5 ways to advance your preschooler's potential

Early phonics is the key to helping your child be all he can be. 

Prevention and phonics are the keys to your child's potential. In medicine, the Chinese focus on prevention while we westerners focus on treatment.

 

Unfortunately we focus on learning problems the same way. Prevention is possible and so much more effective than treatment. (For a more in-depth discussion of causes and preventions, see volume 2 of It's Not Rocket Surgery! )

 

Reading opens a child’s imagination and knowledge. Imagination and knowledge beget wonder.

 

“The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.” ~ Ralph Washington Sockman

 

• Begin phonemic awareness with your child from infancy on.
• Read to your child daily.
• Ask simple questions about the pictures and story.
• Show a love of books – get caught reading yourself, whether with books, Readers’ Digest and other magazine articles, comic books, cook books, anything to encourage your child by example.
• Always read to your child every day, such as at bedtime.

 

A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette is a perfect book for this. Stories and picture-letter phonics at bedtime, or any time, give your child the two most important things he needs in life: parent-time and reading skills.

 

The easiest, most effective way to prevent permanent speech problems and dyslexia is to teach early reading the right way, phonics one-on-one with The Godfrey Method lesson plans and picture-letters. These are discussed in volume 2, all the chapters’ HELPS, and the appendix.

 

But what if your child is older and already has problems? One-on-one phonics will help, Dr. Glen Doman’s methods may help, and if more remediation is required, Dr. Michael Merzenich’s Scientific Learning may help. More on them later. Starting back at the basics with The Godfrey Method will definitely help.

 

Not all diagnosed dyslexia or learning disabilities are truly that. Almost any child can learn if taught the right way.

 

As Direct Instruction proponents say, “If the child hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.”

 

Without these preventatives, the cracks in your child may be lack of imagination, low self-esteem, insecurity, low self-confidence, lower IQ, slower learning capacity, caught in the downward educational trend, speech problems, dyslexia, and/or poor decision-making skills. You are the key. It’s not rocket surgery!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/good-foundation-5-ways-advance-your-preschoolers-potential