Some adults learned to read with Dick and Jane in books that emphasized learning to read from sight words they read repeatedly: "Oh, Father. See Spot. Look, Father, look. See Spot play. Oh, Oh, Oh." Others read decodable text like "Nan can fan Dan./Dan can fan Nan./Can Nan fan Dan?/Can Dan fan Nan?" Still others read texts in which each sound in English was represented by a single alphabet character, as in this excerpt from an old reader: "Hit the baull, sed Ted." Whole language enthusiasts guided children through text like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. Red Bird . . . ." Whatever method their teachers used, most children learned to read. And for every method, there were always children who failed.
New insights from cognitive psychology help us understand why all these methods work-and how we can provide instruction today so that almost all our children learn to read and write proficiently. The key to helping children learn to read is to assist them so that they read text accurately and with understanding.
Baby Steps to Reading shows how to support readers so they read text with a high level of understanding and word recognition accuracy. You will help children read text that they dictate. You will help children read poems and songs they already know by heart. And you will help children read little books with sentence that follow a predictable pattern, like the book Stop!, which you can download and print from this website.
It's easy to help children read an entire book that's as simple as Stop! Once you've printed a copy, begin by simply chatting about the book. (Remember that the best teaching is so subtle that kids don't notice they're being taught.) Begin, perhaps, just after reading aloud a favourite picture book. Casually say, "Let's look at another book. Look there's a sign on the front cover. Have you seen that sign anywhere? Yes, that's the stop sign. Pretend you are driving a truck, and you come to a stop sign. What do you do? Right! You stop. The sign tells the truck to stop. Stop, truck. Let's open the book. What vehicle is at the stop sign? Right. A car. Look the words here say, 'Stop, car.'" (Touch under each word as you read it.) "Let's read this page again. 'Stop, car.' You read it with me."
Two-year-olds who have been listening to book reading since birth will start to read the book by themselves. Just continue chatting and sharing the reading of the book. Read as much and as often as the child wishes. There's no need to hurry. There's no need to push young readers. Most young readers will be pleased to read the book aloud again and again, to grandparents, baby sitters, siblings-and stuffed toys. This shared reading helps children gradually read simple text independently. You'll use the same type of conversations over and over to help young children read many other predictable, sentence-pattern books.