Do
you know that the best time to teach a child to read
is when they are still a baby? Unbelievable as it may
sound, but research has clearly shown that children
who start learning to read as a baby before beginning
formal education tend to gain better self-esteem and
higher confidence levels compared to others who begin
their formal education in a more conventional manner.
You might be wondering,
why would your baby be a faster learner than any
adult? The reason is extremely simple but practical.
Your
baby is still in the earliest phases of development
when looked from the overall perspective of the
entire human life.
It
is this early phase when the baby's cognitive
power is strongly developing. This cognitive power
makes learning to read and even learning languages
a relatively simpler task for a baby.
In addition,
a baby who can read independently can start formal learning
early and can learn faster than other children who would
also require learning reading. This gives your kid a
head-start over others. Also, reading makes the baby
start thinking clearly in earlier phases of life. Reading
serves as a healthy exercise to the process of early
cognitive development phases in a child. Hence, a baby
who starts reading early enough eventually stands a
superior chance to excel intellectually compared to
late starters.
Interestingly, research
studies have gone further and proved that once the baby
crosses three years of age and enters childhood, the
prospect to naturally teach reading gradually starts
to subside.
At and after this
stage, the difficulty of acquiring such important
soft skills gradually increases and as a result
the same lessons that would have been a cakewalk
for the child earlier now becomes a difficult
challenge to overcome.
All the above suggests
that letting your baby start learning to read
right at babyhood is the best option. Letting
your baby not learn to read till he/she is older
in a way robs him/her from the prospect of enjoying
the process of learning to read at the time it
is best suitable - babyhood.
Now that you have read that
babyhood is the best phase of life to learn reading, you
must be asking yourself whether all of this sounds too
far-fetched. However, if you check out the learning methodologies
and packages, and if you read further and understand how
to start the process, you shall realize that all this
is perfectly real - this is no dream. And this reality
is a nice one, where your kid has the best foundation
to enjoy school more than other kids due to the reduced
onus of learning and also gets potentially better grades
compared to others.
So,
how then do you teach your baby to read ?
The essence of the matter is to keep the process simple
so that the baby can follow it, and to keep it enjoyable
so that the baby follows it out of self-interest. If
you are trying to force lessons into your tiny baby,
then you are simply digging your way for a permanent
fear and hatred of your kid towards reading. You don't
have an option to force, you must make the sessions
fun. It must be in an environment that the baby wants
to live and relive in. The idea is that after your baby
goes through one or a few of reading sessions, the baby
will start looking out for the next reading session
out of own. This can happen only if the reading session
is an enjoyable experience. The best is to identify
a session of around 30-40 minutes every day at a fixed
time, so that it becomes a routine for the baby. The
time can be more or less depending on the age and health
of the baby.
The method
of teaching does not have to be a book. In fact, in
babyhood, babies are great learners of patterns. This
is evident in the way that they learn languages. It
is wise to make use of this capability of babies and
expose them to patterns rather than books. Many parents
have been able to teach hundreds of words to kids less
than a year old simply by integrating the right set
of colors, sounds and actions. The key here is that
these elements must correspond to real-life entities
and objects that babies can relate to.
Another
point to note is that babies respond better to
large fonts. Hence, creating larger images and
even writing words with large and bold alphabets create
a more lasting impression in the minds of the babies.
For example, one can use Microsoft Word with a big bold
font. Babies also tend to remember the red color the
most. Hence, if the words written in the process are
in red then the impact of learning is seen to be even
deeper in the babies.
Using
note cards to teach your baby to read
Another effective method is using note cards. On each
note card, it is advisable to write one number in a
clear, large font. Writing a color would also do. Keep
adding to the cards gradually, as the baby picks up
the concepts in the existing cards.
The rate
of increase should be made proportionate to the rate
at which the baby gains knowledge. It is further suggested
to transition to real-life objects that your baby sees
every day.
Concentration
and focus of the baby plays a critical role in the entire
process. One needs to ensure that there is no distraction
in the room where the baby is learning, and the attention
should be totally focused on the note cards and the
objects of interest.
At the initial phases
of the learning process, the actions will only come
from you and your baby will only watch. However, as
the process moves forward, your baby would start participating.
Make sure
that you ask a good question such as what is something
or how does something look like - some question that
is sensible. You shall find your baby gradually responding
more and more to your questions, which is a symbol of
learning. If the baby is too young to speak, then he/she
may try to answer with fingers and gestures, as applicable.
In fact, you can also introduce a foreign language apart
from the mother tongue, if you so desire.
