Words Come Before the ABCs

We all THINK we know how to teach a child to read. We teach them the ABCs and phonics just like a teacher does. But teachers depend on parents to teach the hard stuff first. To read, first a child has to know a lot of words. Second, a child has to know that words are made up of separate sounds. This is hard to teach.

The miracle is, if we read or look at books with a child even before he can understand the words, a child gets something very important about reading. He likes it. A baby begins to like reading when he thinks, “I get cuddled and hugged when my daddy or mama read me a story.” It is THE WONDERFUL READING FEELING. Some children find that feeling so good that they read themselves the story even before they know what the words mean. Watch Edie, a two-year-old girl, try to recreate THE WONDERFUL READING FEELING by turning the pages and making nonsense sounds in this video.