Teaching My Children To Read
I have two children, both whip-smart sponges for learning and the world, and as we all are, completely unique. I have been thinking about how we as parents teach our children to read at home and how my experience has been different with each child.
I am reasonably sure that my eldest is (or was) hyperlexic because he could recognise all the letters of the alphabet and numbers before he was 18 months old. During first lockdown, when he couldn’t walk yet (he was a late walker), I used to push him around in his buggy up and down our road so he could read all the license plates of our neighbours. It was his favourite thing to do, and probably would have been without the confines of lockdown. Later, he would read every sign and poster he could see as we walked out and about: for him learning to read was all he wanted to do and we did it everywhere.
On his eye tests when he was 2 or so, they used pictures and icons to ascertain how much he could see. As you might imagine, it is very difficult to get a 2-year-old to focus on an eye test for any length of time, and I used to ask each doctor if they could use the letter version of an eye test that adults use, as he would be much more likely to pay attention when letters or numbers were involved. I was never taken up on this (my advocacy skills were in their infancy then). Often I felt they didn’t believe me that a visually impaired 2 year old could read letters, which is a fair assumption, but was incorrect. He could.
The perception of parents often seems to be that we are endlessly proud of our children to the point of blindness and reality, which is fair for the most part, but in this case, I am merely ‘spitting facts’.
When we took him out to restaurants when he was a baby, we used to just hand him the menu and he’d be endlessly fascinated by the words on there. When he started to read (very early), everyone in my life seemed to assume (in unearned flattery towards me) that this was something I had done, given that I am a bookworm and a writer. I had surrounded him with books from the time he was in the womb and I sat reading with him for hours. I felt as though people assumed that I knew or did something special that turned him into super reader?
No, I didn’t, and still do not. I remember saying to my mum on a number of occasions that I did very little in this area to impact his reading or affinity with books; he drove it himself. He was interested and motivated, and with time and enthusiasm he nailed it. This is still true today. It is possible, as research has shown, that simply having access to books, at home, school or in public, helps to develop a child’s reading ability and interest, but in this personal instance, I always felt I was just following and supporting his interest.
With my youngest, he has been surrounded by books in the same manner and we read a book to him every night and at every opportunity he would allow, but the truth of it was, he simply was not interested in sitting with me or his brother reading through a stack of books. He was more interested in doing other things: running, jumping, playing with cars, watching and talking to people, exploring the world and testing everything. No child learns or focuses on something in the same way or at the same time.
I continued my routine of trying to help him find books and letters interesting: pointing them out as we go about our day, but he simply wasn’t interested. Until about 3 months ago (he is three and a half), when he asked me to go through some phonics cards with him. I enthusiastically accepted, and since that day we sit down twice a week and go through the phonics cards twice a week together, and he now points out letters he knows on our walks. His enthusiasm and knowledge is growing every day, and it is so lovely to see. He even ‘reads’ to himself now before bed, like his brother does. One thing he is brilliant at, is storytelling, which is apparent as soon as he starts talking (though ‘starts’ suggests that he stops talking sometimes, which he does not). He loves to describe and explain everything, with drama, detail, colour and flourish, and that’s what I can hear him doing in his bed before he goes to sleep. It’s adorable.
He has come to reading and books in his own way, in his own time – which is exactly as it should be. I have been thinking about this difference and it has really reconfirmed my belief that if you give children access to a variety of books, and offer support to read upon request that a child will explore and read at their own leisure. Maybe they’ll become lifelong readers, maybe they won’t be, but children at least need access to books to help to support their learning and exploring their interests as they grow. Which is why my recent awareness of the decimation of school libraries irked and rage-inspired me into action, in my own local way; I am aware that my the circumstances of my own home and the abundance of books, and ability to buy them books upon request, is an extreme privilege. But all children deserve access to books, and I am starting my mission on a local scale: at my son’s school.
