Parenting Tips - Be A Better Parent Each Day

  Click here to read the untold story of a mother who raised the inventor of the light bulb...And how to raise a genius yourself...

Click here to read the untold story of a mother who raised the inventor of the light bulb...And how to raise a genius yourself...  

  Click here to read the untold story of a mother who raised the inventor of the light bulb...And how to raise a genius yourself...

  Phonemic Awareness is defined as the ability to identify, hear, and work with the smallest units of sound known as phonemes.  It is NOT the same as phonological awareness, instead, it is a sub-category of phonological awareness. For example, phonemic awareness is narrow, and deals only with phonemes and manipulating the individual sounds of words - such as /c/, /a/, and /t/ are the individual sounds that make up to form the word "cat".   Phonological awareness, on the other hand, includes the phonemic awareness ability, and it also includes the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate larger units of sound such as rimes and onsets. Phonemic awareness can be taught very early on and will play a critical role in helping children learn to read and spell. While it's not set in stone on when a child can learn to read, however, I do believe that a child that can speak is a child that can learn to read. Children as young as two years old can learn to read by developing phone...

  Helping young children develop phonemic awareness early on is one of the keys for children to develop exceptional reading and writing skills once they begin attending school.  Did you know that studies have indicated that phonemic awareness is the single best predictor of reading success for young children once they begin school? In fact, studies have found that phonemic awareness is far better than IQ at predicting the reading and spelling abilities of young children. Most people know about phonics, and what it is; however, far fewer people know what phonemic awareness is. In short, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and work with the phonemes. For example, /d/, /o/, and /g/, are the individual sounds of the word "dog". Please note, the letters enclosed in the slashes denote the sound of the letter and not the name of the letter. Phonemes are the smallest units of individual sounds that form a word. Phonemic awareness is not something you're born wit...

  Teaching your baby to read is becoming a more and more high priority for parents now as it becomes clear that learning to read at a young age offers numerous advantages for the child once he or she begins school.  Studies have consistently found that teaching a baby to read and helping children develop phonemic awareness well before entering school can significantly improve their development in reading and spelling. However, when it comes to teaching babies to read, there are two main teaching methods. These two main methods of teaching a baby or child to rea d are the whole language method, and the phonics and phonemic awareness method (the phonetic approach), which should be the preferred teaching method in helping children learn to read. Some prefer the whole language method, while others use the phonics approach, and there are also educators that use a mix of different approaches.  With the Look-say approach of whole language learning, a child begins with memorizin...

  Teaching children to read by teaching phonics activities is a lot like doing math, where you have to know what the numbers are, how to count, and you need to learn to add and subtract before learning to multiply and divide.  Teaching phonics to children is no different where you follow a step by step approach by first teaching the child the alphabet letters and phonics sounds, and then teaching them the combination of different letters to create different words, and using words to form sentences. It is a very logical and sequential buildup of phonics knowledge and reading ability. Before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn the alphabet letters and know the sounds represented by the letters. It's usually easier to teach some consonants and short vowels first before moving on to more complicated things such as consonant digraphs (2 consonants formed to produce one sound, such as "ch" or "ph") and long vowels. As you can see, teaching children...

  As more research brings to light the advantages of phonics and phonemic awareness instructions have over whole language teaching methods, more parents are becoming aware of teaching using phonics and phonemic awareness skills.  Many parents today are concerned about the method that is being used to teach their children how to read, and rightfully so. The whole language method is more of a method of "word memorization" , where the child is taught to look at printed words as whole configurations, much like looking at Chinese characters. Teaching phonemic awareness skills involves the break down of words into individual sounds (phonemes), and then joining the parts to form, or sound out the words. By contrast, whole language learning stresses the flow and meaning of the text, where "sounding out" words are not used, the words are decoded through its larger context, and word memorization plays a key role. What would you rather do, memorize hundreds or even thousands ...

  Most parents, at one point or another, frets over the education and the development of their children. Many concerned parents research and seek information on the topic of teaching children to read and write.  I for one, am glad to see so many parents wanting to get an early start for their children in reading and writing because studies have shown that developing these abilities early on before entering school provides numerous benefits and advantages later on as the child progresses through school. More worrisome should be the fact that over one third, 38% to be exact, of all grade 4 students cannot even achieve a basic level of reading ability according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This is an alarming statistic. Will your child become one of the 38% who cannot reach basic reading achievement by grade 4? For most children, this poor ability to read can be easily prevented with early phonemic awareness teaching. Reading must begin early in the ...

  Before a child learns to read, he or she must first learn the spoken language, and this is one of the first instances where family members such as dad, mom, older siblings, and grandparents play an important role in "teaching" the child the spoken English language.  Whether young children realize it or not, they gain very early exposure to the alphabet when parents sing the alphabet song to them. They begin to develop language skills by being read to and spoken to. One of the keys to teaching children reading early on is by exposing them to alphabet letters, books, and reading to them often. Reading nursery rhymes and children's books are an important part of getting children to understand the printed text. Talk to your children, and talk to them often, whether they understand or not is not important when they're just babies . The more you talk and interact with your little ones, the better they will develop. The key is exposure, and repeated exposure. Once your c...

  Did you know that 38% of grade four students have reading abilities below the lowest basic level as determined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)?  The NAEP is the only ongoing survey of what students known and tracks their performance in various academic subjects for the United States. In their report, the NAEP found that 38% of grade four students had reading achievement below basic levels, with a basic level reading score being 208. To put things in perspective, the US reading scale has an upper limit score of 500, with average reading scores for grade 4 (217), grade 8 (264), and grade 12 (291). The grade 4 reading achievement levels are categorized by the NAEP as Advanced (268 scores), Proficient (238 scores), and Basic (208 scores), and the basic reading achievement level is defined as follows by the NAEP: Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should demonstrate an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read.   When ...

  So, you want to teach your child to read, but before a child can learn to read, he or she must first learn at least some of the letters in the alphabet, their names, and the sounds that they represent.  To be able to read, a child must be able to recognize the letters, know the sound of the letters, and be able to recognize the letters quickly and say the sound without hesitation. There is plenty of discussion and disagreement on whether it's better to teach children using whole language programs or using methods that incorporate phonics and phonemic awareness instructions.  I think the debate on this is settled when the National Reading Panel stated from their findings of reviewing over 1,900 studies that phonics and phonemic awareness produces superior reading results than whole language programs. There is also some debate on whether to teach your child only letter names, or only the sounds which the letters represent. However, studies have also settled this debate by...