Teaching Reading From Infancy
It is never too early to teach a child how to read. Based on my personal experience it is not instantly known if your baby is able to grasp what is being taught.
Even though there may not be any visible outward signs that the child know what is being read to, he/she is still unconsciously absorbing what is being taught.
Through early exposure it will help to build up a child’s interest in reading and learning. It also gives them the chance and opportunity to understand the world around them better.
To have the view that as a child he is too young to understand what is being taught is simply very naive. No one is too young or too old to learn how to read. It does take time and repeated effort to teach a child how to read as it is not a task which can be completed within a day.
Constant practice and repetition is needed to teach a child how to recognize and associate words with pictures/items around them. Babies start to develop visual concepts and associations since the day they are born.
They are able to connect items with sounds and even smells. I.e: All babies are able to identify their mothers by hearing their voices and smelling their presence.
I have been exposing my kids to pictures/words since they were born and teaching them how to read.
At one year old they were able to correctly pick out the pictures when the item is being called out.
At two years old they could match the correct word to the item and recognize the letters of the alphabet.
At three years old they could read simple words and sentences from storybooks which did not have pictures attached to the page.
At four years old they are reading independently by themselves.
My six year old has now progressed to reading parts of the newspaper by himself and would actively enquire about the meaning of difficult words that he comes across.
He loves reading non-fiction science books and we bring him to the library very often to borrow books.
My 3.5yr old is getting better in his reading and is now able to recognize many different words like ” play, park, sandwich etc” He has also progressed and started learning spelling and is able to spell and write out his own name and his brother’s name.
I credit all this to early exposure to learning how to read and being constantly exposure to the world of literacy.
With the pace the boys are developing I am reassured that they will not have major difficulties following lessons and understanding their teachers and peers when they enter elementary school in times to come.
