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When to teach a child to read? When to start teaching a child to read: advice from a psychologist How long does a child begin to read in syllables.

Ponds in the garden

Without exception, parents are happy when their baby learns something new.

Any, even the slightest, victories become a reason for pride, they are certainly told to all acquaintances and friends.

Many modern psychologists speak negatively about the early development of the child, as they believe that psychological characteristics are not taken into account in this process.

The development and state of the child's psyche 100 years ago and now do not have any differences.

No parent or teacher is able to speed up or otherwise influence the psychological processes in the body of their child.

Abstract images, such as letters or numbers, the child is not able to perceive until the age of 6. His nervous system has a program that is genetically incorporated, and at certain moments the moment of development of certain brain structures comes.

At 5-6 years old, the child has developed visual-figurative thinking. He perceives only what he could see and feel throughout his small life.

At 3-4 years old, such concepts as a letter, word, syllable are not perceived by the child. He can put letters into syllables and mechanically memorize their spelling. But it is still impossible to read some simple sentence, and even more so, it is impossible for a baby to understand it.

Another important aspect is that the main activity of preschool children is the game. It is the games that prepare the baby to feel the world around him, to understand people, to express his thoughts. If you unknowingly, and even more thoughtlessly disrupt this "playing" activity, you can do much harm to the development of the child's personality.

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget identifies three periods of psychological development in children:

  • sensory-motor (from birth to two years) - the formation of tactile feelings and physical sensations;
  • figurative (from two to seven years) - in the foreground is the game and language acquisition, self-esteem is formed;
  • logical (from seven years to eleven years) - logical conclusions are built.

Of course, the third period is best for learning to read. But despite this, many modern parents strive to teach their child to read as early as possible.

Early development: pros and cons

Over the past decade, the phrase early development can be increasingly heard from the lips of newly minted parents.

Proponents of this development argue that the most optimal age is from 3 months to 3 years.

The Japanese Association for Early Development even published a book called "It's Too Late After 3", which convinces modern moms and dads of the need for such development.

Psychologists believe that such a desire - to teach the child everything and at once as quickly as possible - is dictated by the insecurity of parents. They are driven by their own lack of fulfillment and life dissatisfaction. Therefore, to make a child prodigy out of their child becomes simply the goal of their whole life.

Early development has not only its advantages, according to the Association, but also its disadvantages. The advantages are:

  1. Communication with a child. No matter how difficult the classes and reading lessons are, the baby spends time with his beloved parents. Such communication is necessary and has a positive effect on the psychological development of the child.
  2. New information. During reading classes, the child learns a lot of new and interesting things for himself. Of course, even without early reading he will get acquainted with objects and phenomena. But developing books will make this process more interesting.
  3. Brain development. Since reading classes develop the child, his brain is trained without stress and grasps everything on the fly. This will help in the school years to reduce the load and more successfully cope with educational tasks.
  4. Acquisition of useful skills. Early development is the training of thinking, the development of new skills, the development of logic. This is the "foundation" for further learning. The following knowledge will not be able to take a firm place if there is no preparation.
  5. Increasing self-esteem. Praise is needed for both mothers and children. When parents are engaged with the baby, the realization that they are doing something useful is uplifting. Yes, and the child, feeling the pride of his parents and hearing affectionate words, strives for new victories.
  1. Parents are involved. For them, early development is a kind of race and a way of self-realization. They want to show others what heights their child can achieve and what contribution they have made to this.
  2. Knowledge takes time and effort. This applies to both mothers and children. When working with a child, a mother can forget about herself and devote time only to classes in order to achieve better results. And it is difficult for a child, due to age and psychological characteristics, to concentrate his attention for a long time.
  3. The interests of the child are not taken into account. The main activity of early preschool age is play. And of course, it is more interesting for a child to play toys, watch cartoons, communicate with pets than to sit at educational books and learn to read. It is important to consider the wishes of the child.
  4. Unpreparedness for new knowledge. The brain perceives the information that corresponds to the age and needs of the child. If such early education is carried out with an unprepared child, then in the future it will have a bad effect on schooling. And the child will not have any desire to go to an educational institution.

Each parent makes their own decision about the optimal age for teaching their child to read. But it is better when choosing to take into account the pros and cons of early and timely development.

You will find everything about choosing a pharmacy aspirator for a baby.

Reading for pleasure: when to start?

Psychologists identify several physiological features of the child, which should be taken into account:

  1. A prerequisite for the start of learning is the speech of the child. He must speak not only in words, but also in sentences. Understand what he says and why. It is very dangerous to start training when the baby still does not speak well.
  2. Can a child easily name a word that starts with the letter M and ends with the letter A? Highlights a common sound in a few words? He has a well-developed phonemic ear. And this is very important for learning to read.
  3. The child should not have speech therapy problems. If he does not pronounce some letters of the alphabet, then this disrupts phonemic hearing and makes reading difficult.
  4. The kid must think spatially and know the concepts of "left", "right". Since he will have to read from left to right. If spatial concepts are unfamiliar, then the child begins to read as he likes: from the letter that is most interesting.

Approximately these signs and skills are manifested by the age of five. But each child is individual, and this should not be forgotten.

If parents read fairy tales every night before going to bed, instill a love of reading, introduce the baby to poems by reading aloud, then the subsequent education of the child will be successful and desirable.

Reading teaching methods: which one to choose?

For early learning to read, there are several methods that have their own characteristics and recommendations.

Which one to choose to achieve maximum results?

  1. ABC- each letter has a helper picture, which makes it easier to remember the letter. For example, A is a stork, M is milk. But this method is bad for reading, since the child, together with the letter, remembers the image that refers to it. How can he understand why the word MAMA consists of alternating storks and milk, if he is used to such pictures?
  2. Primer This is the traditional way of learning. Modern primers are distinguished by the presence of a variety of bright pictures and characters. But their principle remained the same - letters are combined into syllables, and syllables into words. A good primer should not first introduce children to all the letters of the alphabet, and then teach them how to form syllables. It is better that the study of letters and syllables goes in parallel, because from two consonants and the same number of vowels you can make a lot of syllables. This technique allows the child to independently receive syllables from letters and words from syllables.
  3. Whole word method- its author is the American scientist Glen Doman. He conducted an experiment which consisted of the following. The gaze of babies begins to focus from about two months of age, and they observe and learn about the world around them with interest. Just at that age, they were shown cards with sentences or words at a fast pace. And the mother or the teacher read what was written on the cards aloud. The duration of such classes at first was supposed to be a maximum of 10 minutes, and then this time was increased. The child memorized whole words thanks to this method. Special requirements were imposed on the cards on which the words were written: the size and height of the letters, the amount of information were strictly selected. With the advent of this technique, parents enthusiastically began to write cards and conduct such "early" activities with their babies. But after some time, the interest of the child disappeared, and the enthusiasm of the parents gradually faded away.
  4. Zaitsev Cubes Probably everyone has heard of them. Petersburg teacher N. A. Zaitsev came up with the idea of ​​placing warehouses on cubes, which allowed children to learn to read in a playful way. It seems to be good that the main activity of a preschool child is taken into account, but this is not a very convincing advantage. And there are several disadvantages. The first drawback is the cost of the kit. Cubes, poster tables and an audio cassette can cost a pretty penny to "advanced" parents. The second drawback is that the child is deprived of the opportunity to understand how syllables appear, and uses ready-made “material”.
  5. The system of the earliest possible development of Pavel Tyulenev: the motto of this technique is "The sooner the better." More specifically, P. Tyulenev believes that any normal child by the age of one will easily learn how to put letters into words, and by two he will master reading fluency. As well as in the method of whole words, cards are used that are read to the child from birth. It is important to ensure that the child is not distracted by other objects. If you apply this technique in practice, it means skipping all the psychological stages of a child's development and immediately proceeding to perform mental operations. But what about the game and imaginative thinking?

Without playing moments in learning, it is almost impossible to teach a preschool child to read. It is necessary to try to conduct classes in a playful way, use fairy-tale helper characters, and write lesson scenarios.

  1. It is important not to force the child to read if he does not want to. Such activities should evoke positive emotions. This will be useful for further schooling and adaptation to learning.
  2. Think carefully about tasks, as the success of training depends on it. Do not ask to read long sentences until you are sure that the child understands the meaning of what is read.
  3. The duration of the lesson should be 10-15 minutes. Remember - the child quickly gets tired, especially from a new type of activity. If he has lost interest, it is better to end the session and let him rest.
  4. And there is simply no definite answer at what age it is worth starting such classes. Do not forget that the baby is not a tool for your self-realization, but a person with his own needs and characteristics.

    It is important to understand what the purpose of training is, and then the choice of the appropriate time to start such classes will be simple and obvious. Good luck and patience!

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Question in the magazine "Family and School": My granddaughter is four years old, but she already knows all the letters and asks us to taught her to read. Can I do it now or wait until she grows up? At what age should a child be taught to read??

Answered by F. Ippolitov, candidate of pedagogical sciences:

Allow me to start the answer from afar. You probably know that cybernetic devices and cybernetic ideas are all over the place right now. Among these ideas is one that seems to be very simple: the idea of ​​feedback.

Generally speaking, none of our actions is conceivable without feedback. If we hold out our hand for a glass of water, feedback is provided to us by touching it, by feeling this object in the palm of our hand. If we are talking with a friend, his look, facial expressions, remarks constantly show us how he accepts and understands our words. This is also feedback.

Okay, but what about your question?

Today, there are thousands of cases of early education of children in both literacy, and mathematics, and a foreign language. Already at the age of 3 they started it, and at 4. Sometimes - as a pedagogical experiment, and certified teachers and psychologists were engaged in this business, and sometimes dads and mothers without any science (it would seem) achieved that their child at 4 years old read freely on native language. There were cases when such training cost the little man dearly: there were nervous disorders, brain exhaustion, even mental retardation. But these are rare cases, usually everything went well. This is not surprising - the child learns from the first years "playfully" remembers and assimilates a great amount of knowledge.

But there is one limitation. At 3-4 years old, the child is used to getting to know the world around him in a way that is more convenient for him. He puts everything into his mouth, not from hunger, but to feel how a new object feels with his lips. He examines all the things under the table and under the bed, not because he wants to be taken out in the dust: he is interested in what is "on the other side." And when the elders stop his attempts, remember how much grief and sobbing usually happens ... In short, a child at an early age cannot be forced to learn. The well-known school age - 7 years old - is determined not in general by the ability to accept new knowledge (it manifests itself almost together with coherent speech), but by the ability of patience, the ability to do what is needed. Here, of course, another question is how to cultivate this ability; it is also different in children at the age of 7 and depends most of all on the preliminary efforts of the parents.

However, it remains indisputable: all successful attempts at early education are based on the ability to make learning fun for the child. He himself must approach adults and show the new letters he has learned. He himself must remind that today they did not deal with him, and demand this. How to achieve such a position? Clear - to make learning interesting, to support and encourage the slightest step forward. And no coercion, no prodding!

In other words, if you want to know can you teach your child to read- ask the child himself! Just don't ask with words, but with deeds. Take a closer look at what the girl is especially interested in, and try to somehow combine these interests with the intended training. Start showing and telling. Then stop, for a day, two, three. The baby does not remind you herself, does not ask you to go further? .. So, you made a mistake in something - think and try to start differently. Is it the same again? Make a third try. Failure again? .. Well, then you have to wait - either the child is not ready, or you yourself.

Therefore, it's all about feedback: you can try to teach your child anything, at any age, but keep the feedback! Is the child yawning, distracted, trying to get away from you? Here's a sure sign of trouble for you. Immediately stop the case and do not allow yourself to think that the baby is to blame for something, “has not matured”, “it is necessary to teach him”. No, it's you who have not matured in something, you are to blame, you need to come up with something else. Feedback unambiguously indicates this.

There are many popular books about the first teaching of children in a family to music or sports, literacy or languages. There are different methods and approaches recommended. Before using them, it is worth trying on whether they suit your character, habits, temperament and experience. But the main thing is not in specific ways and methods, but in vigilance, in constant glance at the “object of education”: How is it going? Is everything all right? No one will tell you this better than the child himself with all his behavior.

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This point of view is supported by our expert - family psychologist Irina Karpenko.

natural process

Brain maturation lasts from birth to age 15. Neuropsychologists distinguish three stages of this process:

First- from the beginning of pregnancy to 3 years. At this time, the first functional block of the brain is formed: structures and systems responsible for the bodily, emotional and cognitive state of the child.

Second- from 3 to 7-8 years. During this period, the second functional block matures, which controls perception: visual, gustatory, auditory, kinesthetic, smell, touch.

The third- from 7-8 to 12-15 years old. The stage of development of the third block, which organizes active, conscious mental activity.

Blocks are formed sequentially, and attempts to jump the stage distort the natural development.

The reaction to early learning may not appear immediately, but it will still come back to haunt years later - the inability to build relationships with other people, tics, obsessive movements, stuttering, speech disorders.

In addition, reading at an early age is a strong mental stress that causes blood flow to the cerebral cortex, which leads to impoverishment of the blood supply to the centers of respiration and digestion. As a result, spasms of blood vessels occur, which in turn give rise to a whole bunch of diseases.

Premature learning to read is also dangerous for the eyes. Ophthalmologists do not advise teaching a child to read before the age of 5-6 years, while the formation of the ciliary muscle has not yet ended. Visual stress at an early age can lead to the development of myopia.

Game time

Another negative side of the early intellectual development of the baby is desocialization.

In preschool childhood, the basic concepts of moral principles are laid: kindness, pity, shame, love, loyalty, devotion, honesty, justice ... The most important thing for a baby at this stage is to learn to contact the outside world, interact with other people and feel them. That is why at a “tender age” the unconditional love of the mother is extremely important for the baby. Through maternal affection, tenderness and care, the baby learns to love the world and others.

It is important for a baby of the first years of life to enrich his inner world with positive experiences, and for three or four years old it is also role-playing games. The famous psychologist Daniil Elkonin said that preschool age is such a stage of mental development, the leading activity of which is the game. It is thanks to the game that the most important changes in the child's psyche are made and preparations are made for a new stage of development - learning.

When a child in the early stages of development is given to learn numbers and letters instead of games, nursery rhymes, children's songs and rhymes, the formation of the emotional sphere is inhibited. Filling this gap will be almost impossible. The child will not fully develop such qualities as the ability to empathize, sympathize, love - the key to building a strong family, friendship, cooperation. Remember the famous geeks: the vast majority of them suffered from various complexes, insecurity, depression, generated by the inability to build relationships with peers and with the opposite sex. However, even kids who were not taught 5 languages ​​from birth, but simply taught to read from 2-3 years old, experience similar difficulties, because at an early age, when it was necessary to master the culture of communication, they sat at books.

In addition, early learning has a negative impact on the formation of figurative thinking. Thus, a psychoneurologist, professor Vilen Garbuzov is sure that early intellectualization leads to "schizoid intoxication", replacing children's spontaneity and interest in wildlife with abstract things that young children are not yet able to comprehend.

We are talking about the dangerous trend of excessively early (up to 5 and a half years) learning to read, write, mathematics, a foreign language, chess, music from notes, learning on a display, playing with complex electronic devices. Letters, numbers, diagrams, notes crowd out and suppress imagination and imaginative thinking,” the professor warns.

Without understanding

When learning to read, one of the most important aspects is the presence of motivation. The kid should learn not at the behest of the parents, but of his own free will. The initiative must come from the child. After all, the learning process is not easy, and if the child does not understand why he needs it, the lesson will quickly get bored, and reading lessons will be associated with tedious and aimless work. Yes, a child at the age of three can read fluently, but this is unlikely to bring him joy. At this age, children still read purely technically: the process of folding letters into words is difficult, and while the child reads the sentence to the end, he already forgets what he read at the beginning. There is not enough strength to understand and assimilate the text. These are the age features of younger preschool age - up to 5-6 years. According to statistics, 70% of children under 5 do not understand what they read on their own. But kids perfectly grasp and absorb information when adults read to them.

Love for life

The desire to master the art of reading appears in a child, as a rule, by the age of 6-7, in rare cases - at 5 years.

Aspiration arises when a child imitates older siblings who can read or book-loving parents. Sometimes a child can be spurred on by meeting a peer who has learned to read. At this age, the technical skill is easily mastered, and the child is already able to concentrate on the wording and the meaning of the story at the same time.

The kid enthusiastically reads children's books, discovering amazing worlds. After all, an interesting occupation captures the whole, and reading (when it is not under duress) becomes a real aesthetic pleasure: developing, enriching, helping to reveal the inner world.

Do not deprive the child of the joy of learning, do not drive him forward, and then he will show amazing abilities, learning not just to put words together from syllables, but to love literature for life.

Now it is generally accepted that it is necessary to start a full-fledged education of a child from the age of 6-7 years. A preschooler at this age is already quite independent, able to take care of himself, knows how and understands a lot. Active perception of the child increases, and reaches 7-10 minutes. All this means that the baby is ready to learn. But you need to start preparing it for this moment long before school age. Today I propose to discuss when to start teaching a child to read, and how to do it best.

At what age should a child be taught to read?

Recently, a lot of pedagogical and psychological research has appeared on the topic of when to start teaching a child to read. The authors of these studies almost unanimously insist that the education of the child should begin at the earliest preschool age. According to pundits, the best moment for this is the three-year-old age of the baby. One cannot but agree with the obvious fact that a child at the age of three seems quite tiny. Therefore, anticipating the surprised question of parents and the indignation “Why so early?”, I propose to look into this in more detail before talking about how to teach a child to read. To begin with, I would like to note that the answer lies in some of the unique features of the development of the child at this particular age.

Psychological characteristics of children at 3 years old

Psychologists consider the age of 3 years as a crisis in relation to the development of the child. It is at this time that your child is finally formed as a person. Of course, the baby still does not know how much, and, therefore, it is too early to engage in full-fledged training at this age. But your three-year-old baby is already fully aware of the world and consciously declares his own "I". This period of development of the little man is quite appropriately called - "the age of why". Children who have already learned to talk begin to explore the world around them with great activity and absorb everything like a sponge.

Spatial thinking, logic and memory

It is very important not to miss this stage of the development of the baby, because it is from the age of three that the formation of the inclinations of logical and spatial thinking takes place. That is, the child begins to think figuratively, to understand that objects are voluminous, he can describe and imagine them. The logical beginning of development is manifested at the moment when your daughter or son begins to ask a series of questions that follow one from the other. For example, a dialogue like this:

- Mom, what is it? - the kid asks, pointing to the speed bump, over which the bus rolls with caution.
“The kid is a speed bump,” you say.
- Why lying down? he asks again.
Because it's on the road.
- Why a cop? - no way the baby will calm down.
Because that's what they called him.
- And who called him that ... ..

In addition to logical and spatial thinking, memory is activated in a child at the age of three. It is very important for the child to remember by all means all the answers that he received to his questions. That is why the baby can repeatedly and tirelessly ask the same thing from the parents. He learns, he learns, he remembers. All that is required of you is just to help your crumbs in this. This is the perfect time to start teaching your child to read. Take advantage of this and the “why-why-age” will make it easy enough to teach your child the basics of reading.

Why teach a child to read at 3 years old?

There are at least three arguments in favor of starting teaching a child to read from the age of three.

Firstly, in this way you will develop the memory, logic and imagination of the child - for which it is necessary, I think, there is no need to explain.

Secondly, you will be able to significantly expand the horizons of your crumbs, which means that you will lay the foundations for the ability to communicate and not just defend, but argue your point of view.

Thirdly, avoid serious problems that can imperceptibly come in 3 years when your baby goes to school. Indeed, in the first grade, you will need to read not only the primer, but also the conditions of the problems in mathematics. You can imagine how long it will take him to read the condition, comprehend what he read, and proceed to the solution. During this time, other children will be able to rewrite the problem in a notebook and start solving it. Let your baby be different from others, something good.

How to quickly teach a child to read in syllables?

“It’s impossible at 3 years old!” Some parents retort, and they will be wrong. Still as possible and at the same time without any psychological trauma for the child, without plodding over the primer and significant efforts.

We learn letters.

Obviously, the first thing that should be in your plan, the purpose of which, like a child to learn to read, is to learn letters. Reading without knowing the letters is simply impossible. And already here there is one small, but very important feature, without knowing which you can only aggravate the learning process of the baby. When you pronounce letters to a child, in no case do not pronounce them as follows: “we”, “ge”, “de”, and so on. You can’t do this if you want to quickly teach your child to read. The letters should be pronounced for the child the way they sound - not the names of the letters, but their sounds: “c”, “g”, “d” - clearly and abruptly, when these are consonants and slightly stretch the vowel sounds: “a-a”, "i-i", "yu-yu" ....

If you break this simple rule, then it will be difficult for the child to combine letters into a syllable, he will not be able to do this for a long time, because he simply will not understand why the letter “we” or “ge” in the word should be pronounced differently. Why, for example, the word "mother" should be read that way, and not "meamea". It will be difficult to explain to him later, the difference between the names of the letters and the letters themselves, he will get lost, upset, and may simply dislike both reading and learning in general.

Be sure to hang a colorful beautiful poster with the alphabet in the room of your daughter or son. You can easily buy one at any stationery or bookstore. With the help of visualization, you can activate and train the passive memory of the baby, as the child will always “bump” on the letters with his eyes, and subconsciously memorize them. This is a feature of children's perception, based on craving for everything bright and interesting: pictures, drawings, flowers, butterflies.

Regardless of the age of the child, he needs a bright, visual, methodically well-composed material. Effective visual aids on how to quickly teach a child to read are colorful cubes with depicted letters and pictures (you can only use letters). Plastic letters work well (including the full alphabet, which is done in several colors, for example, separating vowels and consonants in different shades). An ideal choice is an alphabet set with a special magnetic board, or a set of letters of different colors on magnets, for example, to build syllables, words and sentences, attaching them to the refrigerator. A good help for how to teach a child to read are coloring pages with letters and so on.

Put the letters into syllables.

It is very important for the parents of the baby to understand how to teach the child to read correctly, because it directly depends on how quickly the preschooler will quickly navigate in some other subjects. When the baby remembers the letters, feel free to start putting them into syllables.

In order to quickly teach a child to read without delaying this process for many months, we recommend buying letters or making your own alphabet from cardboard. Doing it yourself, do not forget to color the consonants and vowels in different colors, so the child will understand that they are different and will be able to navigate easier and faster when you need to look for the desired letter in their variety.

How to quickly teach a child to read in syllables effortlessly.

It is very important that classes with the baby must be built in the form of a game. That is, we will teach the child to read while playing.

For example, play "fun elevator" with your baby. To do this, build a column of 6-7 letters, consonants, laying them in a row on the floor in height, and to compose syllables, take the letter “a” to begin with. Let this column be a kind of “elevator” in the house, and let the letter “a” be the “booth” of this elevator. Let's start the fun "rolling the letter". Move "a" along the "elevator", placing it near each consonant letter, sound the syllable, ask your baby to repeat it. Get to the top floor, and then let the "cab" go down. Say each syllable in turn.

Let the baby be the first to name what he reads, but do not put pressure on him if he cannot do it right away, and do not delay the wait - tell him or just remind him, and move on. Do not focus on failures and enthusiastically praise what he succeeds.

You need to spend as much time on the game as the baby will be interested in doing it. Then postpone the game for one or two days, and then get it again. The child will not get tired of this form of education, so the baby will read all the new syllables with interest.

As soon as your daughter or son can read simple direct syllables on his own, move on to reverse syllables. Now let the letter "a" "travel" before the consonants, forming the syllables "ab", "ag", "hell" and so on. Lay out the letters freely, now the "a" in your game will be the "boat", and the consonants will be the "piers". With the help of such a “sound boat” you will be able to teach your child to read backward syllables, which means a short way to full-fledged reading first of words, sentences, and then of children's fairy tales and world literature.

How to teach a child to read, realizing the meaning of words

Literally after two or three months of regular classes, your three-year-old baby will be able to confidently read words by syllables in a colorful primer or other bright book adapted specifically for preschoolers.

You need to start teaching your child to read words in their entirety after the baby has learned to reproduce syllables. To begin with, it is better to offer words for reading, the syllables in which consist of two letters, that is, open syllables: “ma-ma”, “ka-sha”, “po-go-da”, “ra-bo-ta”. At first, do not offer your baby words longer than three simple syllables. Connect a mixture of reverse syllables: “yula”, “yar”, “silt”, and the like. Then study the words with closed syllables: “house”, “catfish”, “com”. After this starts to work out well for the child, you can move on to longer and more complex words in a combination of different syllables: “house”, “mouse”, “sister”, “school”, “pod”, “brook”.

Be sure to discuss with your child each of the words he reads. Repeat this word together, draw pictures depicting a given object or event that the baby has just read about. This, again, will add a game moment to the learning process, form images and memories associated with this word, and, therefore, will help him read it quickly and effortlessly when he meets this word the next time.

Thus, you can not only quickly teach a child to read up to 3.5 years old, and quite confidently, but also ensure that the baby loves the process of reading, instill in him a craving for knowledge and learning. Of course, the acquired skill will need to be constantly maintained, so try to regularly engage with your smart son or smart daughter. Having learned to read at the age of three, having come to school, the child will read books fluently, and already in the first grade he will be able to please you and his teacher with correct, expressive reading. Of course, teaching a child to read is not easy, but your efforts and the time spent will pay off with interest, because he is your future, and you need to take care of the future today.

And a little more about how to teach a child to read:


All parents want their child to be smart and quick-witted, study well at school and be able to get a promising education. And for this, some moms and dads think, you need to teach kids to read almost from the cradle (or diapers) ...

There are many methods of early learning to read in the world. The main teachers consider the systems of Glen Doman, Maria Montessori and Nikolai Zaitsev. Of course, each of them requires detailed study. Auxiliary materials for this can be easily found both on sale and on the Internet. But what you will not find "in the public domain" is the advice of qualified teachers who know the nuances of early reading techniques. That is why we turned to Alexander, Deputy Director for Educational and Methodological Work of the Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education of the Kiev University. B. Grinchenko, candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor.

Glen Doman Method

It arose in the 40s of the XX century, when the American neurophysiologist Glen Doman began developing a rehabilitation program for children with lesions of the nervous system. The idea is that the child learns to read the words all at once, rather than spelling them out. To do this, parents in red on rectangular cards write in large block letters the names of objects that the child often sees. On sale you can find ready-made cards. Then they show these cards to the child many times, while saying the word. In addition, mom or dad simultaneously show the object, this word is called. The child remembers what he saw and heard, and subsequently he begins to read. Gradually, the number of cards increases, and consequently the number of words also increases.

Maria Montessori Method

The Italian educator Maria Montessori proposed a method by which children themselves learn to read, without the help of special aids and the alphabet. According to Montessori, children should first learn to write, not read, since it is easier for babies to write (i.e. draw) a letter. In addition, you should start with capital letters, and not from printed ones - circular movements are easier for children.
The letter begins to prepare the hand. To do this, children are offered to hatch the drawing and circle the frames. Montessori attached great importance to touch, so kids are allowed to touch soft and fluffy letters. Along with writing, children learn to read. They use the movable alphabet to compose words, and subsequently phrases. And even later, handwritten letters are transferred to printed ones. The main condition for this is the game, the use of a fairy tale.
The exercise game starts with a presentation. That is, parents should tell and show what can be done with certain objects: “Here are soft letters. Let's wrap our fingers around them and name them." Further, the child is given the opportunity to play with these objects without disturbing her or interfering. Such a game ends with the cleaning of letters in a box, books - on a shelf, and the like. Order is also an important element of the Montessori methodology.

Nikolai Zaitsev's technique

Nikolai Zaitsev created this technique back in the 80s of the last century to teach reading to children from 2 years old, although some parents give Zaitsev's cubes to children who are not yet a year old. The basis of the system is a composite principle. That is, training does not begin with letters, but with warehouses. At the same time, the author of the methodology insists on the slogan: “Do not study, but play!”. That is why the basis of the technique is cubes. At the same time, Zaitsev relied on the visual, auditory and tactile memory of the child. Warehouses are written on the sides of the cubes, each of which has a different color, size and makes different sounds, thanks to the fillings inside. Everything is done to ensure that the child turns on various channels of perception. Large in size are cubes with hard warehouses, small ones with soft warehouses, iron cubes with voiced warehouses, wooden cubes with muffled ones, “golden” ones with vowels and the like. And the letters are written on the cubes in different colors: vowels - blue, consonants - blue, and the like.

Do no harm

At what age do you start teaching with a child and by what method?

- Early reading should be approached individually. There are no methods for everyone. Moreover, early age is very dangerous for any learning. This practice is 99% harmful rather than beneficial, and can become an insurmountable barrier to learning in the future.

Most think the opposite. What is the reason?

This is due to the fact that the brain structures and the general physiology of a child (especially of an early age) are not tuned to receive a large flow of information. I'm not talking about his digestion! And we, in my opinion, are now undergoing commercialization, an attempt to convince parents that the sooner they start teaching a child, the sooner they will succeed. However, what makes this success possible? Due to the fact that we shorten children's childhood and take away their health. Today, doctors make 1,400 diagnoses for every 1,000 children (that is, one child can have several diseases at the same time). There are practically no healthy children in our schools already in the first grade! The question arises: where are we losing their health? The answer is obvious - even in preschool age.

So, early development, in particular learning to read, should not be done with young children?

Of course! But you need to clearly understand when the child is ready for this. It is best when the child himself initiates the learning process. But it is unlikely that at the age of three he will want to be taught to read. There is another approach - we are talking about a skillful combination of play with learning elements in accordance with the age of the child.

The process of reading mentally is very difficult for kids, so it is impossible to get a quick result. Great patience on the part of parents and any moral support of the child is necessary.

Oriented to most of the systems that are offered for early reading? They try to focus the child's attention on what she sees. That is, first of all, we are talking about her photographic memory. In most babies this phenomenon is true. They are ready to use it. But today there is not much visual load on a child, ranging from computer games, television, phones and the like. This is why the amount of visual information should also be well thought out by the parents.

What to choose?

Which technique is better: Glenn Doman, Montessori, Zaitsev?

- The first is known for the fact that its name is attached to the object, written in large block letters. The child gradually fixes how the written word is, and identifies it with a specific subject. The method requires the patience of parents and regular practice.

Zaitsev's technique is interesting in that, unlike the Glenn Doman system, it suggests the use of cubes. At one time, a lot of different cubes with letters were produced, which gave a general understanding of the alphabet. But the disadvantage was that these were separate letters, from which it was difficult to make a word. Zaitsev cubes selected by the frequency of use in the language. Each set has a special instruction that explains to parents how the training should take place. This technique takes into account the characteristics of the child. Everything is thought out here, starting from the sizes of letters and colors, various analyzers are involved. In addition, Zaitsev's technique does not stand still, it develops.

The disadvantage of the method of teaching reading with the help of whole words is that the child uses his abilities only as a photographer. Attention, concentration, memory are involved. And in Zaitsev's cubes - also thinking, emotions, feelings. Because the child acts as the initiator of the collection, and this is much more interesting and natural for her.

However, why do we want to choose only one technique? I'm not sure if this will work. Synthesis of several methods is possible. In addition, parents will get the desired effect only under the condition of systematic and enjoyable activities for the child.

Where do the cons come from?

Teaching children to read

- Firstly, the younger the child, the shorter the time allotted for training should be. For a child under 3 years old, the lesson should last no more than 5 minutes (because it is very difficult for her to concentrate). Longer (up to 8-10 min.) It can only last if it is saturated with various activities. But it is not easy for parents to achieve this, because they lack methodological and pedagogical experience. Often the problem arises due to the fact that there is no system in the classroom, without which the child will not learn anything, this is how her brain is built.

Sometimes adults set themselves the task of teaching a child to read, whether she wants to or not.

This is the worst option and, unfortunately, is quite common. Under such conditions, the child develops an aversion to learning. For her, the fact that she is worried about the game is relevant. Therefore, parents should conduct classes with elements of the game, and the game with elements of the lesson.

Maybe then it is not necessary to teach reading from childhood?

- Costs. However, if they started to study with a child, say, at 2 years and 8 months, this does not mean that at 4 she will read. All this is quite individual. One child will mature earlier, the other later. But this does not mean that she is stupid or not talented. We are talking about the fact that everyone has their own mode of development, and parents need to take this into account. Only the path of gradualness, consistency and support is successful. But he is complex.

What can you suggest?

For some reason, we think that the problem here is technology. No. Reading is, first of all, empathy. At the beginning of the last century, magazines for family reading were very popular. It's a shame they don't exist anymore! Now family television viewing has become popular. At the same time, everyone experiences his own. But during family reading there is a joint experience. These are different psychological processes. In addition, the TV immediately offers a picture. Why introduce anything else? You've already been done. A child who does not have his own experience is forced to take a finished picture. As a result, the need for the development of imagination disappears, creative abilities disappear.

Now there are a large number of different audio tools that in some way replace parents: disks, a computer. But it is important for children that their father and mother read to them. At such moments they become closer to the child. If she hears their voice or the voice of her grandmother or grandfather, then they become family. And if an uncle or aunt reads from the speaker, then vice versa - parents are rejected. Later, they cannot understand why the children do not like them. The reason is simple - we have little time for communication. And reading is also communication, empathy. So the recipe is this: there should be a book that can interest kids, and the desire of parents every day to find 10-15 minutes to read to a child. If this is not the case, then, of course, we can teach the baby to read at an early age, then he will go to school, but will not read. Why? Therefore, the formation of the reader occurs in only one way: from the listener to the reader. Humanity has not yet come up with another.