A young enthusiastic reader will get through 2-3 books every week. That might be 1000% more than your child is reading. And so a huge differential will open up.

But here are some tips for making reading more fun for your child, which will soon turn it into a pleasure. We use all of them in our Easyread System, which gets extremely fast results:

TIP 1 - Don't Read Books

This may seem a bit crazy, but teaching a child to read with a book is a mistake. It's like teaching a child to catch a ball by playing basketball.

We all use whatever seems the simplest solution to a problem. If you have a bright kid, then the simplest option will seem to be to memorise the words that keep appearing in an early reader book. But, as the vocabulary increases, that gets steadily harder and you will see more and more guessing.

In due course, you will see an implosion of confidence and a total reluctance to do any more reading at all.

TIP 2 - "Dimensionalise" the Phonemes

Your child needs to be familiar with the 43 phonemes we use. They are the little sounds that make up each word. You can find a list of them in any dictionary.

Because they are just sounds, the phonemes are hard for a child to remember. So we create a visual image for each one. That gives them physical dimensions and makes them much easier to remember. For instance, for the letter E we use the eggs with little legs, the eagle looking regal and the earth full of mirth. Do you see how easily those get locked into your memory?

The majority of your child's memory capacity is visual.

TIP 3 - Play These Games

So what should you use rather than a book?

Well, in Easyread we use games like these:

Build-A-Word. Select 6 plastic letters, including two vowels. Repeat the main sound of each one. Then think of a simple word for your child to write with them.

Select-A-Word. Write three very similar words, like hat, mat and map. Say one of them and ask your child to select which one it is.

Nonsense Words. Take some plastic letters again, revise their sounds and write a word that makes no sense, like hab, fud, tem, wom. Then see if your child can read it.

Easyread-I-Spy. Play the classic "I spy with my little eye..." game. But instead of using the first letter of the name of the object, use the first sound instead.

TIP 4 - Less is More

You want to maximise the success of your child, so limit a reading session to 10-15 minutes maximum.

TIP 5 - Try Easyread TrainerText

TrainerText is how we let a child read unaided, while learning. The visual image for each phoneme in a word is floating above the text, so that the child can check if a word is unfamiliar. You can do the same with the images you have created in tip 2.

Using TrainerText the fear of the text goes away, because your child can always check the images for help when needed. So confidence can build quickly.

Using this sort of approach, we see a new engagement with reading immediately and then a surge of confidence over the first 21 days. If you use these tips I am sure you will see the same thing.