TIMEFRAME. Don’t be afraid to offer things, but drop them when they aren’t working.
AVAILABILITY. Keep bringing in lots of materials because something will suddenly click.
LEARNING STYLE. Choose resources that are complimentary to his learning style with attributes that contain what you see are important to your child.
VALUE CREATIVE PRE-SKILLS. Encourage their creative outlets. Before the age of 8-10 years old, the creative learner is building a library of pictorial images through visual resources and real experiences. Their focus on their creative outlet naturally builds this important component which will prepare them for when their minds shift to embrace two-dimensional work when every word or symbol needs to be translated to a picture. Therefore, encouraging their creative outlet not only gives them value to their learning process, but actually supports important pre-skills for their particular learning process.
FAMILIAR WITH READING/WRITING PATTERNS. Keep reading aloud.
VISUALIZATION. Bring in audio books.
PICTORIAL RESOURCES. Bring in comics, magazines, manga, atlases, interest-based material, and all types of visual/pictorial materials.
SELF TEACHING RESOURCES. Have materials available that contribute to learning to read such as children’s picture dictionaries, picture flashcards, use closed captioning on television, Bob Books, 100 EZ Lessons manual, Leap Frog videos and magnets, etc.
PRE-FLUENCY. Read aloud books at the level he might start at or be interested in, such as Boxcar Children, Captain Underpants, Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, etc. have been some of my children’s favorites. This will help him have some of the rhythm, visuals, and words involved in them which will make it easier for him to “catch the visual” as he tries to read it himself (I think this can actually be a real important step).
PERFECTIONISM. Answer their questions without a “lesson”. If they want you to read something, or tell them what a word is or how it is spelled, just provide it to them, without fanfare.
DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORDS AND BOOKS. My children highly benefited from a book called “Read! Write! Publish!” (by Creative Teaching Press CTP 2323) that shows how to make a multitude of VISUAL and PICTORIAL type of books. Making their own comic strips was another common activity.
