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What did you use with a very young child who wants to learn to read?


AimeeM
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I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. I do not necessarily think that DS2 is accelerated - I just think he's "focused". 

 

He has gone through all of the Leapfrog dvds, and is bored with them. He knows his letters and letter sounds. He spends his days seeking out things with letters/words, pointing to each letter and saying its sound - the television, books, climbing on the table to insert himself during DS5's phonics lessons, etc. I do think that learning to read, if he's ready (and have no doubt - if he resists, I would drop immediately given his age) would not only interest him, but help his speech substantially. For whatever reason, while letters, sounds, and numbers come very easily to him (speaking them, I mean), he is delayed enough in speech that he qualified to receive in-home therapy several times a week through a local, very difficult to get into, program for early intervention... but he can "put together" letter sounds, sequentially, that he sees (we are having him referred out to audiology as well), even though he cannot say more than a dozen single-syllable words (ma, da, do, heh - head, ee - ear, eye, fee - feet).

 

He resists the speech therapy in a pretty big way. No tantrums or anything, but they can't find nothing that he wants enough that he will try to imitate sounds for. He just isn't interested enough, in whatever they have and are using (if they insist he try, he shrugs and finds something else to do). 

 

If it's a bad idea, tell me so, but if it is potentially a good idea (or even just "okay"), help me find resources - pretty please.

 

I use Dancing Bears with DS5, but that's very writing intensive. I have on hand Phonics Pathways as well (DS5 hated it, but his love is numbers and building, not letters; whereas DS2 absolutely stinkin' adores letters, so he may enjoy the pages and pages of nothing but letters). I also have letter tiles, a whiteboard, Bob Books, etc. 

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I don't think I would try anything formal at least until the audiology testing is done. But one thought I had was that, if you are doing signs to help with communication while working on oral communication, a lot of the baby signing videos have the vocab words written on the screen in addition to being said out loud, signed, and shown pictorially. Obviously that would be more of a whole-word method, but it could be a good start that helps other things he's working on at the same time. I remember "Baby See and Sign" was good about having the written words, and I think they even talked about it in the parent section. We also watched "Signing Time" and "My Baby Can Talk", and I am pretty sure they also had the written words on the screen.

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At that point with my son I started checking out readers with large text from the library. I read aloud with my finger under the words, and sometimes showed how to sound out words. He picked it up on his own.

 

At a young two DS enjoyed Biscuit and Winnie the Pooh readers. Now at almost three he still likes those , but also Transformers, superheroes, Elephant and Piggy, and pretty much anything that happens to be about his interests.

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DD started with Bob Books at age 2. It took her nearly a year to go through all five main sets, the rhyming words set, and the two sight words sets. From there, she switched to Elephant and Piggie books, as well as Clifford and Little Critter easy readers from the library.

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I started with whole words - so my child's name, her sibling's name and Mummy and Daddy and then introduced words that meant something to the child - often at their request.

 

At the same time I taught letter sounds and began blending for them (only in my speech - not showing them the letters at all and not asking them to blend - all they had to do was hear it done for them). After about a month or so of this I would pause after saying the letters and they would say the word (so c-a-t and they would say cat and if they didn't then I said it).

 

And still at the same time when I was reading to them I would run my hand under the words I read which taught left to right progression and also that reading goes from the top of the page to the bottom. I also read a number of books over and over and would pause and point to words which they would say (the ones they would know even without reading them as the stories for young children are often very repetitive).

 

Then they played Starfall - it took my kids til almost 3.5 to be able to use the mouse sufficiently well to play starfall by themselves however.

 

And finally around 3 I started with OPGTR. They were also learning sight words and had started the Ladybird Key Words series at this point and beginning readers. Sight words are not advised by many on here and I know kids who have struggled with the switch, however for mine it has worked fine and they are both perfectly capable of blending and don't just guess. 

 

My youngest has speech issues. The blending has helped some - she struggles with the "f" sound for example (and a lot more) and I can say to her say f - ish - separate the sounds and then bring them together. She doesn't like practising the speech though so combining it as a reading exercise is easier for us both.

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The preschool prep series is amazing, particularly for YOUNG early readers. They have a whole line of DVDs, books, flascards, apps, workbooks, etc. The words are in nice bold print on the opposite side of the page from the illustration and they have both phonetic readers and sight words readers. See if your library carries this set. The hooked on phonics learn to read apps are great as well. We had the workbooks and dvd's when DD was 2 and she would beg "Mama do phonics?!" which was pretty much the cutest thing in the world. :) Since she could not write yet, we just colored the words and used the workbook like a coloring book. I would fill in all the answers and we would take turns reading/sounding out if she wanted and then coloring over my writing.

 

You can check out BrillKids Little Reader (software for computer or tablet)or www.readingbear.com which is totally free. Brillkids early readers are great, huge print and pictures on the opposite side of the page but they are a bit thin. All the stories are on the software, too, so you can read them that way if your child is a page ripper. 

 

Really, I would just show him a ton of literacy based DVDs and youtube videos. 

-Readeez

-Preschool Prep

-Your baby can read/your child can read (which introduces more phonics, blends, sentences, nursery rhymes etc). The Your Child can Discover series is excellent, too. You might have a tricky time finding these brand new while they are busy rebranding after rediculous lawsuits. 

-My Montessori House (Make big words, Tough words)

-A wide variety of ESL phonics videos on youtube- just make a playlist. 

 

The leapfrog TAG system was awesome for my daughter, she would occupy herself with it everynight before our reading together time. She learned to point word by word at about 2 or 2.5 years old.

 

Anyway, all of these things are pretty much input, input, input. You don't even have to ask him to read anything (no pressure required). Just let him continue to absorb information in a literacy rich "immersion" environment and it will come bubbling over when he is ready. 

 

 

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I do think that learning to read, if he's ready (and have no doubt - if he resists, I would drop immediately given his age) would not only interest him, but help his speech substantially. For whatever reason, while letters, sounds, and numbers come very easily to him (speaking them, I mean), he is delayed enough in speech that he qualified to receive in-home therapy several times a week through a local, very difficult to get into, program for early intervention... but he can "put together" letter sounds, sequentially, that he sees (we are having him referred out to audiology as well), even though he cannot say more than a dozen single-syllable words (ma, da, do, heh - head, ee - ear, eye, fee - feet).

 

When you say he can "put together sounds that he sees" do you mean he is trying to blend?  If so, then learning to read could well help his speech - this was how we got DD talking when she was 2.  I don't think she had a significant delay though, so YMMV.  She was very reluctant to talk though, and had about 10 words at 2yrs 2 months.  By 2 yrs 6 months she was beginning to read simple phonics readers from the library (stuff like I See Sam) and talking in sentences.  We started with playing around with magnetic letters, and moved on to a lot of oral blending.

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I didn't do anything formal with my DS at this age, just read to him and encouraged him to try out words when we were out and about (and lots of LeapFrog videos). At some point I labeled things around the house, I think he was 3. At 2, he knew his way around Whole Foods and would point to all the things we normally bought. Sometimes I'd play games like pick out a different yogurt and he'd correct me by picking out the Stonyfield or whatever instead. I don't think he was actually reading all the

labels, but still practicing with visuals.

 

He had speech issues also, but had no use for his therapist. She talked down to him and didn't recognize or even inquire about his strengths, so he had no repect for her and refused to practice. He couldn't see the benefits of blowing bubbles for this awful sing-songy woman, so we stopped going. Despite her dire warnings about his "speech appraxia", he outgrew it all at 5. We felt there was more going on in his head than he was able to physically sort out. We now have a similar problem with writing. :)

 

I think kids like this are going to absorb anything you put in front of them (and more), so just have fun with it. Give him what he wants, but be prepared to stop or change whenever he gets reluctant (but you know that already).

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As far as formal materials go, +1 for Starfall and look at Words Their Way.

 

But, just checking out simple books at the library and reading them and figuring them out together works great too, especially with a self motivated learner. Library books prevent boredom because it's easy to swap the challenge level up or down as needed.

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I highly recommend a Montessori moveable alphabet and a set of blank index cards. I used to write whatever words my 2yo wanted onto flash cards and then he would replicate them with the moveable alphabet. It's a less technology heavy solution and lets it be more of a play experience.

 

Also second Starfall.com. My 2yo would play on it whenever I had to feed baby #2. Also the PBS program Word World, which focuses on blending, letter families, etc. while being way more entertaining than Leap Frog.

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I second preschool prep, especially the readers. Those were instrumental in my 2 y.o learning to read. He was also on speech therapy at that time. Reading helped his speech immensely. After he could read preschool prep readers we just kept using the library and picking up early reader books. We went through about 30 a week back in those days. I love that he was able to learnt read snuggled in my lap.

 

I highly recommend that you check out the BrillKids forum. Lots of young readers over there.

 

Something else that helped for his speech was using the free program www.readingbear.org.

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Now that DS has been reading easy readers fluently, I've found that he does need some kind of systematic approach for some of the phonics rules. Some phonograms and rules just don't come up often enough for him to adequately internalize them from just reading. So we are now using LOE phonogram cards and game book. Since he's not even three I definitely didn't want to do anything that felt like schoolwork but instead stick with play based learning as long as possible.

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