The biggest mistake I see parents make when teaching phonics to their child
/I’ve worked with thousands of parents over the last 15 years. I’ve seen this one thing hundreds of time and it is a huge mistake.
One that needs to be avoided at all costs.
It’s this.
Parents lose their patience.
Let me paint you a vivid picture of what I mean.
I had been working with Lily for several months preparing her for her 4+ Assessments. She was making lots of progress in many different areas but was struggling with learning her phonics sounds. Her mother would sit in on all of her lessons and was always very calm and helpful. But when it came to the phonics, I would often see Lily’s mother getting very frustrated and upset if Lily didn’t know the sounds and she would often say things like…
‘Why don’t you know it!’
‘We’ve done it hundreds of times!’
‘She’s never going to get it!’
‘This isn’t good enough!’
‘Focus!’
I think you would agree that these are not helpful comments.
This would lead to my student getting upset and often crying and therefore wasting 5-10 minutes of our lesson.
I get it!
We want our child to pick things up quickly. But it doesn’t always work out this way.
When teaching phonics, you must be calm, patient and accept that there will be times that your child will not know the answer or perhaps simply not want to say the answer.
You need belief and trust in the process and know that your child will learn and respond in their own time. And if they don’t get it or don’t want to say it, just move on or tell them that it’s okay not to know and you will try again another time.
All of my students will be able to read (blend three letter words at a minimum) after preparing for their 4+ Assessments with me (with at least 9 months of preparation)
