Teaching children to read and spell

The most valuable aid to reading and spelling is to learn the sounds the letters make. Your child is able to work out each word from the sound made by each individual letter: for example 'b - a - t' runs together to make 'bat'. Most three-letter words can be worked out this way - log, bus, hit, rat, leg, and so on - if you learn the sounds. However, there are exceptions - the, are, was and others which have to be remembered on their own as a whole word.

Knowing the sounds of the 26 letters of the alphabet is the first milestone for a child.

Remember to use the sound and not the name of the letter: -
'apple' begins with 'a'.'burger' begins with 'b'.'cat' begins with 'c'.. . . and so on down to 'z'. ('x' is a difficult sound, like 'ks' at the end of 'box' and 'fox'.)

If your child is reading a book with you, the single sounds they have learned will sometimes help them with the first sound of a word.

Reading books is for pleasure, and you can easily kill this if you stop and make your child say the sounds of each letter. Many parents are unsure about this, and the Golden Rule when reading with your child is to tell them the words they do not know straight away. This will increase the enjoyment of the story for you both, and make your child want to read with you again.