Watch, as your child will pretend to read a story that you have just read for them. They are learning to read just as they are learning to talk, by imitation. This is how children learn to do many things. Take talking for an example. Children learn to talk by imitating the sounds they hear from their parents and people around them. Soon they learn how to but the sounds together to make words. Before long these word are put together to form sentences.

Helping your child to learn to talk was a fun and memorable experience for you both. Did you make up games, or did you just continually repeat a phrase to stimulate them to talk. This interaction with you made the learning process enjoyable. Did you not both smile and laugh when they learned to say a new word or phrase. It is an exciting time in your child’s development. Now they can communicate there wants, needs, and feeling with you.

Reading and writing in its simplest form is talking on paper. Learning to read should be just as much fun as learning to talk. As parents it our job to further our child’s development. We must spend as much time teaching them to read as we did to talk. This does not have to be a job but rather an enjoyable experience. You will have as much enjoyment if not more teaching your child to read as you did teaching them to talk. Making sure your child can read and enjoys reading will be the most important lesson we will ever teach our child.

Here are a few tips to get you both started.

1. Read to your child. The sooner you start the sooner they will benefit from listening to you read aloud.
2. Discuss the books you read to your child. Try to peak there interest in the book.
3. Be a good reading “model” let your child see you read and talk about what you just read.
4. Introduce your child to books that they have natural interests in, or ones that will guide them to new experiences.
5. Buy books as presents for your child they will value books more if they receive them as gifts.
6. Get your child a library card as soon as possible and visit the library often.

There are many ways to encourage your child to become involved in reading.  Here are some questions to ask yourself to help stay on track:

 For Babies (Six Weeks to One Year)

• 1. Do I provide a comfortable place for our story time? Is my child happy to be here?
• 2. Am I showing her the pictures in the book? Am I changing the tone of my voice as I read to show emotion and excitement?
• 3. Am I paying attention to how my child responds? What does she especially like? Is she tired and ready to stop?

 For Toddlers (One to Three Years)

All of the questions above, plus:

• 1. Does my child enjoy the book we are reading?
• 2. Do I encourage her to “pretend read”, joining in where she has memorized a word or phrase?
• 3. When I ask questions, am I giving my child enough time to think and answer?
• 4. Do I tie ideas in the book to things familiar to my child? Do I notice if she does this on her own?
• 5. Do I let my child know how much I like her ideas and encourage her to tell me more?
• 6. Do I point out letters, such as the first letter of her name?

 Remember: Children learn step-by-step in a process that takes time and patience.  They vary a great deal in the rate they make progress and in what hold their interest.

For Preschoolers (Three and Four years)

All of the questions above, plus:

• 1. Do I find ways to help my child begin to identify letters and make the letter-sound matches?

For Kindergartners (Five Years)

All of the questions above, plus:

1.   Do I find ways to help my child begin to identify some printed words?

• 2. Do I let my child retell favorite stories to show she knows how the story goes and what is in it?

 For Beginning First-Graders (Six Years)

All of the questions above, plus:

• 1. Do I give my child the chance to read a story to me using the text, picture clues, her memory — or any combination of these ways that help her make sense of the story?

 Source: Helping Your Child Become a Reader, U.S. Department of Education

A dyslexia research team at Yale University’s Center for Learning and Attention lead by Dr. Sally Shaywitz has found a window on the brain through a new imaging technique called functional MRI. These medical scientists have identified parts of the brain used in reading. By observing the flow of oxygen-rich blood to working brain cells, they have found that people who know how to sound out words can rapidly process what they see. This information has shed new light on dyslexia and how to help dyslexics.

When readers are asked to imagine “cat” without the “kah” sound, they readily summon “at.” The MRI photographs show their brains lighting up like pinball machines. When the brain gets it, the light bulbs really do go on. However, the brains of people who can’t sound out words often look different on MRI pictures. There is less blood flow to the language centers of the brain and, in some cases, not much activity evident at all. Scientist’s are not sure why this is or what it means. But simply put, without the ability to sound out words, the brain is stumped.

Basically this research seems to be saying that the brain learns to read the same way it learns to talk, one sound at a time. When babies first learn to talk they may slowly say one sound at a time. Once they get the hang of it, they speed up. Our brain becomes adept at processing and our experience is that of hearing words but actually our brain is processing sounds (phonemes) and putting them together so we hear words. When we read the same process is in operation. Our brain is processing one sound at a time but we perceive it as a whole word. In good readers, the process is so fast it appears that they are reading whole words but in fact they are converting the letters on the written page into to sounds. The brain then recognizes groups of sounds as words.

Reading is not automatic but must be learned. The reader must develop a conscious awareness that the letters on the page represent the sounds of the spoken word. To read the word “cat,” the reader must parse, or segment, the word into its underlying phonological elements. Once the word is in its phonological form, it can be identified and understood. In dyslexia, an inefficient phonological module produces representations that are less clear and, hence, more difficult to bring to awareness. (Scientific American, November 1996, page 100)

According to Dr. Shaywitz, “Over the past two decades, a coherent model of dyslexia has emerged that is based on phonological processing. The phonological model is consistent both with the clinical symptoms of dyslexia and with what neuroscientists know about brain organization and function. Investigators from many laboratories, including my colleagues and I at the Yale Center, have had the opportunity through 10 years of cognitive, and more recently, neurobiological studies.”

Dyslexics (or poor readers) are very frustrated by the fact that they can understand what they hear but not what they read. Dyslexics have average or above average intelligence. Once they can properly decode words they can understand the concept. Decoding skills are the key to learning from written material.

Years of educational research has shown that the use of intensive phonics is the only way to teach dyslexics and learning disabled individuals how to read. The new brain research shows why intensive phonics is also the best way for everyone to learn to read. [Click here for more information on this brain research study.]

This information is from Child Development Institute
Information on child development, parenting, family life, teenagers, learning, health & safety, child psychology and mental health including ADHD  [Recommended by Psychology Today and American Psychological Association] at http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/brain.shtml