Articles

As I reported in What You Should Know if You Have an ESL Child, research shows that bilingualism has positive effects on children’s cognitive development1. And we also know that young children are at risk of losing their home language. So how can parents support their...

We use our Eager Readers ABC chart to teach children two fundamental literacy skills: How to articulate (and hear) beginning sounds of words (phonological awareness) How to connect individual letters with their corresponding sounds (phonics) Without these two skills,...

If your child’s Kindergarten class is anything like my son’s, you have received a list of 10 to 12 sight words already in Term 1. After the kids have learned these ones, there’s another list to follow that one, and so on. I’ve had several parents ask me about these,...

Parents often ask teachers about their child’s reading level. This level may be referred to as a colour, a letter, or a number. Although they need not be a secret, reading levels are really just for teachers’ use. Teachers choose appropriate levels of texts to use in...

Parents might assume that once young children learn their letter sounds, they should be able to read. However, just because children can associate letters with sounds (phonics), doesn’t mean they are ready to blend them together to read or ‘sound out’ words. Learning...

Following on from 7 Guidelines for Using Flashcards with Beginning Readers, here are some ways to use flashcards with your 4 to 6 year old. This is just a start – you and your child may figure out other inventive ways to play with flashcards! If you do, please share...

Recently I’ve had parents enquire about using flashcards with their children who are learning how to read (aged 4 to 6). The reason to introduce flashcards is to help your child learn how to start recognising words by their visual features and start building a small...