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Recently a friend gave me a hand kit filled with beautiful wooden games and brightly colored books that promise to teach my kids to read. Phonics-based programs are available immediately when young children begin to show interest in books, tell stories, notice letters and words around them, know how to hold the book, and understand how to read from left to right, read from left to right.
It certainly describes my young son, who just turned 3 and loves to pretend to read picture books with his six-year-old brother who learned to read in kindergarten. However, the set has been collecting dust in the cabinet for weeks.
California’s gloomy reading scores indicate the need to strengthen early literacy. But at 3 o’clock, my son is still wearing diapers and has the soft cheeks of a baby. Is he really ready to learn how to read? What is the “correct” age to start? Also, how many are you too young?
Before I started reading lessons with my little guy, I decided to check in with a few literacy experts.
Spoiler alert: Most people told me to wait.
“Can a child learn individual letters at 2½ or 3? Certainly. But is it developmentally appropriate? It’s definitely not,” said Susan Neumann, professor of childhood and literacy education at New York University.
At 3 years old, she says that children learn the language best through play, speak, read, sing and learn back and forth with caregivers who sing. Parents may read the puppy nurser. She said it is a powerful tool to teach children who remember throughout their lives. They may sing songs like “Hokey Pokey” or “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
“It’s really essential. Oral language is the foundation of early literacy, and that’s what we need to do in 3 or 4.”
The librarian of the Corona Del Mar Library will be read on Storytime in 2019.
(Scott Smeltzer/Daily Pilot)
Research suggests that these oral skills are actually more valuable than learning to read early. Children who learn letters early may be more “school ready” in kindergarten, but the benefits soon fade as other children catch up. But the strong early vocabulary predicts fourth-grade school preparation, Neumann said.
When do children learn to read?
We’ve all heard of precocious children who are 2 or 3 years old and learn to read on their own, but they’re outliers representing about 1% of children, Neumann said.
For the majority of children, research suggests that 5-7 year olds are the best time to teach reading, says Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Diverse Learners and Social Justice at UCLA.
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Reading words from pages is a complex activity that requires the brain to bring together multiple areas where the brain is responsible for different aspects of language and thinking. This requires a level of physical brain development called millennation. It is the growth of fat sheaths that envelop nerve cells, insulate them, and allow the brain to move faster and more efficiently. This process is not well developed between the ages of 5 and 7, and some boys tend to develop their abilities more slowly than girls.
“I even think it’s really wrong for parents to try and push reading five times before,” Wolf said. Parents who try to teach their children to decipher the words in three or four may instead decorate their children. Children who have been excavated with flashcards and letter decoding can also miss more important moments of play, exploration and language.
“Walking is not harmful, but there is a risk of pushing Will,” Wolf said.
In European countries such as Finland and Denmark, children tend to be more skilled readers and less struggling, as they wait until they are six or seven years old to teach reading, instead focusing on play and exploration, Wolf said. If she had a magic wand, Wolf said she would request that all schools in the United States be at least 6 years old.
“That doesn’t work. The US has a greedy appetite for pushing children, but at least we can make sure that children are given sweet time in kindergarten,” she said.
However, some experts say that the sound of letters should be taught to 3-year-olds in kindergarten. “The three-year-olds are extremely capable,” said Teresa Roberts, a former Sacramento child development professor who studies early childhood reading.
And it doesn’t have to be a chore, she said. Her research found that 3- and 4-year-olds were “very enthusiastic” and were better prepared in kindergarten during a 15-minute phonics lesson. They still had enough time to play and expand the vocabulary for the rest of the day, she added.
Maureen Palacios, owner of One Upon a Time Bookstore, will read to children in 2024.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
As for my son and the reading set, Roberts said, “Go to him! See what happens.”
What is the best way for parents to prepare their young children to read?
Early literacy is key to helping children learn to read, but “it doesn’t look like what older people might think,” Neumann said.
The skill of preparing a child to read begins to develop within the uterus. The baby listens to the familiar voices around him and begins to develop a connection between the sound and the meaning of the words in home language. After birth, the baby is quickly immersed in a sea of words and rhythm.
Parents should start reading babies early and often, starting with soft cloth and board books.
“Reading begins under the arm con man on the truly beloved lap,” says parents, who develop nightly reading rituals with babies, recommend surround them with letters and books that provide a rich environment of language.
When parents read books like “Pat the Bunny” to toddlers and point out, “Oh, this is a bunny, bunny has fur, Pat the Fur – it’s all early literacy,” said Linda Espinosa, professor of education at the University of Missouri and co-chair of the committee.
Singing ABCs with them, teaching them colors and having them play with magnetic letters in the fridge promote the development of vocabulary and oral language, the basis of early literacy.
And so is about falling, exploring and playing with toddlers.
“When we talk about early literacy, we don’t usually think about physical development, but that’s one of the key factors,” says Stacy Benge, author of The Whole Child Alphabet: How Toddlers Actually Develop Literacy. Raw, grabbing blocks across the floor and even developing a sense of balance is all key to reading and writing, she said.
“In kindergarten, we take those experiences away in favor of direct instructions,” Benge said. “There’s a lot of money for worrying about our kids being late.”
Some children may be interested in the letters of their names and may want to copy them or point out words that begin with the same sound. And many enter kindergarten where there are already some letters and sounds. However, parents don’t need to push hard.
“Parents, relax, talk to the kids, get involved in extended conversations, read to them, take their place,” telling them the names of things around them, like banks and grocery stores, Neumann said.
And regarding that reading kit in my cabinet, “Why don’t you just read him and tell him your love of reading? “Don’t worry about it. Do something fun.”
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