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I get several emails and FB messages a week, asking questions about the teaching of reading, writing or spelling. So, I gathered my thoughts and literacy resources to share some answers to these frequently asked questions. If you don’t see an answer to a question you wonder, feel free to leave a comment on this post. I may just add your question to the list. 
1. Pre-K Skills
How do I teach my child her letter names?
Integrate learning them into every day life. When taking a trip to the grocery store, point out the letters in the name of the store. Play “I Spy” with letters as you wait in a doctor’s office.
Point out letters as you read aloud to him.
Have fun. Play games together. You can find many of those on my ABC Goodies Pinterest board.
Start with the letters in his name. Kids’ names are important to them and so are the letters in them.
Start with what they are interested in. Do they really like dinosaurs? Make a Dinosaur ABC book. Is it baby dolls? Make a Baby Doll ABC Book.
My son is 5 and knows some letter sounds, but not all? How can I help him learn them all?
Some letter sounds are harder than others. For example, the letter T, when you say its name, makes its sound. Others letters, such as F have the letter sound at the end of the name. Other letters, like W and Y are trickier. When teaching letters, you don’t have to go in ABC order. Actually, I’d advise you not to. Start with the “easy” letters first, like T, M, R, and S. Then, move onto the harder ones.
Point out letter sounds in words as you’re going about your day or as you’re reading. Be specific and say something like, “I know that word says HUGE and not BIG because it starts with an H. H says /h/.”
Picture sorts: You can find pictures for each letter of the alphabet in Reading the Alphabet {you can download for free or pay for the bundle pack}. You can see my son doing a sound sort in this post with letters M, T, and P. Sound sorts are super easy and highly effective.
Sound tubs are fun to make and kids LOVE to pull out the objects and sort them by their initial sound.
Write together. Write sentences that are important to him. Label important objects in your home. Model how to use the sounds to make these words.
What are some pre-reading skills kids need to know to help them read better?
Phonological Awareness: The two biggies are understanding rhymes and counting syllables, included in every lesson of Reading the Alphabet.
Phonemic Awareness, which is understanding how smaller sounds work in words. For example, if I took the /k/ off the front of can and put a /m/ on, what word would I have {man}? I have written a 3-part series on playing with phonemes to give you ideas on how to introduce these concepts: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.
Letter Names and Sounds- see questions above for introducing these
Book & Print Awareness- Book awareness is simple things like finding the cover of the book. Print awareness is a little more involved. You can read about both of these things in this post. You can also find an A to Z list of Book and Print Awareness concepts that young readers can learn.
My daughter is mixing up letters and numbers. I have so far unsuccessfully tried to explain the difference.
Before kids get a firm grasp on concepts, they confuse them. {So do we, as adults.} My advice would be to show her HOW letters and numbers are used. Point their uses out in every day life. We use numbers on a clock, we count with numbers, we count our birthdays with numbers, etc. We use letters to read words, we write our name with letters, etc. When she gets a good grasp on the HOW, the WHY may naturally come.
2. Phonics
My son can recognize all the letters and the sound that each letter makes but I’m having difficulty getting him to put those sounds together in order to make a word. Any advice?
Just because kids know their letter sounds doesn’t mean sounding out words will come right away. It is one thing to recognize letters and their sounds. It is an entirely different thing to be able to APPLY those sounds to reading. But…
Once kids know their letter sounds, it is a great time to begin work on word families. You can read more about how I did this with my son in this old post. I also share how to teach word families in this post. Lessons 7, 14, 20, 26, and 31 of Reading the Alphabet also have activities and printables for teaching beginning word families.
Invented Spelling. Allow your child to invent his own spellings of words. This means instead of spelling words conventionally {motorcycle}, you allow him to spell the sounds he hears {MOTRSKL or some variation of}. This stretches your child’s ear for sounds, also known as phonemic awareness.
Pick letters that you can s-t-r-e-t-c-h out the sound of to form simple, two and three-letter words. For example, SAM. The S, A, and M can be voiced for a long time, making it easier to connect the sounds together to form words. Letters like T, P, and K are made quickly and then the sound stops, making it a bit harder to connect the sounds to make words.
3. Sight Words
My child is really struggling to learn his sight words. How can we work on these at home?
My first question when a child is struggling with anything is: Are you teaching the child in a developmentally appropriate way? If you’re asking your typical Kindergartner to learn 10 new sight words a week, my answer would be NO! Make sure that you are not introducing too many words or words that are similar {like on and in} at the same time. You can read more about this idea in my post, Sight Words: When They Just Don’t “Stick”.
Reading is cumulative. If he didn’t get it yesterday and you keep on moving anyway, it’s only going to become more difficult. Go back to where the confusion started and teach from there. If he’s in 3rd grade and that means he has to go back to 2nd grade words, do it.
Something I like to do with the younger grades {even my prekinder at home} is create readers together that focus on one or two particular sight words at a time {called emergent readers}. I pick the sentence structure {such as “I like to___” and we write books about him. You can read more about that in my guest post at No Time for Flashcards.
Play sight word games! My Sight Word Pinterest board is FULL of sight word games you and your child can play together.
Create a word wall together to “store” the words you’ve worked on together.
Beth from 123Homeschool4Me also has a few Sight Word Programs that make learning them fun.
4. Fluency
No matter what I do, my child’s reading always sounds choppy, not fluent. How can I help her read with fluency?
Again, my first question is: Do you have your child reading texts on his level {specifically- not too hard}? If I pick up hubby’s engineering magazine and began reading an article out loud, you can be sure that MY reading will not be fluent.
Do not expect fluent reading the first time. Give your child a chance to re-read the text a few times first. You can find some authentic ideas for reading with fluency in this post.
Poetry is one of my favorite places to start with fluent reading. It’s full of punctuation and is short and sweet. Funny poetry by authors such as Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein, are always a hit with readers!
Pull out words from the text that may be tricky and pre-teach them.
When my child misreads a word, he keeps on going as if he made no mistake. What should I do?
This is a very common practice with kids! Sometimes, they think if they read fast enough, we won’t catch it. I wrote a recent post entitled What to do When a Child Misreads a Word. You might find that helpful.
5. Comprehension
My child can read well, but does not do well answering questions or discussing the story with me after we’ve read. Any tips or advice?
This is common, as kids can sometimes get so caught up in reading the words correctly {decoding} that they forget that reading equals thinking. This can be hard for kids as they make that transition from emergent readers {that don’t usually have a meaning} to developing readers {more meat to the story}.
Model. Especially when kids are young {and still reading emergent readers}, read aloud good literature for enjoyment. Talk about your predictions as you read. Talk about what you see in your head. Model what you’re thinking by letting your child hear you talk aloud. Ask your child to chime in with her thoughts, too. Model, even when your child is older, too. Reading comprehension strategies will grow with your child.
Talk about the hard parts. What did you not understand on that page you read? What was confusing to you? Maybe we should go back and re-read to see if it will make more sense the second time around. These are strategies good readers use when they realize their comprehension has been compromised.
Sometimes the text structure of a book or text {the way that the information is organized} will not be familiar with a child. This, in and of itself, can be affect comprehension. To help with this, it is important to read all different kinds of texts aloud to your child from an early age. You can read more about text structure in my non-fiction and fiction text structure posts.
Make sure your child has enough prior knowledge about the subject before you ask him to read it. This is especially true of non-fiction.
How exactly do you teach comprehension to a child?
Become aware of the comprehension strategies you use when you read. Typically they are grouped something like: 1- Predicting, 2- Inferring, 3- Asking Questions, 4- Visualizing, 5- Using Your Prior Knowledge/Schema, 6- Making Connections, 7- Determining Importance, 8- Synthesizing, and 9- Comprehension Monitoring. Reading Rockets has an article about these. Teach Mama has a series about teaching comprehension with kids, too! This Reading Mama also has some plans this fall to focus more on comprehension strategies that I think you’ll like.
Model it. Share your thoughts out loud. After reading that highly descriptive paragraph together, talk about what you see in your head. How does that character look? Before turning that page, make a prediction- What will happen next?
With younger kids, taking a picture walk is a great idea. With older kids, simply look through the book and discuss charts, photographs, or words together before reading.
One simple thing you can do is set a purpose for reading a particular text. We don’t read all texts the same way because the REASON we read them isn’t the same. We don’t expect that a research article will be structured the same way as a recipe book. Talk about this with your child. Set up a purpose before reading the text: will we be reading for enjoyment of a story, to learn something new, to help us figure something out, etc.?
6. Handwriting and Writing
We’re having problems with writing letters, but I’m not going to push her (she is technically too young yet anyway). But any helpful tips are always good to have on hand. Related question: I’m trying to get my 4 year old started with writing. He hates using any type of writing instrument. I’m not sure where to start.
Literacy is a developmental thing. This includes letter formation. Just because your child is too young doesn’t mean she can’t experiment and play with writing her letters, even if it’s {deep breath} unconventional. So what if she forms the letters with the wrong strokes?!? When she becomes ready developmentally, you can teach her those things.
Kids need time to let loose and just have fun with writing. My 25 Ways to Make Writing Fun is full of ideas that I did with my own kids. Sometimes when kids “hate” writing, it just means he is not ready, yet. Don’t force it. Leave writing instruments and paper around the house in various locations {also called strewing} and just let him play.
Another good idea is to build up those writing muscles by planning activities that build those fine motor muscles. I’ve collected quite a few fine motor ideas on my Fine Motor Pinterest board.
How do you teach your child how to hold a pencil the right way?
There are some tips in this post, In Search of the “Perfect” Pencil Grip that might help.
My youngest is a lefty and is learning to write. I could use tips for teaching lefties.
While I’m not an OT, I do know that teaching a child who writes with the opposite hand as you is tricky! For lefties, the same principles apply in helping your child find the correct pencil grip. {see question above}.
Letter formation and paper orientation will also be different for lefties. Instead of starting from left to right when writing horizontal strokes, you’ll have her write from right to left so that she’s not pushing the pencil on the paper, but pulling it. The writing paper will need to be slanted so the left-hand corner is pointed up. This makes it more natural and comfortable for her arm and wrist to write.
My child sometimes reverses his b’s and d’s. Could he be dyslexic?
Younger children commonly reverse their b’s and d’s. This does not mean your child is dyslexic. However, letter reversals, especially as children age can be a sign that there is a problem.
If you have a child who reverses these two letters frequently, try this easy-peasy trick.
I am tired of fighting my kids during writing time. They don’t seem to enjoy it and I’m at my whit’s end. Is there a way to make writing enjoyable for us?
For younger kids, you may want to visit my post: 25 Ways to Make Writing Fun.
Don’t be too hard on spelling words correctly all.the.time. Being overly critical and expecting perfection squelches creativity. Instead of using new words or words in their speaking vocabulary, kids will be “stuck” writing only words they can spell.
Let them experience writing as a “author”. Provide them lots of choices over their own writing. Show them that their writing has meaning and a purpose. You can read more about that in my 5-day series, Unleashing the Writer in Your Child.
Don’t abuse it. For example, while a reading response journal can be a great idea, kids don’t need to respond to questions in written form every time they read a book. Sometimes, a lively discussion about what they’ve just read will be enough.
Instead of treating writing as a separate content area, integrate it into your math or science lesson. You’ll be amazed at how easily writing fits in. You can read about an example of this on my guest post over at Steve Spangler.
Try at Writer’s Toolkit. I love this guest post by The Measured Mom!
You can find lots of tools for writing in my Writing Ideas Pinterest board.
My five year old will write words across a page, and makes no distinction of spaces between words, or he reaches the page edge and continues the word on the next line. How can I praise his awesome effort, while teaching him these new rules/skills without saying “great job BUT…”? I just hate saying that.
This is a matter of print awareness and is totally a developmental thing. You can read more about the writing development of kids in this stage here.
Point out how print works while reading books together. Say things like “Can you find the beginning of the sentence?” or “Wow, look at how every word has space in between it and the next word.”
I have created MANY Print Awareness activities with Reading the Alphabet {each lesson has one}. The child creates a picture and then you cut apart a sentence, mix it up, and put it back together. You can read more about this activity, step-by-step in my guest post at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom.
Write together {also known as shared writing}. One simple way to get started is 1-after he has drawn a picture, help him decide what he’d like to say about his picture. Maybe, “I am kicking a ball so high!” 2- Tell him you’re going to write the sentence down on the bottom of the paper. 3- Model how to write the sentence. Say things like, “I’m going to start with a capital I…Now, I’m going to put some space here to make room for the next word…Oh, look. I need an exclamation mark on the end of my sentence.” Talk through the writing. By writing {and talking about} the sentence in front of your child, you are modeling the conventional way to do it. Once you do this a few times, ask if he’d like to help. Maybe he’d like to place his finger after each word to provide the space.
Once you feel your child has a firm grasp on how print works in the books you read and when you write together {like putting space in between words}, hold him accountable to those concepts in his own writing. When he shows you his work, you might say something like, “You have such an important message to tell me. Can you put space in between those words so I can read your important message?”
Ultimately, I would say that you can’t hold a child accountable for something he doesn’t know. He needs to have those concepts modeled for him and time to practice those concepts in a safe environment before they will develop independently. You can read more about how to teach this way in this post.
7. Spelling
My daughter really struggles to spell words correctly, even after we’ve studied them. What can I do differently to help her remember words better?
If we teach spelling as a list of random words {like, that, were, etc.}, it is less likely that students will remember them. The brain looks for patterns when it comes to learning and random lists of words do not contain patterns. For example, if I asked you to memorize a phone number that went something like 888-9229, you would have a much easier time than if I asked you to learn 854-9257 because of the patterns in the first number. It is the same way with words. You may want to check out the concept of word study. It is the perfect way to learn how words work because it helps kids recognize, analyze, and spell words by focusing on the patterns they share. The Measured Mom also has a series on word study. {Sight words do need to be learned, but we want to keep it developmentally appropriate.}
One thing I did with my students and still do with my son is keep a word wall of sight words that we’ve studied together. This serves as a great resource for helping him become more independent with those words. He also keeps a Word Study notebook of the phonics skills we study.
If your child is still struggling to spell words {sight words and phonics patterns} even after you’ve taught by patterns and introduced sight words in a developmentally appropriate way, it may indicate that your child has a learning challenge.
My son spells lots of words wrong. Is this okay?
I would say that it depends. {Don’t you love that?} Just three factors I’ll mention are 1- his age, 2- the purpose of the writing, and 3- what you’ve already taught him.
Age: If he’s young {PreK through about 2nd grade}, he’s probably inventing his spellings; a very common and AWESOME practice, in my opinion. If he’s older {about 3rd grade and up}, it may indicate a learning disability, but not always.
Purpose of the Writing: Will someone else read it? Is this just his own journal? If so, let him invent those spellings. If he’s writing a letter to a pen pal or a grandparent, spelling is more important. Why? Because spelling is a courtesy to the reader. It makes it easier for the reader to “get” the message.
What You’ve Taught Him: If you’ve worked on that phonics skill and/or sight word and he showed mastery over it in some way, hold him accountable to it. My son has a word wall and word study notebook just for this purpose. When I see a word misspelled that we’ve worked on, I say something like, “That word is a word wall word.” or “That word has the same pattern that we just studied last week. See if you can apply that pattern to help you spell this word.”
When your child is writing something and asking how to spell words- do you make him/her sound out the words or tell how to spell the words?
If it is a phonics pattern or sight word we’ve already studied, I refer kids to the word wall or word study notebooks. My son knows how to use those resources independently because I’ve modeled them for him since he was 5 {currently almost 8 years old}.
Sometimes, I’ll even refer kids to books we’ve read together. “Oh, we just read a book about trains yesterday. I be the word locomotive is in that book. Look there!”
If it’s a word my child would have no way of knowing yet, I ask him to sound it out. We can “fix” the spelling later, if needed.
I try to avoid spelling the word FOR him each time. I want to model and encourage him to use his resources and spelling strategies. Otherwise, he may not thrive and grow as a speller.
I’ve also used the I Spell, You Spell sheets before, which help kids take on responsibility for at least attempting to spell words before they ask for your help.
For a list of ideas on helping your kids spell words, you may want to visit my post on encouraging independent spellers.
8. General Questions
What is the average age that a child should start to learn the alphabet, read & write?
Learning about how the English language works can start as a baby. Read aloud to your child. Point out letters as you go about your every day life. Multiple and meaningful exposure is how all my kids learned their ABC’s. I didn’t sit down and formally teach them in order for them to learn.
That being said, I don’t have an “average age” that a child should start learning these things formally. Some kids want to start at 2 years old. Some kids show no interest until age 6. While you can integrate these things into your day and play with these concepts, you need to follow the lead of your child. My rule of thumb is, if my young child fights me on it or shows no interest, he’s not ready.
I also love what Jenae says in her ebook, I Can Teach My Child to Read: “As parents, we often want to force our children to learn the letter names by a certain age…We buy flashcards or DVDs claiming to teach our children their letters. Don’t buy into this…allow your kid to be a kid and take advantage of the “teachable moments” as they come along!”
What do you do when your child lacks the motivation to read or write?
I think it’s always a good idea to see if you can locate the root of the problem. Many times, when a child lacks motivation, we’re asking the child to do something he’s not developmentally ready for. Maybe the book is too hard or she’s being asked to write for too long in one sitting. For younger kids {preschool}, consider if your child is even ready or if you’re trying to force the issue. {For more info on younger kids, see the question above.}
Make learning meaningful and purposeful. Now, this is different for every child, but you know your child best. Most kids like to learn through play. This might mean integrating as much play into learning. Or learning from outdoors. Figure out your child’s interests and use them as a springboard. I talk about the M&M’s {multiple & meaningful exposure}.
For an older reluctant reader, I highly recommend Book Love by Melissa Taylor!
How do I know if I’ve picked the “just right” book for my child?
I am working on a project that will answer just that, hopefully to be released in September that will answer just that; but I do love Teach Mama’s post on this.
Just to throw out an idea, too. It is not enough that a child can read the words correctly. Reading=thinking. Kids need to also be able to comprehend what they are reading to make it a “just right” book.
Resources for Parents
Reading the Alphabet {available for free or as an easy bundled pack}; great for advanced preschoolers or those primary and elementary who are struggling to catch on to phonics and sight words.
Tips for Reluctant and Struggling Readers {a G+ Hangout}
How to Plan for a Reluctant Reader: Putting Together the Puzzle
10 Things Struggling Readers Need {a 10-week series on This Reading Mama}
5 Days of Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading- If you have a struggling reader, it is a great practice to teach using as many different senses at the same time as you can. This series was designed to LOAD you with great activities to do just that!
The Struggling Reader- A reading program using multi-sensory techniques to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, fluency, and comprehension. You can read my review here. And…This Reading Mama readers get to take an extra 20% off their purchase through July 31, 2013. But you must order through the “Contact” link on their site. Tell them This Reading Mama sent you and they will get you squared away.
Child 1st- I just discovered this company, but they also focus on multi-sensory techniques for teaching reading as well.
Dyslexia 101- A GREAT e-book, written by a homeschooling mother who taught several of her children with dyslexia how to read.
I Can Teach My Child to Read e-book.
Struggling Reader Pinterest Board
Reading Tips and Tricks Pinterest Board
Learn to Read Pinterest Board
Whew! That was A LOT of information. I hope that it was helpful to you and serves as a go-to resource. Like I said, please feel free to comment below and ask away. I can’t promised I’ll have “the right” answer, but I’ll sure do my best.
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~Becky
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