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When should I start using the Shining Light Reading Series? My child is six years old. Is she too old to use the Reading Series? My six-year-old writes a lot of letters backwards. Is she dyslexic? My six-year-old chooses books way above his reading level and then gets frustrated. What can I do? When should I expect my child to be able to read? When should I start using the Shining Light Reading Series?Your child at age two and a half is ready to use the Shining Light Reading Series. It is at this age children can begin to hear the different sounds in our language. Children around age two and a half are also beginning to symbolize. For example, they can see a drawing of a cat, recognize the drawing (a symbol) and name it. The skills to become a successful reader start to develop early. This is the time to start introducing letters and their corresponding sounds, which is the main focus of Shining Light Reading Series. My child is six years old. Is she too old to use the Reading Series?Our experience with six-year-olds using the video is watching the program over and over again easily bores them. This contrasts with a three-year-old watching it every day for a year and loving it. You can use it with your six-year-old with excellent results. We recommend just doing a chapter a day, which is working on four letter sounds and symbols. Follow this with an activity like Sound Hunt, Magnetic Word Building or Label Game. These activities are described in our "Tips For Success" section at the Resources page of the web site. I play the video, but my child just wants to wander around the room. Should I make him sit down and watch it?Some children need a lot more movement than others. four-year-olds are going through a growth spurt and have difficulty sitting for even short periods because their legs are growing at a tremendous rate. We recommend you play the video every day, even if it is in the background while your child does other activities. We're always amazed at children who learn things when you don't think they are. Just keep the information the air; they'll learn it. My six-year-old writes a lot of letters backwards. Is she dyslexic?It is very common for children up to nine years old to write letters and numbers backwards because their visual memory is maturing. Look at your child's writing, figure out what letters and numbers she is writing backwards and then give her a short, friendly lesson. For example: "Susie, here is the letter 'p,' and here is a 'q.' They look very much alike. Let's look how they are different. The circle on the 'p' is here. The circle on the 'q' is here. Also, the 'q' in English is always followed by a 'u.' So that is a little bit of help. Let's look in the newspaper and see how many words we can find with 'p' and 'q.' What color should we circle the 'p' words? What color for 'qu's?" These lessons should be short and sweet, followed with a fun and meaningful activity. Some examples of letters that children confuse follow:
We have to make sure our children have the two basic skills Shining Light Reading Series helps to develop: phonemic awareness (hearing the separate sounds in a word) and letter/sound recognition. If they have these two skills, the odds are they will not be labeled dyslexic. If we push our children to try to read before they have these two skills, we set them up for reading failure. To assure success, make sure your child knows the letter sound for each letter. My six-year-old chooses books way above his reading level and then gets frustrated. What can I do?This is a very common problem. We have had good success in reading those "frustrating" books out loud to children, so they know the story. Then they can come back and read it later. In the interim, until they can read the harder books on their own, we like to get children making their own books. For the child who persists in choosing books over his reading level, we work daily on making books and illustrated stories. Volume Two of this series explains how to make simple books. Also, look in our "Tips for Success" section under Suggested Books for ideas on how to use photos to make interesting reading books for your child. For some children, eye-muscle coordination takes a while to develop. Doing frequent writing exercises and reading books with progressively more words on the pages help eye coordination. When should I expect my child to be able to read?First, find out from your parents at what age you began to read. If you read early, your child might also read early. If you were a late reader, chances are your child will be a late reader as well. There is a wide range of ages children begin to read, from ages four to ten. For the early reader, we never worry. For the late reader, there is danger they will feel left out or stupid—and just give up. The keys are to keep the environment full of language and to give your child the two essential keys to reading success: phonemic awareness and letter/sound recognition. Dr. Mel Levine in his book, A Mind at a Time, emphasizes the uniqueness of each human being and how that unique person learns and his personality unfolds. If your child is a late reader, you need to protect him and help him find his uniqueness. Our experience has shown us people who have gifts in the mathematical areas have a tendency to be later readers. It is important we read out loud to the later reader to keep their lives language-rich and interesting. We've also noticed these late readers prefer non-fiction and are insulted with some of the "silly" stories they are given to read as six and seven-year-olds. Expect your child to begin reading between ages five-seven, making sure he is developing phonemic awareness and letter/sound recognition beginning around age two and a half. Keep your home rich in language by reading and writing stories. If your child is not reading easily by age seven, realize that her mind may be working on building other areas. Look for special gifts, and use those gifts to connect to language and reading. We have seen children who struggled with reading until age ten start college at fifteen and graduate with high honors at 20. Remember, your child is unique. Give him your gift of letting him develop in his own unique way. For additional information, please contact us at info@shininglightreading.com or 503.550.3143. |
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