly. If they can speak in clear sentences, they already have comprehension! We do not have to worry about that. Our task should be to teach them how to access the incredible amount of stored knowledge and literature humankind possesses.
How?
By teaching children to understand the code or script we use to write our language. It is a unique code and it is designed to be built from the ground up, much the same way every single verbal or mental concept is formed. Amazing! Language and thinking are developed together and in the same way. In fact, language was developed so that we could further enlarge our knowledge. It is primarily a tool of thinking, not for communication.
Reading should be no different. If we first helped the child to understand abstract concepts by making sure they understood concrete ones — by teaching verbal language — then we should teach reading in the same manner. That would suggest to our children that there is some logic and order to the learning of written language just as there was in the learning of spoken language and in thinking.
The building blocks of reading are letters, and there are only 26 of them. All words flow from these basic 26 units. If for no other reason than it is logical and rational, we should consider using only phonics-first reading programs for our children. It is empowering and important for the development of their self-esteem.
But there is much more. Next time.
Whole Language versus Phonics Part 2
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Phonics = Reading
Just the other day I heard a teacher exclaim, “No one seems to know how to teach reading these days!” Parents are demanding a return to the teaching of reading by phonics, while school board trustees and administrators claim their whole language reading programs are effective. Teachers are often confused and kids are stuck in the middle.
A child first hears language by listening to his/her parents. All the language children learn at first is through their ears. They hear sounds, learn to distinguish the differences between these sounds, then learn to blend these diverse sounds together. Once that skill is mastered, children begin to understand what the individually blended sounds (words) stand for, and how to form new language concepts. The next step seems logical. If a child can speak, then (s)he already understands all the concepts of language implicitly. If they can speak in clear sentences, they already have comprehension! Our task should be to teach them how to access the incredible amount of stored knowledge and literature humankind possesses. How? We teach children to understand the code or script used to write our language. The building blocks of reading are letters and there are only 26 of them. All words flow from these basic 26 units. If for no other reason than it is logical and rational, we should consider using only phonics-first reading programs for our children. It is empowering and important for the development of their self-esteem.
But there is more! Much more. When we throw away phonics as the first and primary method of reading and switch to the whole word (whole language) method, we are telling our kids something that isn’t true. We are saying that there is no code; that there is no order to the development of language. We are saying that words, NOT letters, are the blocks of language. But, you make words from letters; you don’t make new words by two or three other words together. Words are NOT the blocks of the language – letters are! However, that’s not what we tell our kids. By depriving them of the understanding that letters, not words, are the blocks of the language, we are making reading incoherent! It can’t be understood; there is no pattern. It can just be memorized. Can you imagine having to memorize BY SIGHT every single word in the English language? Well that’s what we condemn kids to do when we teach them whole words not letters.
This causes another problem. The problem of thinking. If we begin by the whole word method, we encourage and reward memorization and estimation. If you don’t know the word, guess. By allowing students to think that guessing is okay, we are pretending that words don’t have specific meanings. Wrong! Every word stands for one, and only one specific concept.
It is not true that any old meaning will do. It is not true; and to imply it is fair is not to the student. It says that accuracy is not important (but it is) and that fuzzy or ’sort of ’ thinking is all right (but it isn’t).
Think critically
Then what happens? Students who can’t use language correctly, do not learn to think critically or to problem-solve well. They don’t take academic risks, and they need structured programs and lots of help and guidance – all of which impede the development of real self-esteem. They don’t ’get it’, don’t make the connections, or see the relationships. They are disorganized, not motivated, sometimes confused, angry, or defensive. They are not achieving their potential! They haven’t learned how to think critically.
The problem begins when we cast the first seeds of doubt in the pristine minds of our children. A child who has learned to speak already knows implicitly the importance of precision. Watch kids play and you’ll observe how carefully they keep each other accurate. Understanding even a single word means that a child understands the difference between the meaning of that word and any others. This is a major issue!
Understanding the meaning
Children insist on clarity, honesty, and integrity in their dealings with the world. Children work diligently to understand. They do not leap forward carelessly. They study, watch, try, and learn. When they feel they are right, they internalize their discoveries and move forward to new ones. If we tell the child to ignore all that (s)he already knows about how to learn; if we say accuracy isn’t important and that our written language doesn’t have a code*, we are saying that the child has been using his/her mind WRONG. The truth they figured out for themselves can’t be trusted; and that they really don’t know how to use their own minds; that they are wrong for life! If one thinks of the amount of struggle an adult goes through in order to understand the why’s and how’s of his/her life, and then considers that this same struggle is occurring daily in the hearts and minds of our children, one might begin to see why it is so important for them to feel that they are capable of understanding. Their very survival depends upon it.
But our reading programs pull the rug out from under our children. We discount the achievement of their minds and the confidence and pride they have developed as a result of that great achievement. In fact, what a child accomplishes in learning to speak is probably the greatest achievement of his/her life. It is certainly the hardest. Instead of celebrating this great achievement – that required precision, logic and understanding – we tell them to memorize and trust. We drive a spear into the very soul of their self-confidence and feelings of self-esteem. It is no wonder that they prefer to memorize and live in a structured universe! If their own minds are not safe or competent, then the only other option is trust and follow.
But it’s just a reading program you say! And teachers love kids and want to help them. And school boards don’t want to cause problems; they want to educate kids as effectively as possible. Yes, all that may be true, but it doesn’t change the facts. All the good intentions in the world will not change the principles of a bad program and will not lessen the severity of its effects. Whole word, or whole language, reading programs are not teaching our kids to read well and are a major part of the reason why students are not thinking more clearly and effectively.
We have known how to teach kids to read for centuries. Modern teaching methodology has produced more creative and effective teachers. Let’s use these strengths to marry excellent teachers with effective programs. It’s time to call it a bad bargain and say goodbye to whole language.
* some schools forbid teachers from telling kids that words are made up of letters which have specific sounds – it’s a secret
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