There is massive amounts of evidence that backs up the idea that children from families that actively support and encourage them are more likely to do better in school. When you, as a parent or other family member, take an active interest in your child’s learning process you are helping them make significant progress.
To help your child lay the foundations of their education you should start by helping them learn to read. There is a direct link between how well your child learns to read, how much they enjoy reading and how that affects not only their education but the rest of their life. When your child develops their reading skills they now have the foundation that all other education rests upon.
When your child is born they automatically start to learn. When you talk or sing to your child they begin to hear and respond to the sounds you make. To help your child build a firm understanding of language you should sing and talk to them as much as you can. A fir understanding of language are the stepping stones that will help you child to become a reader.
You don’t need to be the greatest reader in order to help your child be successful. Your personal reading skills don’t factor into this, it is the time and energy you spend encouraging your child to read that is important. Reading is the key to unlocking the potential in your child for all their future learning needs.
Children are all different and they all learn differently and a different speeds. Reading is a vast step by step process that requires mastery of each step before you can take the next one.
Early in their lives babies and toddlers learn mainly by the sights and sounds that enter their world. Babies and toddlers are curious always learning from their surroundings. They are little explorers, always seeking out something new and exciting. Whilst they are continually exploring and learning from their environment you should turn this to your advantage to help them learn more.
Babies are learning all the time and as such they will start to imitate your actions and noises. Therefore you should start making funny faces and noises as soon as you can. These activities are the first steps that will help your child learn to read.
Whilst they haven’t started learning to read in a structured manner they are in fact learning the basics of language every day and this is the first step toward reading. Reading requires a lot of work on your child’s part, think that they will need to turn sounds into words, then words into sentences and then add meanings to these sentences, these are the foundations of reading and it all starts with you.
About the author: Barbara Jackson is a prolific writer and currently explores the truth about acai berry supplements and herbal weight loss patches in her blog.