How to teach a child to read

Children who are ready to read will often begin showing interest in the words around them. They may point to a sign, label, or billboard and ask, “What does that say?” They may ask you how to spell certain words, and may come right out and say they want to learn to read.

Once your child knows basic consonant sounds, he or she will be ready to string those sounds together to make words.

These are the sounds children hear in short three-letter words such as cat, hit, hug, hop, and pet. There are five vowels and five short-vowel sounds. Book 1 of Steps to Reading focuses on those foundational sounds.

If you’ve ever tried to buy a phonics workbook, you’ve probably been frustrated by the fact that most of them jump quickly from one letter to another without giving children enough practice to solidify their knowledge. The Steps to Reading series is different. It gives kids ample practice with each vowel sound. In addition to providing you with lots of playful worksheets that help kids master these sounds, the workbooks include phonics board and Bingo games and optional but very high-quality online activities, so that the valuable practice kids are getting feels like play.

You will begin with short a. This is the sound you hear in words like cat, bat, and mat. Do not use the terms “short” and “long” to differentiate between vowel sounds. Long “a” is the sound you hear in words like cake and bake. Children often find the terms “short” and “long” confusing. All of the “a” words your child will be learning at this point will be making the short “a” sound so you can simply say, “Today, we are going to learn the sound ‘a’ makes.”

First, teach your child that when letters stand alone or are far apart, each letter makes its own sound. Point to the letter “a” and ask, “What sound does a make?” Then point to “t” and ask, “What sound does ‘t’ make?”

Then, show your child what happens when the two letters stand side by side—their sounds combine to make the word “at.” The lesson page will direct you to use the word “at” in a sentence, such as “I will meet you at the park” or “The car stopped at the corner.” Then you will invite your child to read “at.”

Reading that first word is a big moment in your child’s life!

Click here for sample pages from Steps to Reading: Short Vowels that you can use for this lesson.

These are words like cat, hat, mat, fat and bat. This first step sometimes takes the longest for a child to grasp and you are given lots of pages to help them do so. There are worksheets, phonics Bingo consisting of words ending in –at, and a board game that reinforces the sounds of a and t and the word “at.” Each player uses a marker, rolls a die, moves along the spaces, and reads the letter or word in each space passed. Children are practicing decoding, but they experience it as a game. You can download a color version of this game here.

Sight words are common words that children need to recognize quickly or on “sight.” The most commonly used word in English is “the,” so “the” should be the first sight word children learn. The next most common words are “is” and “on.”

It is very important to teach sight words in order of frequency of use. If you think about it, this makes perfect sense—if words are appearing frequently in the little stories kids are reading, those are the words kids should learn first. Unfortunately, many classrooms rely on the Dolch word list, which contains common words, but those words are listed in alphabetical order. That means children often learn words like away, come, down, funny, help, and jump before they learn the, is, or on. That is why so many children resort to guessing when they first learn to read—they have not yet been taught the most useful words.

A major part of becoming a joyful reader is having warm memories of being read to by a parent or loved one at bedtime. Work with your child on reading during the day, and keep bedtime reading a separate activity. Do not turn these stories into a lesson. They should be a bonding moment. There is an added bonus though: being read to drastically increases a child’s vocabulary since books often contain words we do not necessarily use in everyday speech.

Of course, if your child wants to read some of the words, by all means let him. Once they have learned the word “the,” many children are excited to spot it in stories that are being read to them. Definitely let your child spot and read “the”—and any other words he knows—if the initiative to do so comes from him.

After “at,” teach words that end in “an.” In Steps to Reading Book 1, children compare cat and can, bat and ban, fat and fan, rat and ran, and begin noticing that changing just one letter changes the word.

These are the second and third most common words in the little stories your child will soon be reading.

Now that kids can read words that end in –at and –an, as well as the sight words the, is, and on, they can begin reading real sentences. This is a major milestone. Sentences such as “The rat sat” or “The cat sat on the mat” may be simple, but to a beginning reader being able to read them is thrilling. Celebrate every step!

As children build their phonics and sight-word knowledge, it is important for them to apply and reinforce those skills by reading little books. Wait until you see how excited your child gets when he reads his first book. And then realizes he can read another one! You will be thrilled too. The excitement is equivalent to seeing your child take his first step.

Unfortunately, finding books that beginning readers can actually read is often a challenge for parents, and even teachers. Many of the books on the market labeled “for beginning readers” have some very hard words in them, like astronaut and dinosaur, and are impossible for new readers to get through.

Make sure the books you ask your child to read contain only words they have already learned. This prevents frustration and allows them to experience themselves as successful readers. It also prevents them from developing the bad habit of guessing at the words. If you are the parent of an older reader who guesses at words when he reads, you may want to check out my #1 best-selling memoir, I Didn’t Believe Him, which tells the story of how reading instruction went wrong in so many schools and what parents can do to help.

The Steps to Reading workbooks tell you exactly which decodable books your child should read at each step of the way, so your child can have the extraordinary experience of reading an entire book. That experience matters. It builds pride, confidence, and motivation and, as you know, motivation leads to a desire to learn more.

After short a, move on to teaching short i. Children will learn words such as it, in, bit, fit, sit, and pin and also sight words such as “to” and “was.” Continue using games, Bingo, worksheets, songs, and short books to reinforce the lesson.

Then move on to short u, short e, and short o. Each new vowel section in Book 1 follows the same general routine: introduce the sound, practice sounding out words, review earlier sounds, play games that require children to distinguish among vowels, introduce carefully chosen sight words, and give children decodable stories they can truly read. This predictable lesson rhythm is one of the strengths of Steps to Reading: the child knows what to expect, and the adult knows exactly what to do next.

As children learn to sound out words, they also need to understand what the words mean. A child may be able to decode pit, yam, dam, or ban without understanding what they are reading. Take time to explain. And do the same when you are reading regular stories to your children. This will develop their vocabulary which is an important part of successful reading.

Many young children confuse b and d. This is normal. Children need time and practice to learn to distinguish these two letters.

A simple trick they can use to help is called the “bed trick.” In the word bed, the b comes first and the upright line is on the left, like in the first bedpost.

The d comes at the end, and the upright line is on the right, like the last bedpost. Children can use their hands or fingers to form the shape of a bed and check whether a letter is b or d.

The sample pages from Book 1 illustrate how this trick works.

Every new skill deserves a small celebration. When children learn “at,” celebrate. When they read “the”, celebrate. When they read their first sentence, celebrate. When they read their first little book, celebrate again.

These celebrations do not need to be large. Maybe take your child out for ice cream, or have a celebratory non-alcoholic toast at dinnertime. Celebrate in any way that feels right to you. What matters about these celebrations is that they make children aware of their progress. They recognize, “I can read words that end in at. I can read the word the. I can read a sentence. I can read a book.” That awareness gives children confidence, and that confidence makes them eager to keep learning.

As they approach the end of Book 1, children are feeling very proud of themselves! They can read words with all the short-vowel sounds. They have a growing bank of sight words. They can read simple sentences as well as decodable phonics readers that match what they have learned.

On the last page of Book 1, you will find an “I Can Read!” certificate of accomplishment. Present it proudly, write in the child’s name, sign it, and hang it somewhere visible. Your child will feel proud, and so should you. Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts a parent or teacher can give. It opens the door to knowledge, independence, and confidence. That is what my Steps to Reading workbooks give you as well: the knowledge, confidence, and all the resources you need to turn your child into a joyful reader.

After short vowels come blends. These are four-letter words that still contain short vowels but now have two consonants at the beginning or end of the word. Examples include clap, stop, sink, and king. Children still sound out each letter, but they are now learning to read more sounds in sequence. For this step, use Book 2 (Steps to Reading: Blends).

Next come digraphs: letter combinations such as ch, sh, th, and wh. These combinations make new sounds and appear in words such as chip, ship, that, and which. You’ll find all those lessons in Book 3 (Steps to Reading: Digraphs).

After that, children move into long vowels. Children learn this as the silent-e rule, in which the e at the end of a word does not make a sound but causes the vowel before it to say its name or make its alphabet sound, as in cape, kite, and hope. That is covered in Book 4 (Steps to Reading: Long Vowels and Y at the End of a Word).

Once a child learns this sequence, he will be able to tackle much longer words. For example, a word like metropolitan may look intimidating, but a child who understands phonics and syllables can break it into manageable parts. Without those phonics rules, a long word can feel impossible. With them, the child has a strategy.