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The modern school curriculum does not allow time for buildup. Many schools require children to be able to read when they are admitted to first grade. Parents face the difficult task of teaching children to read and write without losing interest in learning. Speech therapist Oksana Anikeeva tells what games and exercises will help a child remember letters and learn to read.
How do adults read? Reading is a complex cognitive process that a person masters as a result of the work of various brain systems and analyzers. When reading, an adult perceives the whole word — the difficult operations of analysis and synthesis that precede this occur automatically.
How do children read? In children who are just beginning to master literacy, the word is not perceived as a single whole. For them, at the initial stage, the unit of reading is a letter. The child must see the letter, identify its graphic image, correlate with the corresponding sound. Then he must also recognize the next letter, not forgetting the previous one, otherwise it is impossible to put together a syllable, and from syllables a word.
The child masters these stages for a long time, through the coordinated work of all analyzers and systems of the brain. At the same time, perception, attention, memory, imagination, emotions, speech, thinking and will work. If these functions are not fully formed by the age of 6, then the child experiences difficulties in mastering reading. The first failures often reduce interest and desire to engage, which further worsens the situation. It turns out a vicious circle: the child has difficulties, motivation drops, reading turns into a hated activity.
At the initial stages, it is necessary to pay attention to the connection of sound with the letter.
There is a way out, but purposeful and painstaking work remains to be done: a speech therapist, other teachers and, of course, parents. By joint efforts, it is necessary to form a stable graphic image of the letter in the child. To make this process not only informative, but also interesting, you can diversify the work with games and exercises.
We offer the following exercises.
«Make friends with a letter»
Learning the sound «U». How does a small child cry? How does the wolf howl and how the trumpet hums? What is heard at the beginning of the words «duck», «morning», «smart»? And immediately show the letter «U». We examine, remember, give a card with it.
At the initial stages, it is necessary to pay attention to the connection of sound with the letter. We explain to the child that any pronounced sound can be designated using a special symbol — a letter. The word to be read is a sequence of letters that must be named and connected, that is, pronounced.
Game: we invite the child to raise a card with the letter «U» when he hears a word starting with «U». You can play at home, on a walk, in line at the clinic, on a trip.
«Get to Know the Letter»
When getting acquainted with a new letter, we discuss what elements it consists of, “looks” to the left or right, what it might look like. For example, «O» — hoop, wheel, «P» — crossbar, horizontal bar.
Let your child’s imagination run wild. We draw or look at funny pictures with letters, where the letters are presented in the form of characters. For example, “X” is a clown with raised arms and legs apart, “Y” is a pot-bellied letter, walks with a stick. Here we introduce various spellings and fonts.
«Find Letters»
Invite the child to find the letter among the others. You can search on cards prepared in advance with rows of letters, in any books, magazines, on street signs, advertising billboards. For example, who will count the letters «P» more during a walk in the park. At home, we give the child a page of the magazine, the task is to circle or underline all the letters “K”.
«Find the letters in poor visibility»
Complicate the search by inviting the child to identify a letter that is very noisy, for example, among letters superimposed on each other, crossed out in different ways.
«Build or make a letter»
There is a huge field for creativity here: you can mold it from plasticine, lay it out from counting sticks, pencils, pens, mosaics, buttons, coins, cut it out of colored paper, even burn it on a board or fold it from Lego parts. On the street, you can use branches, grass, stones, cones. Come up with new ideas with your child.
«Recognize the letter»
We connect tactile and auditory analyzers. With closed eyes, we invite the child to recognize the letter by touch — you can touch the plastic letters of the magnetic alphabet or pre-prepared letters from plasticine, letters laid out from buttons. You can draw a letter on the palm or back of the child. You can offer to recognize the letter by verbal instructions, for example: “Which letter is built from three sticks: two stand exactly, and the third is oblique (I)”?
«Find the Dunno Bug»
Dunno is not the best student: he misses letters or writes them incorrectly. We invite the child to carefully consider a familiar unfinished or distorted letter, name it, say what is wrong with it, and add the missing elements. But you need to use this type of tasks only on well-known letters.
«Circle and write a letter»
We ask the child to write the letter being studied with a finger or a pointer in the air, with a stick on wet sand or snow, on the croup. We circle a letter with a finger, written in large letters on a sheet, or written in dotted lines.
«Turn the letter»
We invite the child to lay out a familiar letter from counting sticks, and then “turn” it into another, similar one. For example: “Lay out the letter“ T ”, and then“ turn ”it into“ G ”(the upper element is shifted to the right).
Fantasize, play, get involved, praise your child for any success, rejoice in his small victories!