I Need Help Teaching My 7 Year Old to Read!

Kids learn by repetition so if you're telling her what the word is, you're actually helping her.

She should have a list of the 100 sight words. By age 7 she should know those. Build upon those by using the word families. For example: if she knows "it" add a "k", ask her what sound does "K" make k+it=kit.

Read to her. Point to each word as you read.

Read the same book over and over. Read it to her once or twice each day for 3 or 4 days. On day 5 read it together. She reads a sentence, you read a sentence. By the end of the week she should be able to read it herself.

Have her read with someone other than you - dad, older sibling or cousin, grandparents

Good luck.

Were you reading books together before she started school?
How did she do in kindergarten and 1st grade?
If she wasn't "getting it" in the earlier grades,
the school may have some reading consultants/mentors
who can help her, and you, proceed from where she is now.
Does she know all her letters?
Does she know the sounds that go with each of the consonants?
Has her vision been tested?
I wouldn't try with putting letters together
until you know she knows the sound of each consonant.
Then you can try combinations . . .
bat cat fat sat mat
etc.
Good luck.

I teach my 5 year old at home and we started a couple programs online. She is doing awesome! Check out, www.starfall.com - it's free! I use www.time4learning.com - it's $19.99 a month a lot of parent's use the program for after school and it's so much fun!

My suggestions-

1. Make sure she knows the sound of every single letter. Go over this daily!
2. Then start to teach her the sounds of letters when you put them together. Example: La, ed, ch, th....etc.
3. Read, Read, Read to her, get her interested in reading. Go to the library and have her pick out books that interest her. Get videos on reading, anything to make it fun for her! Sing songs with the sounds of the letters...

A friend recommended this to me for my daughter. She said it was great for her 6 yr old that was struggling with reading.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons [Paperback]
by Siegfried Engelmann.

Good luck

I always did tell my kids the word. I paused and gave them the chance to sound it out, but would then just tell them the word. I didn't want to cause such frustration as to cause them to want to stop the reading session. And when the sentence is so disjointed, then you lose the meaning of the sentence and story and thus the interest in the activity. My kids are now good readers, so it must have worked. I hope that you find what works for you. Kudos for reading with your child!

Read, Write, & Type is an excellent computer program that will be engaging and fun for your daughter. It has been approved as a "scientifically based reading program."

Phonics.

They need to learn to sound it out.... pronounce it out...

Best way I know is to read out loud to her / with her as often as possible. I read every Dr Seuss book to my son over and over and over. Fox in Socks was one of our favorites. He'd sit on my lap or we'd snuggle in bed or on the couch and I'd read and point out pictures/words to him. He'd have the story memorized without reading it. First I would point out a word, then I'd have him tell me that same word every time we came across it for the rest of the story. After awhile he got a lot better. Then we'd play games. He'd read the odd pages and I'd read the even pages. All the time we were having fun. It was never work or a chore. He'd be disappointed if I lost my voice and couldn't read to him. He struggled a little bit, and then he seemed to really take off during the 2nd half of 2nd grade. He's 12 now and he's a voracious reader. He just won an invitation to a pizza party for having the highest amount of AR points on his team (about 100 kids) at school.

She needs to not only learn her letters but their sounds as well. Once she knows all the letters and sounds she can then be able to sound out the letters placed together (blending).
Also if you are comfortable with her at the computer, I recommend Hook on Phonics. It's all a game but with learning phonics as well. It can really help to assist you in teaching her phonics while having some fun at the computer.
Also Mardel's has books that you can do with her that can help.
Best Regards,
C.

Many kids do learn how to read using phonics but there are some of us that need a different approach. (phonics, punctuation and such are more like a foreign language at times!)
You can check out onpointlearning.org/3.html for ideas on working with young children who are struggling with reading/reading comprehension, focusing issues, etc.
Hope this is helpful!

Have you tried phonics with her for individual letters?

A as in Apple (I always chose the short vowel sound for my kids)
B as in Boy
C as in Cat...

Then start reading simple books. "Bob Books" are great for new readers. At the same time, work with her on two letter blends like:

at
ar
op
ap...

Before you know it, you will be able to add a consonant before those 2 letter blends.

bat, cat, hat, fat, mat, pat, rat, sat
bar, car, far, jar, par, tar, war
bop, cop, hop, lop, mop, pop, sop, top
cap, gap, lap, map, nap, pap, rap, sap, tap, zap

Then, you can continue adding more complex words - like put a silent "e" after the appropriate words you just worked on, so she can see how the silent "e" will create a long vowel sound...

You got this! Have fun and don't stress about it. She will feel your stress!

My son is now 7.5, I realized when he was in first grade (he is now in second) that he was unable to blend the sounds of words together. I used a program called ABeCeDarian which specifically addresses and builds phonemic awareness (the ability to break words into sounds and vice versa). He has made good progress with this program but it is slow going. The ABeCeDarian website is www.abcdrp.com . I highly recommend it. :) Good luck to you and your child.

3 movies to help:
"Meet the Sight Words 1, 2, and 3" by www.preschoolprepco.com

Tv show on PBS that's great for phonics:
Between the Lions. We watch it every day!

Another neat thing I saw to help sound out words:
1. hold out your arm
2. Touch your shoulder and sound out the first sound of the letter "B"
3. Touch your elbow area and sound out the sound of the next letter "E"
4. Touch your forearm and sound out the sound of the next letter "D"
5. Touch your wrist and sound out the sound of the next letter "S"
6. Slide your hand down your whole arm (like a slide at the playground) and blend the sounds together "B, E, D, S"
7. Slide faster down your arm "BEDS"

Also, when you read to your daughter, have HER sit on your lap or right next to you and have HER finger run under the words as you read them. Pause at the words she does know so that she can say those ones. THat will help with her confidence. Suggest she read to her pet or a neighbor's pet. I have heard that children who read to a pet gain better confidence as well.

We started with these great videos just before our boys turned 2, and they were great. They're by Leapfrog. We did Letter Factory, then Word Factory, then Codeword Caper. I didn't over do it (they only watch tv a couple times per week but they watched these every time they got screen time!) They learned their letters by the second or third time they watched it; they also knew vowel/consonant. They just turned 3 and are putting short words together and spelling pretty well.

Have you tried teaching her phonics? If she knows phonics she can learn how to sound out words and then put the sounds together to make the word. If she's in school make sure to bring this up to her teacher as often children should at least have the basics of reading by her age. I had this issue with my own ____@____.com years old and all I did was read to her constantly and encourage her to try.

I haven't read your responses, so this may be a repeat. Have you tried the book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons?" It is very helpful. We skip the handwriting part of that book because we do something different. And,we often do several lessons in one day. We go until we are tired of it. Sometimes that is one lesson, others it is 3-4. Be patient. Don't stress. You can do it. :)

I agree, use phonics for each letter. My 5-year-old just read a level 2 book to my husband and I last weekend, and she sounded out each letter of each word. My husband and I have worked with her on this and it's paid off!