Teaching Letter Recognition To Your Child

When your child is able to look at a written letter on a page or hear the sound that a letter makes when spoken out loud and then identify what that letter is, he has mastered letter recognition. This is the cornerstone of being able to read and write and so is obviously an important skill which you should teach your child at a young age. But how do you go about teaching letter recognition to your child?

The best thing to keep in mind is that letters are located all around you in the world so you have ample opportunity every day to use what’s around you to incorporate letter recognition learning into your child’s life. As you read books with your youngster, engage in games throughout the day and even take care of regular chores, you can point out the different letters that are around you, say their name and specify what sound they make. Your child will pick up on this quickly as you go along.

In terms of more focused learning of the letters, you should start with the basics. There’s a reason that everyone still learns the ABC song as a child and that’s because it works. The song gets ingrained into the minds of the child and can then be used in conjunction with letter toys (refrigerator magnets, foam blocks, stencils on a child’s wall) to reinforce what each letter looks and sounds like.

Play lots of different letter recognition games with your child to reinforce the learning from all different directions. Some children will learn better visually and so games which involve finding and matching letters on a page will be best for them. Other children learn best by hands-on activity and so the letter recognition games that involve tracing letters or handling letter-shaped blocks and toys will help those kids to learn their alphabet more quickly. Children learn in many different ways and giving them the chance to develop their different learning skills while learning their letters will make learning to read that much easier.

As your child begins to get a grasp on his letters and starts to associate them with the sounds that they each make, you can move on to helping him identify the different items in a room or on a picture which start with those sounds. This will once again reinforce the letter recognition skills of the child while simultaneously setting the stage for beginning to read and spell.