Did you know that you can prepare your child to be successful before he begins school? Oral language is so important to learning to read. Children need to be able to bring to their reading life’s experiences as well as knowledge that they have learnt from talking or listening to books, videos or conversations. Take heed, if you have a pre-schooler make certain that he isn’t in too many structured programs, allow him the time to explore, develop and learn about his world. In this way, he will bring to his reading a wealth of information that will support not only the reading of the words but comprehension. How exciting is that world where the child is able to do these things in his own time as well as choose what he wants to learn about. Oh my, we could all enjoy this way of living and learning. There is another part of this enjoyment that you, as a parent, need to know about. Yes, it is the sounding part of reading. Now, I must tell you that this area is vital if you want to see your child reading easily. Our whole reading system is based on an orthographic system…… yes this word is a mouth full, but what it is the academic name for the sound and letter system. Why didn’t I say that to begin with? Well, sometimes, I have to air the fact that I have an academic background. I promise that I won’t refer to this side of my personality too often!!!! The first step in this sounding area is to make certain that the child’s ears are "tuned in". You must make certain that the child’s ears have been checked so that hearing is in no way impaired. Once this is completed, let the tuning begin!!!! The child must be alert, facing the speaker and listening attentively. The next step is to listen to the beats in words. The child can clap, stamp, jump or hop to the beats in words. This action will be refined as the child gets older. There would be nothing worse than seeing a student of 14years hopping the beats in words to support Spelling or Reading!!!!! Now, I am going to give you a quick explanation of why clapping beats/syllables in words is so important. If a child knows the number of beats in a word, he will be able to work out how many vowel or vowel combinations are in each beat. And, believe me, this is very, very, very IMPORTANT!!!! The next article will continue on from this one. Please ask any questions or add comments below.