Many parents often wonder about the best ways to teach your child the alphabet and with the abundance of methods available there are certainly no shortage of resources available so we turned to reading specialists and speech pathologist to provide the 5 best ways to teach your child the alphabet.
One of the very best ways to teach your child the alphabet is to set aside a special 15 minute reading time each day when your child is an infant. Reading aloud helps your child associate the fact that words are made up of letters and letters have sounds and provides an excellent literacy foundation.
Brain research reveals that a child’s brain experiences the most rapid and dramatic growth from birth to age 5 and 90% of a child’s brain is formed during this time. What’s more, every environmental interaction your child experiences during these formative years stimulates brain growth, so you’ll want to ensure that you optimize this critical developmental period and use the best ways to teach your child the alphabet then.
Read with enthusiasm, point to and name pictures as you read, and even add your own thoughts and ideas to the story. When your child talks, ask questions about what you are reading together.
Once you begin focusing on the best ways to teach your child the alphabet, remember that children learn best through play so keep it light and fun. Singing the alphabet song is one of the primary ways a child is introduced to the alphabet letters as well.
Routine activities such as grocery shopping and driving in the car are other learning opportunities and some of the other best ways to teach your child the alphabet. Include sensory methods such as magnet letters and writing the letters in dough on the kitchen counter when baking also.
Research reveals that chanting rhymes provides a multitude of benefits for your child, including phonemic awareness, a crucial skill to proficient reading. Nursery rhymes again, are one of the best ways to teach your child the alphabet.
One book, recommended by reading specialists, Alphabet Anatomy, incorporates the benefits of rhyming making it one of the best ways to teach your child the alphabet. In fact, there are nursery rhyme for each of the letters!
The nursery rhymes equip your child with a visual and auditory means to recall the fundamental components of each letter, including how to write it.
“I always recommend creating an association between the letter and a story about the individual letter as this helps the child remember the letter more solidly and enhances phonemic awareness as well,” says , Reading Specialist and college professor. "One book called Alphabet Anatomy, is the best I've reviewed among all the available programs. In addition, add foam type letters at bath time every day as one of the best ways to teach your child the alphabet," she noted.
Founder of the coveted PAL Award, Speech and Language Pathologist Sherry Artimenko had this to say about Alphabet Anatomy. “Each letter has a friendly face, is surrounded by eye-capturing color, and has its own rhyming story that teaches a nifty way to remember the shapes or “anatomy” of the letters. Through these rhymes the story helps children learn how to recognize the sounds that each letter makes (F is ‘fit and fine’), develop a vocabulary of different words and objects that begin with each letter (‘K can fly her kite’), and to be able to understand the shape of each letter (B is ‘two bellies fat’).”
Read on to find out more of the best ways to teach your child the alphabet .....
Linda Jones is the author of founder of and a mom to four sons. She is dedicated to helping improve early childhood literacy so that all children are assured of a successful future and equipped with the ability to make their dreams come true.Look for other titles in the Alphabet Anatomy series including “Meet the Lower Case Letters,” coming in the future. Jones is an alphabet expert and is often asked by parents the best ways to teach your child the alphabet.