Encouraging your child to read is easy with these 4 steps
Getting your child to read always feels like a parenting win, doesn’t it? We’re constantly told by the media and by scientists how important it is for kids to read. And these experts certainly aren’t wrong. But encouraging your child to read is a bit tricky when they absolutely hate it? What do you do […]
Common Types of Reading Difficulties in Children
When we talk about reading difficulties it helps to think about the pattern of reading problems that the child displays. This helps us to get a better idea of whether the child’s difficulty is due purely to not having had enough experience in reading (as happens often with learning to read in English) or whether […]
Bilateral integration and crossing the midline
Bilateral integration is the ability to use the two sides of the body together in a coordinated way. We need bilateral integration to get through a myriad of tasks on a daily basis. Think for instance of the way your hands and arms work together when you eat your bowl of cereal while standing up, […]
Kids learning to read: visual figure-ground perception
Visual figure ground perception refers to the ability to distinguish a figure or object from it’s background and is a vital element to reading. This ability enables emerging readers to focus on words and letters and ignore background prints or blots and smudges on a page. Practice this skill by letting your emerging read information […]
Signs and symptoms commonly associated with Dyslexia
There are about 27 accepted definitions of Dyslexia and experts cannot seem to agree on exactly what this learning disorder is and how it presents itself in young children. There are dozens of Dyslexia Tests on the market, but not one single universally accepted test to try and identify this learning disorder. For this reason […]
Spelling strategies for kids
There are 26 letters in the alphabet, which make about 44 sounds individually and combine into a possible 577 letters and sounds. This can be intimidating for even the most confident child. Spelling is not quite as simple as understanding what sound each individual letter makes, a child also needs to understand what sound it […]
Reading games for preschool kids
Here are some reading games to play with your preschool kids: I spy: play I-spy to introduce phonics, ensuring that you use the letter sound and not the name, for example, ‘ah’ (a), ‘buh’ (b), ‘cuh’ (c), rather than ‘Ay’ (A) ‘Bee’(B), ‘See’(C). The game goes like this: “I spy with my little eye, something […]
Fostering a love of reading in children: Ages 6 to 8 years
Fostering a love of reading in children: Ages 6 to 8 years At this age, your little baby has grown and changed in leaps and bounds and her appetite for knowledge is almost insatiable. She is able to understand feelings and relate them to other people (no longer being as self-centred as she was before […]
Tips on how to develop a love of reading in children: Ages 3 to 5 years
Developing a love of reading in children: Ages 3 to 5 years At this age, children are beginning to develop an appreciation of different letters, numbers, symbols and what they represent. They have also nearly mastered an understanding of different seasons, colours and shapes, as well as the basic concept of time, in terms of […]
Tips on how to develop a love of reading in children: Birth to 3 years
Birth to 3 years A child’s earliest learning comes to him before the age of 5 years in the environments he is exposed to, which are most often the home and perhaps a day-care centre or pre-school. Obviously then, the more you expose your child to in this period, the more extensive his learning will […]
