Teaching An Early Age Child to Read

Teaching An Early Age Child to Read

Teaching a child to read is a fulfilling and educational process, both for the parent and child. Whether you home school your kids or just want to give your child a head-start, you can begin teaching your child to read at home. With the right tools and tactics, your child will be reading in no time. Here are some tips can be used to familiarize reading for children in the early stage.

1.     Read to your child on a regular basis. As with all things, it's difficult to learn anything without exposure to it. In order to get your child interested in reading, you should be reading to them on a regular basis. If you’re able, this should start when they are an infant and continue through their school years. Read books with stories they comprehend; at a young age this may lead you to read 3-4 small books a day.

• Books that combine other senses besides listening help your small child to comprehend the story as you read it. For example, read many books that have pictures, tactile pages, sounds, or have accompanying scents.
• Try reading them books that might slightly challenge their comprehension level but that have an interesting or engaging story.

2.     Ask interactive questions. Even before your child learns to read, they can learn reading comprehension. As you read stories to them aloud, ask them questions about the characters or the plot. For a toddler, these may be questions like “Do you see the dog? What is the dog’s name?”. The questions can escalate in difficulty as the reading level does.

• Help to teach your child critical thinking skills by asking open-ended questions about stories. You might not hear complex verbal responses until your child is four or five years old, but ask away and be patient.

3.     Put books to reachable place. It’s no good if you have books around, but located in places that your child can’t easily take them. Keep books low to the ground and in typical play-areas so that your child begins to associate them with play activities.

• Because your child may be touching and reading the books often, be sure to choose ones that have wipe-able pages and that aren’t incredibly sentimental. Pop-up books may not be the best option for young children.
• A fancy bookshelf may seem like the most attractive option, but until your child is in school focus on the utilitarian purposes of book storage.
• Set up a reading space next to the bookshelf. Set some beanbags, pillows, and comfy chairs around to sit in while reading. The top of the bookshelf can hold cups and snacks for having while reading.

4.     Set a good example. Show your child that reading is interesting and worthwhile by reading for yourself. Spend a minimum of ten minutes a day reading when your child is around, so that they see you enjoying the activity on your own. Even if you’re not an avid reader, find something to read - a magazine, the newspaper, or a cookbook all count. Soon they’ll become interested in reading on their own, simply as a result of seeing you doing it too.

• Include your child in your reading time. If you’re reading something child-friendly, tell them about what you’re reading. Accompany this by pointing to words on the page to help them connect the lines on the page with the sounds that form words.

5.     Get access to a library or bookstore. This can be done in two ways: create your own mini-library at home by collecting dozens of books in your child’s reading level, or make weekly trips to the local public library together to check out books. Having a variety of books on hand (especially with an older child) will add interest for reading, and help to incorporate more vocabulary into their knowledge base.

• That being said, don't turn down a request to re-read a favorite book just because it's already been read a dozen times.
• Going to bookstore and let your child to choose a favourite book as a reward.

6.     Start to make word-sound associations. Before you even start getting into the alphabet and sound specifics, help your child recognize that the lines on the page are directly correlated to the words you are speaking. As you read aloud to them, point to each word on the page at the same time you say it. This will help your child grasp the pattern of words/lines on the page relating to the words you speak in terms of length and sound.

7.     Avoid using flashcards. Some companies have advertised specialized flashcards to help babies, toddlers, and preschool age children to read. In general, flashcards are not the most useful or effective technique for teaching reading skills. Time spent reading stories with your child will be much more beneficial than flashcards. “Reading aloud to young children, particularly in an engaging manner, promotes emergent literacy and language development and supports the relationship between child and parent. In addition it can promote a love for reading which is even more important than improving specific literacy skills.”

Anxiety in Public Speaking and how to reduce it?

Anxiety in Public Speaking and how to reduce it?

Anxiety is defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. Public speaking anxiety is very common among both college students and the general population. Persons with public speaking anxiety often avoid anxiety-producing social or performance situations, but when unavoidable, these situations are endured with feeling of intense anxiety and distress. Also, anticipatory anxiety frequently occurs as an individual imagines the situation in advance of the actual experience (e.g., worrying each day about a presentation to be given in a class several weeks in the future). Although individuals with these types of anxious responses often recognize that their fear is excessive and/or unreasonable, they are unable, without assistance, to change their responses in these situations.

Individuals with public speaking anxiety most often experience a variety of symptoms in a public speaking situation, including palpitations, sweating, gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, muscle tension, and confusion. (North & Rives; 2001)  Burnley et al.(1993) states that, “Approximately 85 percent of the general population report experiencing some level of anxiety about speaking in public.”  Rossi and Seiler (1989) indicate that, “Public speaking or stage fright has been investigated and studied since the mid-1930’s.

Many people who speak for a living, including actors, business people, and politicians, experience public speaking anxiety.  In fact, some of these experienced public speakers feel that a little nervousness before a performance or speaking engagement gives them the ability to perform at their best.  However, for some people the anxiety becomes so intense that it interferes with the ability to perform at all.

 In the case of students, this may lead to avoiding certain courses or even majors where oral presentations are required, never speaking in class, or deciding against certain careers because they would require occasional speaking before a group.  Students who are very anxious about public speaking in class may sometimes also avoid social events they would like to attend or may not talk to classmates they would like to get to know.   

Foreign language anxiety has been said by many researchers to influence language learning. Whereas facilitating anxiety produces positive effects on learners' performance, too much anxiety may cause a poor performance (Scovel, 1991). Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1991) have found that anxiety typically centers on listening and speaking. Speaking in class is most frequently difficult for anxious students even though they are pretty good at responding to a drill or giving prepared speeches. Anxious students may also have difficulties in discriminating sounds and structures or in catching their meaning.

Price (1991) investigated by asking questions about what made students most anxious in foreign language class. All of the subjects answered that having to speak a foreign language in front of other students resulted in the most anxiety. According Beatty, 1988; Beatty, Balfantz & Kuwabara, 1989; Beatty & Frieland, 1990 public speaking anxiety may stem from numerous sources, such as public speaking skills, fluency in a foreign language, emotional predispositions towards public speaking, and characteristics of the public speaking situation itself.

Fear of public speaking is a very common form of social phobia. Individuals who fear speaking in public may find their career choices limited and avenues for promotion closed to them, resulting in considerable personal distress, frustration, and depression.These individuals may underachieve at work or at school because of anxiety and often avoid speaking in classroom situations. In more severe cases, they may drop out of school rather than face a feared situation, such as a class with mandated oral reports that constitute a significant proportion of the final course grade.

A study indicate that the students experienced significantly less anxiety after they had been taught how to manage their distress, by means of affective strategies. Anxiety is typically understood as a physiological response. We can’t make it go away, but we can help it work for us instead of against us. According to results a great number of our students were able to change their perception of their anxiety level by the end of the course.

Education Profile in Developing Countries

Education Profile in Developing Countries