Tips on teaching a 3 year old to read?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if loving books translates to early reading at this age. My 4.5 loves books and would be able to sit down for a story since she was 10 months old. At 3, she knows all her letters and can memorize some easy books. I thought she would be an early reader too but nope.... she’s not getting it and has a hard time with sight words. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Reading Eggs. Fantastic online program and workbook. Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Days, or something like that. Only do a page a day. Hooked on Phonics. Read higher level books, both fiction and nonfiction. Play rhyming games. What rhymes with cat, etc. Make learning fun. If your child feels pressured, etc, then stop. Best to do a little every day for 5 minutes, etc. Cereal boxes are great for showing blends — Chex — or vowel sounds — Life with a silent “e”. Phonics is key. Teach your child how to sound out words.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a cheat to early reading (when they are ready). Introduce the sound before introducing the name of the better. For example, instead of saying this is a “b” use “this is “buh” “. The point of this will that eventually they will learn “buh” “ah” “t” is bat. If that makes sense? It worked with my children and all the names an irregular sounding words got sorted out in time. Learned it from a Montessori teacher who taught for 20 years and it worked for us. My DD has always been above grade level for reading. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't. Seriously don't.

+1

Mistake. They will be bored in school and will hate it or act out. Plus early readers are more likely to actually dislike reading as adults. Foster the love of books and stories. Let the kindergarten teach teach reading. Make sure they have appropriate social/life skills:ie how to take turns, how to cope with frustration, how to lose a game gracefully, dealing with clothing, shoes, weather, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't. Seriously don't.

+1

Mistake. They will be bored in school and will hate it or act out. Plus early readers are more likely to actually dislike reading as adults. Foster the love of books and stories. Let the kindergarten teach teach reading. Make sure they have appropriate social/life skills:ie how to take turns, how to cope with frustration, how to lose a game gracefully, dealing with clothing, shoes, weather, etc.

So not true. In fact, it’s ridiculous. I have two very early readers who love school and excel. And it’s ridiculous to think that knowing how to put on your shoes and reading are mutually exclusive! Reading doesn’t negate life skills.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, no. Don't do that. Just let your kid enjoy books.

My daughter will be 4 in October and is in a preschool that emphasizes teaching the kids skills in an age-appropriate way. She's enjoying learning her letters, including how to write them. They're introducing them to early phonics concepts and obviously do a ton of reading books to them.

I really don't see a reason to push her further than what her excellent preschool is doing already.

[Anonymous]

My 3.5-year-old daughter wants to learn so I am doing the teach your child to read in 100 days book. If she loses interest, which I recognize is likely, I will let it go.

I am not going around telling people we are doing this because I recognize it is a controversial topic.

[Anonymous]

My dd wanted to learn to read early and we got some BoB books and leap frog letter factory. We never ever pushed, it was all driven by her. She was reading chapter books by age 5 (and yes, understanding them as well, not just deciding). She was always high-strung so she used reading as a way of calming herself down. She is in HS now and still loves to read.

[Anonymous]

Op my sister did teach herself to read it as a young 3, it is a condition called hyperlexia. It is often a sign of autism, so I wouldn’t push it too much. The poster who referred to her “High-strung” daughter I think is on to something. Some of these kids have true autism, some have autistic traits early that they cover for as they grow/ the traits “diminish”
Enjoy your kid- don’t worry about reading at 3, it is an abnormal trajectory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Op my sister did teach herself to read it as a young 3, it is a condition called hyperlexia. It is often a sign of autism, so I wouldn’t push it too much. The poster who referred to her “High-strung” daughter I think is on to something. Some of these kids have true autism, some have autistic traits early that they cover for as they grow/ the traits “diminish”
Enjoy your kid- don’t worry about reading at 3, it is an abnormal trajectory.

You’re child can’t catch hyperlexia from learning to read early. It’s a symptom and not a cause.

I enjoy my child by teaching him as well as play. Those aren’t mutually exclusive. I will absolutely teach him to read early if he shows an interest.

[Anonymous]

I was reading by age 4 but nobody taught me, my mom read books to me. With DS, no "teaching to read" either but we had magnet letters on the fridge, some letters have sounds that go in the beginning of words that the letter looks like ("kicking k" was one). Also, I made some of my own books on tape (used cassettes at that time) using his favorites.

Reading early is not a big deal. I mean, nearly everyone else learns to read at some point, you can't put it on your resume!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those saying don't, can you say why? She has expressed an interest and seems frustrated with her current level of understanding. Doesn't feel like there is any harm in pointing her in the right direction. I get not wanting to pressure her or take the joy out of it, but what's the harm in just incorporating some reading skills into her usual playing?

Educator here. The problem is that when parents talk about teaching their child to read what they are thinking of is a very narrow slice of the reading pie—decoding symbols into sounds/words. But the pie is much bigger than that—building vocabulary, understanding sentence structure, grasping narrative flow—these and other skills are what allow us to turn sounds and words into coherent, meaningful language and to use that language to express our own ideas back. If you have ever learned a new language as an adult, you have probably had the experience of being able to read a sentence out loud and even recognize most of the words individually but not understand the meaning of what you have read.

Kids who learn the external piece of reading first (the decoding part) often take much longer to master the other components and can actually end up behind in reading comprehension.

The solution is to focus on surrounding her with language. Yes, it is fine to do rudimentary things like pointing to the words as you read, reading short words together such as signs when you are out for a walk, or ingredients in a recipe when you are cooking together. But you should also be singing, telling increasingly elaborate stories to her and with her, engage in call-and-response oriented songs and games, listening to audiobooks, and reading longer and more complicated books to her at bedtime. If you focus on a language-rich environment rather than mastering decoding it will build all of her reading skills at the same time and make her a better reader in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 3.5-year-old daughter wants to learn so I am doing the teach your child to read in 100 days book. If she loses interest, which I recognize is likely, I will let it go.

I am not going around telling people we are doing this because I recognize it is a controversial topic.

OP here. That's why I posted on an anonymous forum, because I know people are weird about it. I think people assume that any parent who does this is just trying to be able to say "my kid learned to read at x age". But I just feel bad when my daughter gets upset because she is trying to "read" her books to her stuffed animals or to herself in bed and can't. It seems like offering her some skills to work on towards reading would be a good way of addressing that frustration. I don't want her to lose interest in books because of this.

We got some BoB books this week and my daughter has really been enjoying them so far. It actually has me thinking that part of the issue is that most of her books are longer and have a lot of words in them. She loves these books and I"m not getting rid of them -- she gets very engaged with the stories and they spur all kinds of conversations and play. But I think we're going to get her more simple books as well, as I think she might enjoy being able to master basic books. I think if she could learn to read her BoB books on her own, she might be satisfied with that until she is a little older and can get more formal instruction.

Mostly I just wanted to make sure I was supporting her interest in reading, especially because she's not going to preschool as planned and therefore isn't be exposed to some of the instruction there that might give her a pathway to reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't. Seriously don't.

+1

Mistake. They will be bored in school and will hate it or act out. Plus early readers are more likely to actually dislike reading as adults. Foster the love of books and stories. Let the kindergarten teach teach reading. Make sure they have appropriate social/life skills:ie how to take turns, how to cope with frustration, how to lose a game gracefully, dealing with clothing, shoes, weather, etc.

So not true. In fact, it’s ridiculous. I have two very early readers who love school and excel. And it’s ridiculous to think that knowing how to put on your shoes and reading are mutually exclusive! Reading doesn’t negate life skills.

Yeah that PP was talking out of her ass.

But, still. Teaching a 3 yo how to read is mistake nonetheless, just not for the reasons that PP cited.
Wait a year, OP. Your daughter will likely pick it up on her own. Don’t rush! Let her enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a very different skill set between the memorization and the decoding. Just because she does one doesn't mean she is ready for the other. And that's okay.

OP here. This is such a great point. I have tutored older kids in reading so when my daughter started getting frustrated that she couldn't read her books, I thought of the kids I've tutored and how we used games and skill building to help them develop their reading skills and push past frustration. But those were all kids who already understood the concept of decoding and had some reading skills, but struggled with vocabulary or in some cases had special needs that needed to be addressed. I've never worked at the ECE level and hadn't really thought about how very young kids start to acquire literacy skills before my daughter. Reading up on it the last couple weeks has been very eye opening.

I definitely don't want to kill off my daughter's love of books or make reading a chore or something she has to do. Just looking for ways to support her. If she learns to read early, great, but if she doesn't I don't care, as long as she isn't getting frustrated or losing interest in books because of it.