Page 8 - teachYourChildToRead

8 Teach your child to read

TIP: Books for very young children often have no text, so make
up simple sentences to match the picture rather than just
labelling the picture. For example, “there’s a baby, the baby is
sleeping ssssshhhhhh, we don’t want to wake the baby.”

Promoting physical skills

Some physical skills developed in infancy are directly connected to
children’s later ability to read. One very important pre-reading skill is the
ability to ‘cross the midline’. A child’s midline is an imaginary line down
the centre of their body from the head to the feet. Crossing the midline
involves reaching across the body with a hand or foot to the opposite side
of the body. The physical skill of crossing the midline is related to the
visual skill of scanning text across a page.

Becoming a successful reader relies on being able to cross the midline.
Without this ability a child will only be able to read the first few words on
a page and then stumble, finding it difficult to continue reading the text
across the page. Activities that involve physically moving your babies
hand or foot across to the opposite side of their body promotes brain
functioning.

Activity: Give your infant lots of opportunities to practice
‘crossing the midline’ by placing toys to one side
(instead of directly in front of them) and encouraging
them to reach across.

? How’s it going?

Q: I work full time and our life is so busy, its hard to find the time
to spend with my child.

A: Quality is definitely better than quantity. Try and make the
most of your time together, turn off the music while in the car and
sing, chat about your day at bath time and respond to any language
attempts by making eye contact and listening.