4 Common Roadblocks on the Path to Teaching Your Child to Read

It can be an intimidating task teaching our children to read, even for an avid reader. It may be difficult to remember exactly how we learned to read as a child, making it hard to relate to our children as they go through their literacy journey. Just like teaching them to walk or talk, we have to take our time teaching them to acquire the skill of reading. Here’s what the Osceola Reads team suggests for getting over common obstacles when teaching your children to read.

Moving too fast

We all want our children to start reading right away, but it can result in missing signs that they are not fully ready to learn a new skill. The Osceola Reads team suggests taking it one letter at a time and one word at a time. This way, they will slowly learn to read and not get too stressed. It's best to remember those seemingly small things, such as having books in your home and practicing finding letters together in everyday surroundings, which can encourage great leaps in early reading ability.

Boredom

It’s easy not to get excited about learning a new skill. Most of the time, it’s because we are not interested in what’s in front of us. While we want our children to read the material at their grade level, it is also important to find materials that interest them. Maybe they're excited by stories about their favorite television characters or the books with the most exciting covers. Allow them to choose the reading materials. This way, they become excited to dive into the matter. This is why we love that the Footsteps2Brilliance app includes tons of adorable characters, fun songs, and interesting games to keep little readers’ interest alive.  

Focusing on just the words

We want our little readers to memorize letter sounds and piece them together. However, reading is more than just phonics. Our children need to learn the order of storytelling to predict what’s going to happen. This can help with word decoding and fluency. Talking to your children about what they think will happen based on the pictures in the story is an excellent way to practice prediction without worrying about the words in the book. Sometimes, it's necessary to step away from the logistics of reading and think about other ways to enhance the experience.

Expecting linear learning

When they can successfully identify letter sounds or read a few sight words, it can be easy for the excitement to take over and assume their growth will continue. In reality, learning to read can have its ups and downs with children. It requires putting various pieces together in the literacy puzzle that can take a long time. Don’t worry if they seem to be a reading pro one day, then regress a bit the next. Follow their pace and they will become a reader in their unique way. If teaching your kids to read still sounds difficult, Osceola Reads is here to guide you. Don't forget that Footsteps2Brilliance is a great resource at every level of literacy development that is available to you anytime, anywhere!