Effective Reading from an Early Age

 A ChecklistBefore teaching a child to read effectively, it is important to ensure that the following skills are in place and solidly founded.Can he identify critical or non-critical information on an auditory and written level?(https://geniusseries.com/little-genius-puppets/critical-and-non-critical-information/)Can he identify keywords on an auditory and written level? https://geniusseries.com/little-genius-puppets/teaching-keyword-identification-from-an-early-age/7 Secrets to Help Effective Reading?The mere look at a comprehension can be daunting and extremely dull…void of pictures, lots of writing, followed be a pile of questions. If one is equipped with a strategy from a young age, one can trick their brain into believing that comprehensions are fun and challenging. There are 7 secrets that will help a child become an effective reader.  It is also important to note that research shows that reading from screens can harm comprehension. Secret #1: Be a DetectiveEvery kid loves the idea of being a detective. Already the brain is thrilled by this thought. Your kid will be asked questions about WHAT he is reading. The answers are ALWAYS in the story. He just has to look for them. Very, very carefully. Like a detective.  Secret #2: Study the PicturesAt this young age, most of the comprehension texts fortunately have pictures. A comprehension detective must always use these images to help him figure out what he is reading about. This should excite your kid (and you) to no end. His brain would much prefer to study an exciting picture before reading a long ‘boring’ text.Secret #3: Read the Title and Highlight the KeywordsYour child already knows what the story is going to be about because he has studied the pictures.His brain will be curious to see whether or not he has detected this information correctly. If he reads the title CAREFULLY, it will give him even more clues as to what the story is about.Secret #4: Brainstorm the TitleYour child has now studied the title and highlighted the KEYWORDS correctly.He will discover that he has ALOT of information already stored in his brain about the title.He must jot down all his ‘already stored’ information very quickly. This way his brain will be prepared to read about such a topic.Secret #5: Read the Questions FirstYour child needs to read the QUESTIONS FIRST….BEFORE reading the story.This is what a comprehension detective would do as it would give him CLUES of what he needs to look for. I never knew this as a kid or even a university student and used to wade through the boring text, not knowing what to look for.Secret #6: Highlight the Keywords in the QuestionNow that your child knows HOW to identify KEYWORDS, as he reads the questions, he must highlight the important words.This will help him know EXACTLY what he is looking for. Secret #7: Match the Keyword in the Questions to the Keywords in the StoryThis is perhaps the most complex of the secrets, but once mastered it changes a life! I discovered this secret at the age of 29 when I had to devour very boring articles for CPD points. I churned them out and passed with 100% pass rate thanks to this secret. Your child needs to find the SAME KEYWORDS in the QUESTIONS, in the TEXT. It will be here, that he will find the answer he is looking for (most of the time).