Can you encourage your child to read?

How do parents encourage their children to read? It all starts with laying a solid foundation. Parents who enjoy reading often raise children who also enjoy reading. If books are an important part of your life, they will be for your child as well.

Make reading a regular part of your day. No matter how old your child is, you can still enjoy reading a good book together. It is very helpful if you start reading to your child at an early age. As your child grows, the selections he makes should mature, although many books appeal to people of all ages. Finding an exciting series to read is a great way to get your child hooked on reading.

Investing in a strong phonics-based reading program is a sure way to get your child to read well. Children ages 4 and up will really benefit from learning phonetic sounds and patterns. By learning with a specific system, there are no gaps in the process. In just 15 minutes a day parents can teach their child to read and read well.

Some programs first introduce the sounds of the language with pictures. This is a brilliant and simple way to teach anyone to read. Instead of being overwhelmed with learning symbols for sounds, anyone can identify the image and then the sound it would make. In this way, students are reading within the first two lessons, not using letters, but initially learning with pictures.

This is a very simple method of teaching the combination of sounds to form words. Even young children can quickly learn to identify sounds using images and then transfer that image and sound to the letter or letters that make those sounds.

For example, instead of teaching your child that the letter A makes the a sound in the ant, he is first shown a picture of an apple. Then they are told that the initial sound for apple is a. Each time they see the image of the apple, they are asked to say a sound. This sound is then carried over to the letter, but if they forget or get stuck, they are reminded of the sounds with pictures.

Children from the age of 3 to middle-aged adults have benefited from learning this way. The lessons are short and sweet. The program can be made as fast or as slow as necessary. Lessons are available on CD and are supplemented by a workbook, game cards, picture cards, and songs.