"Above all, children love to be read to. It is a special time for them to be close to the grown-ups who care for them, and a wonderful way to feel loved" (B. Bush, 1993)

It is very important to begin reading to your child at a young age. Reading improves vocabulary, memory skills and speech skills. In hearing your voice your child can copy proper speech. Using books with rhyming text is helpful also.

Sturdy board books with pictures to identify helps your child learn new vocabulary words and to consistently practice naming familiar objects.

How do you teach a child struggling to talk to read? One of the biggest struggles with teaching a child with apraxia to read is difficulty with phonetic awareness - they have a lot of trouble identifying the letter sounds and some letter sounds they simply can't produce.

Any activity to increase awareness of the sounds of letters would be helpful. For more ideas on increasing awareness of letter sounds and learning to read, please see Chapter 16 of my eBook Apraxia Explained

We worked with our daughter at home in teaching her to read or your child could use the help of a reading tutor. She was still struggling with pronouncing some of the letter sounds and had an initial problem with reversing letters, which are early warning signs of dyslexia. As many as 75% of apraxic children are diagnosed with some form of dyslexia. Dyslexia can range from mild to profound, with a wide range of symptoms. It may show up as difficulty reading, poor handwriting, lack of phonological awareness or poor spelling. Sound therapy and EFA supplementation both have a positive affect on dyslexia and research has shown they can greatly reduce the symptoms. For additional information on dyslexia and a list of early warning signs, please click here - Dyslexia

After learning to read, we noticed a gain in her speech. She had a lot of trouble with dropping off the ending sounds of words. Seeing the ending letter in print made her more aware of it and sounding out the words gave her a lot of practice in her speech.

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Nursery-Rhymes-Fun.com is a great resource for fun nursery rhymes, poems and stories which are excellent for speech development and learning to read.

Academic Associates of Prince George and the World offers a systematic, easy-to-learn reading program. This program will take the student [child or adult] through the steps of reading. When finished, they will be able to read the majority of words in the English language. The program is taught one-on-one with one of our Reading Instruction Specialists.

Reading For Kids is a free phonics based reading program.

Feel free to read these adorable baby verses to your babies and toddlers. They rhyme nicely and were written from the heart.

Reading and Learning Disablities A teacher shares her expertise, experience and wisdom of 20 years of teaching learning disabled students on a one-to-one basis. This site offers consultations via the internet. There are activities to do with the beginning reader. Teachers will be able to subscribe to receive leveled webquests.

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