Number Of Phonemes | Phone Sem Fio

It has been demonstrated that students who are poor readers in grade one continue to be poor readers in grade 4, and that those with poor skills in the intermediate years rarely develop them later (Pearson, 1993)

Read to children

Maybe the most significant step that parents can take is to read to their children. Very young children are fascinated and entertained by being read to and this also helps develop speech. By allowing children to look at the pictures and words, it helps them to develop an understanding of ‘how books work’ – we start at the front and work towards the back, and on the page we work from the top left towards the bottom right. This also teaches that there is a relationship between the written and spoken word. However, it would appear that the amount a pre-school child is read to is directly related to the parents’ socioeconomic status and their own level of education (Blease, 1999).

Phonemic awareness

Researchers have identified phonemic awareness as a primary concern for beginning readers (Chapman, 1996). There is some debate as to whether children acquire this naturally, or whether it needs to be taught. Direct instruction does appear to help in pre-school, kindergarten, first-grade and students with learning disabilities.