An ability to read well can make learning so much easier! Dr Marilena Deroukakis suggests how to help create a foundation for reading readiness.
Once upon a time, a little girl named Jessica really wanted to learn to read. Every night, she was transported to enchanted places as her parents read to her. She very much loved books and enjoyed being read to. But she was oblivious to the extent of her learning. Opening the book the right way up was taken for granted. She was unaware of the workout that her eyes were getting as her finger navigated across the page, pointing at the words, from left to right, top to bottom; or the connections her brain was making between the squiggles and the words she was reciting.
She did not pause to consider the fine motor dexterity that allowed her to turn the page, nor the stretching of her vocabulary and attention. Jessica unwittingly absorbed the cadence of her language, the rules of grammar and an understanding of punctuation. Unbeknown to her, her bedtime treats were really interactive lessons that gradually laid the foundations for her reading abilities. So it was no surprise that when the day finally arrived for her to start big school, Jessica was equipped with all her pre-reading skills – and she read happily ever after…
Research shows that parents who read to their children not only create bonds with them through books, but also teach them that books are magical devices that can transport them to anywhere their imagination wishes to take them. In fact, being read to aloud by a parent is the one preschool experience most strongly associated with reading achievement. Unlike sight and language, there is no particular area of the brain dedicated to deciphering print. Many areas of the brain need to work as a team in order for reading to emerge.
Eye Spy
While our eyes are evolutionarily primed to see far, with reading becoming such an important modern-day skill, the emphasis has shifted to focusing clearly on near objects, such as books and screens. According to behavioural optometrist, Ilse Homan, there is more to reading than just being able to see clearly.
‘Both eyes need to work as a team as they move across the page (‘tracking’) and as they move from the end of a line to the beginning of a new line (‘saccades’). In children who have difficulty with smooth eye movements as they track, there is less mental energy available to process the information. Because reading becomes such a taxing exercise, they eventually lose interest.’
Ask your child to predict what may happen next in story, or how they think the story may end
To do a quick tracking test, stand facing your child with your finger about 40cm from her eyes. Ask her to follow your finger in all directions without moving her head. If you notice any unusual movements, a binocular evaluation using a visagraph is recommended. The visagraph is an infrared device that can tell if the eyes are working synergistically by analysing and monitoring eye movements while tracking and/or reading.
Keep an Eye out for
- Disinterest and avoiding books
- Squinting
- Head tilting
- Holding a book too close or at an unusual angle
- Closing one eye
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Eyes getting tired easily
- Rubbing eyes frequently
Help your Little Reader
Educational psychologist, Nefeli Sfetsios, recommends the following for helping your little reader-in-the-making:
Before reading a book
- Choice is a powerful motivator, so let your child choose a book that she is interested in.
- Make reading fun by using the power of pictures. Spend time looking at and discussing each picture.
- Ask your child to describe what they think is happening in each picture, or what they think the story might be about. This is important, as children develop a number of strategies to help them with word reading. Children often look for clues in pictures or text to decipher a word or to understand its meaning.
While reading a book
- Ask your child questions about the words in a playful way, allowing them to feel as though they are helping you to understand the story. Remember to be encouraging and assist them if they are struggling.
- Depending on your child’s level of development, ask questions about the story, the characters and their motives.
- Ask your child to predict what may happen next in the story, or how they think the story may end.
“These skills are essential for the development of reading, and encourage your child to gather as much information as possible, contributing to their overall enjoyment and understanding of a story,’ explains Sfetsios.
Rhymes With Reasons
Nursery rhymes teach children about ‘chunks’ of sounds and help them to hear the patterns in words. ‘
Children who are able to rhyme have a distinct advantage when learning to read,’ says speech and hearing therapist, Anna Evlambiou. This skill is later used to learn ‘word families’.
So, if you say ‘dog’, ‘hog’ and your child is able to say log’, they are discovering word family relations, and are well on their way to building a solid foundation for reading!
Sound Advice
Sounding out is the basis of reading, so being able to hear and discriminate between sounds within speech is an important building block. Children who have awareness of words that start with similar sounds before school are likely to become good readers. Pointing out similar sounds, like the first letter of a word, develops this awareness. Evlambiou notes that it is important to use the sound of the letter rather than the name when developing this skill (for example, ‘p’ rather than ‘pee’).
Some More Pointers…
Being read to aloud is strongly associated with reading achievement
- START with the first letter of your child’s name and play a game to spot that letter in your surroundings (for example, in the supermarket). For the more advanced preschooler, you can spy for words that end with a particular letter.
- PLAY a game of putting words together, such as ‘pop’ and ‘corn’, ‘air’ and ‘port’, ‘sun’ and ‘shine’.
- WORD games that delete a sound also create awareness of word patterns. For example, take the T off table (t-able) gradually progressing to substitutions such as replacing the t’ with T (f-able).
Text by Dr Marilena Deroukakis, Photos by Getty Images/Gallo Images, Taken from the January 2010 of Your Family
Dr Marilena Deroukakis is a homeopath and neurodevelopmental psychometrist at the Paediatricks Centre in Dunkeld West, Johannesburg, 011 880 7447.
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