3 Methods For Teaching Reading

3 Methods for teaching reading
Introduction
Pre-literacy skills
Phonics Method
Whole-word Approach
Language Experience Method
Tips for parents
Learning difficulties
Orton-Gillingham
How touch-typing can help
Read and Spell blog
3 Methods for teaching reading
Learning how to read is one of the most important things a child will do before the
age of 10. That’s because everything from vocabulary growth to performance across
all major subjects at school is linked to reading ability. The Phonics Method teaches
children to pair sounds with letters and blend them together to master the skill of
decoding.
The Whole-word Approach teaches kids to read by sight and relies upon
memorization via repeat exposure to the written form of a word paired with an image
and an audio. The goal of the Language Experience Method is to teach children to
read words that are meaningful to them. Vocabulary can then be combined to create
stories that the child relates to. Yet while there are various approaches to reading
instruction, some work better than others for children who struggle with learning
difficulties.
The most common kind of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, causes individuals to

have trouble hearing the sounds that make up words. This makes it difficult for them
to sound out words in reading and to spell correctly. Dyslexic learners may therefore
benefit from a method that teaches whole-word reading and de-emphasizes the
decoding process.
Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach that has been particularly effective for
dyslexic children. It combines visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning to
teach a program of English phonics, allowing children to proceed at a pace that suits
them and their ability.
No two students will learn to read in exactly the same way, thus remaining flexible in
your approach is key. It can be useful to combine methods, teach strategies and
provide the right classroom accommodations, particularly for students who have
specific learning differences. Remember that motivation is key and try to be patient
so as to avoid introducing any negative associations with school and learning.
Learn more about motivating children to read, different kinds of dyslexia, identifying

dyslexia, the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading, and strategies to help children
with dyslexia in these posts.
Pre-literacy skills
Children begin acquiring the skills they need to master reading from the moment
they are born. In fact, an infant as young as six months old can already distinguish
between the sounds of his or her mother tongue and a foreign language and by the
age of 2 has mastered enough native phonemes to regularly produce 50+ words.
Between the ages of 2-3 many children learn to recognize a handful of letters.
They may enjoy singing the alphabet song and reciting nursery rhymes, which helps
them develop an awareness of the different sounds that make-up English words. As
fine motor skills advance, so does the ability to write, draw and copy shapes, which
eventually can be combined to form letters.
There are plenty of ways parents can encourage pre-literacy skills in children,
including pointing out letters, providing ample opportunities for playing with
language, and fostering an interest in books. It can be helpful to ask a child about
their day and talk through routines to assist with the development of narrative skills.
Visit your local library and bookstore as often as possible. The more kids read with
their parents, teachers and caregivers, the more books become a familiar and
favourite pastime. Young children should be encouraged to participate in reading by
identifying the pictures they recognize and turning the pages.
Discover more about fostering pre-literacy skills.

1. The Phonics Method
The smallest word-part that carries meaning is a phoneme. While we typically think
of letters as the building blocks of language, phonemes are the basic units of spoken
language. In an alphabetic language like English, sounds are translated into letters
and letter combinations in order to represent words on the page. Reading thus relies
on an individual’s ability to decode words into a series of sounds. Encoding is the
opposite process and is how we spell.

The Phonics Method is concerned with helping a child learn how to break words
down into sounds, translate sounds into letters and combine letters to form new
words. Phonemes and their corresponding letters may be taught based on their
frequency in English words. Overall there are 40 English phonemes to master and
different programs take different approaches to teaching them. Some materials
introduce word families with rhyming words grouped together. It’s also possible to
teach similarly shaped letters or similar sounding letters together.

The Phonics Method is one of the most popular and commonly used methods. In the
beginning progress may be slow and reading out loud halting, but eventually the
cognitive processes involved in translating between letters and sounds are
automatized and become more fluent. However, English is not always spelled the
way it sounds. This means some words can’t be sounded out and need to be learned
through memorization.
2. The Whole-word Approach
This method teaches reading at the word level. Because it skips the decoding
process, students are not sounding out words but rather learning to say the word by
recognizing its written form. Context is important and providing images can help.
Familiar words may initially be presented on their own, then in short sentences and
eventually in longer sentences. As their vocabulary grows, children begin to extract
rules and patterns that they can use to read new words.

Reading via this method is an automatic process and is sometimes called sight-
reading. After many exposures to a word children will sight-read the majority of the
vocabulary they encounter, only sounding out unfamiliar terms.

Sight-reading is faster and facilitates reading comprehension because it frees up
cognitive attention for processing new words. That’s why it is often recommended
that children learn to read high frequency English vocabulary in this way. The Dolch
word list is a set of terms that make-up 50-75% of the vocabulary in English
children’s books.
Learn more about teaching sight-reading and the Dolch List.
3. The Language Experience Method

Learning to read nonsense words in a black-and-white activity book is not always the
most effective approach. The Language Experience Method of teaching reading is
grounded in personalized learning where the words taught are different for every
child. The idea is that learning words that the child is already familiar with will be
easier.
Teachers and parents can then create unique stories that use a child’s preferred
words in different configurations. Children can draw pictures that go with them and
put them together in a folder to create a special reading book. You can look for these
words in regular children’s fiction and use them to guess at the meaning of unknown
words met in a context – an important comprehension strategy that will serve kids in
later grades.
8 Tips for parents
No matter which method or methods you use, keep these tips in mind:
1. Read as often as possible. Develop a routine where you read a book together in the
morning or in the evening. You may start by reading aloud but have the child
participate by running a finger along the text. Make reading fun, include older
children and reserve some family reading time where everyone sits together with
their own book to read for half an hour—adults included!
2. Begin with reading material that the child is interested in. If he or she has a favourite
subject, find a book full of related vocabulary to boost motivation.
3. Let the child choose his or her own book. When an individual has agency and can
determine how the learning process goes, he or she is more likely to participate.
Take children to libraries or bookstores and encourage them to explore books and
decide what they would like to read.
4. Consider graded readers. As a child develops his or her reading ability, you will want to
increase the challenge of books moving from materials that present one word per
page to longer and longer sentences, and eventually, paragraph level text. If you’re
not sure a book is at the right level for your child, try counting how many unfamiliar
words it contains per page. You can also take the opposite approach and check to
see how many Dolch words are present.
5. Talk about what you see on the page. Use books as a way to spur conversation around
a topic and boost vocabulary by learning to read words that are pictured but not
written. You can keep a special journal where you keep a record of the new words.
They will be easier to remember because they are connected through the story.
6. Avoid comparisons with peers. Every child learns to read at his or her own pace.
Reading is a personal and individual experience where a child makes meaning and
learns more about how narrative works as he or she develops stronger skills.
7. Don’t put too much pressure. Forcing a child into reading when he or she is not ready
can result in negative reactions and cause more harm than good.
8. Do speak with your child’s teacher. If your child doesn’t enjoy reading and struggles
with decoding and/or sight reading, it may be due to a specific learning difficulty. It’s
advised you first discuss it with your child’s teacher who may recommend an
assessment by a specialist.

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3 Methods for teaching reading

The most common kind of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, causes individuals to

Learn more about motivating children to read, different kinds of dyslexia, identifying

Discover more about fostering pre-literacy skills.

Learn more about teaching sight-reading and the Dolch List.

3. The Language Experience Method

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