Stages infant/toddler go through when learning whole words

[kiwimum]

I thought it would be interesting to record the stages a infant/toddler may go through when teaching them to read using whole words.

I want to share what I have noticed with teaching my infant to read whole words.  Of course each child is different and has different experiences but I bet a lot of the stages below will be similar to other on this forum.
Here are the reading stages I have noticed in my child and also in other parents children who choose to share and post.


Start reading to your child, showing and developing an awareness of written words as young as three months old, once a infant has eye tracking control.
Infant may not show interest in the written word for quite a few months but they will be interested in the adults voice and touch that comes along with the process so keep going and keep it short and fun.
Infant may start to show interest in words written in their home environment.
Parents might notice the infant is interested in written words outside of the home environment, they may turn their head or lean out of your arms when you walk near big bold signs, if so stop and read it with them.
They recognises their first word, eg Parent asks "what one is .." child pick the right one most of the time. Keep this short and fun, you dont want it to feel like a test and have negative effects on your infant/toddler
The childs participation alongside words and songs increase eg clap their hands, touch their toes etc
They are slowly recognises more and more words
May use gestures or sign language to show they can read words that they can not verbally speak yet
Fast mapping stage, pick up new words very quickly form only seeing and hearing them only once or twice
Child points out words everywhere and any time expecting you to inform them of what that new word is. If you were keeping track of the words your child knows, this is where you start to loose track
(This is where my 17 month old daughter is, although I think she has started on the next stage)
Child reads new words they have never seen before or have ever been taught - extract the rules of phonics and apply them to new words.

What happens next? Parents who have been here before with their child what can happen next, can you finish off the next stages, is it

starts reading phrases and sentences
reads phonetically
has full comprehension of what they are reading

feel free to add your experience in any of these stages

[Krista G]

At this point my children began reading phrases, sentences and books.  They had comprehension of what they were reading from very young.  If they were reading it, they understood it.  We did not stop learning new words, as you mentioned above, they were still learning  more difficult words but very easily and quickly.  The steps overlap and you do not necessarily complete a step.  You can use flash cards or that style of teaching for the first years as your child grows more comfortable as a reader.  My 5 year old is a great reader, but she may still need help with an unfamiliar word.

[Tanikit]

I am teaching my second child to read and have found that she is not developing in exactly the same order of stages as the previous child though there are big similarities - but I do wonder if that also has to do with the way I have been teaching them.

My younger DD is at the phase where pictures are really interesting and while she is pointing to both letters, words and pictures, pictures have more of her interest right now (she's 19 months old and can read some sight words) I think some of the reading development mirrors other motor control development also as my DD saw many words related to actions but has only in the last few months (since about 16 months) started following along with the actions - she was slower with physical development than my elder.  She has however also started saying some words when seeing them even though her speech is FAR behind what my eldests was at this age (my elder at this age was starting to learn to read phrases following words left to right)

My elder DD did NOT begin reading new words before reading phrases - she was sight reading entire sentences by 20 months but only began reading phonetically around 2.5 years of age - EVERYTHING was by sight before then despite the fact that she knew the phonetic alphabet at 18 months.

Both my DDs have shown full comprehension (age appropriate comprehension that is) of what they are reading since they began reading. My elder DDs first word she read was "dog" (age 12.5 months) and she pointed to the word on the wall, said "dog" and then pointed to the dog walking by and repeated "dog" clearly linking the word to the actual dog. My younger DD, like the older one will point out nouns mostly and words she understands. At one stage when my elder DD started with sentences she would skip the smaller words and point only to nouns or verbs that she understood even though she was capable of saying the entire sentence - she was honing in on the words that had greatest meaning for her.

There are other steps to learning to read that can come up at varying times:

Knowing to read from left to right and top to bottom.
Being able to read various font sizes (which is partly related to age and partly to exposure and sometimes requires teaching)
Understanding how to turn pages in a book and holding the book the correct way up.
Being able to read both capitals and small letters (depends on method of teaching)
Fluency with reading as well as age related pronunciation issues of various speech sounds.
Guided reading with a parent vs independent reading (this can vary greatly from child to child)
The ability to handle increasing amounts of print per page.
Teaching a younger sibling to read (variable)
Requesting longer and longer picture book read alouds and later chapter book read alouds and eventually reading these books alone
Learning to read becomes reading to learn (this can also begin almost simultaneously with learning to read and is more likely to happen faster in younger children/babies learning to read)

[kiwimum]

KristaG - Did you make your own home made books to encourage reading phrases and sentences in books or did you just mostly help out with unfamiliar words in sentences and allow them to read our loud the words you know they know.
Some people judge "comprehension" by asking a reading child questions about what they have just read and then see their comprehension from the childs answer. I think answering questions is more advanced then comprehension of phrases/words as I know my DD knows the meaning of each word by itself but I'm still unsure if she understands when there are three or more word together. So yeah i guess there is different levels of comprehension depending on the age.
 "We did not stop learning new words, as you mentioned above, they were still learning  more difficult words but.." Krista G - I never said they stop learning new words, Im not sure where you read that.

Tanikit -  Yeah no child is the same, as no teaching and environment is the same. Although in saying that it would be interesting to see how twins get on learning to read with whole words. Are there any mums out there with twin that anyone knows of
Tanikit -Thanks so much for you input and extra stages I will do some modifications so the stages shortly.

[kiwimum]

This is in a rough order and some stages overlap and never end, But its interesting to see the learning develop.

Start reading to your child, showing and developing an awareness of written words as young as three months old, once a infant has eye tracking control.

Infant may not show interest in the written word for quite a few months but they will be interested in the adults voice and touch that comes along with the process so keep going and keep it short and fun.

Infant may start to show interest in words written in their home environment.

Parents might notice the infant is interested in written words outside of the home environment, they may turn their head or lean out of your arms when you walk near big bold signs, if so stop and read it with them.

They recognises their first word, eg Parent asks "what one is .." child pick the right one most of the time. Keep this short and fun, you dont want it to feel like a test and have negative effects on your infant/toddler

The childs participation alongside words and songs increase eg clap their hands, touch their toes etc

They are slowly recognises more and more words

Understanding how to turn pages in a book and holding the book the correct way up.

May use gestures or sign language to show they can read words that they can not verbally speak yet

Being able to read various font sizes (which is partly related to age and partly to exposure and sometimes requires teaching)

Fast mapping stage, pick up new words very quickly form only seeing and hearing them only once or twice

Child points out words everywhere and any time expecting you to inform them of what that new word is. If you were keeping track of the words your child knows, this is where you start to loose track

Being able to read both capitals and small letters (depends on method of teaching)

Child reads new words they have never seen before or have ever been taught - extract the rules of phonics and apply them to new words.

Knowing to read from left to right and top to bottom.

Fluency with reading as well as age related pronunciation issues of various speech sounds.

Guided reading with a parent vs independent reading (this can vary greatly from child to child)

The ability to handle increasing amounts of print per page.

Teaching a younger sibling to read (variable)

Requesting longer and longer picture book read alouds and later chapter book read alouds and eventually reading these books alone

Learning to read becomes reading to learn (this can also begin almost simultaneously with learning to read and is more likely to happen faster in younger children/babies learning to read)

Keep adding to this list if you think there is something we have missed

[Korrale4kq]

Me!
I have helped raise identical twins. And they both had a different learning style. At 6 One is a much more cautious, slower, but competent reader. The latter is faster but prone to mistakes. The former is a academic type. He always has been a thinker and a tinker. Could operate the computers. The latter is a jock type. He is a mover and a shaker. He would rather be actively don't things.

I taught both boys to read by 3. The jock type did better with whole words. It was easier for him to quickly lean the words and haphazardly plough through reading.  The academic type did better with phonics instruction, as it required more metal patience and suited the child that Liked to see how things work. They had both learnt all their phonics sounds by 18 months. But it took until they were three to read. I stopped being their nanny when they were a little over three and they went into a traditional daycare. Nearly all their reding ability had been lot completely.
They started Kindergarten last year. The academic-type phonics reader flew up the reading levels within a few weeks. The jock-type whole word reader lagged behind for a few weeks. But by the third month of school both boys were as adept at reading and neck and neck at the same level. And graduated K at the same reading level. Academic(phonics) reader has better decoding skills of unfamiliar words. Jock(whole word) has better comprehension. They both were exposed to a balanced approach in Kindergarten and the differences in reading are minimal.
Academic type is a much more patient, slower reader that will read in his free time, and tackle challenging texts.
Jock-type I just wants to get the resding over and done with for the most part. He is a faster reader and retains the information better. He is also a bit of a ham. He likes to hold the book up and read to you as a teacher would read to the class.

Now... Even though the twins are identical, as their DNA claims, they re very very different in personality. And this is reflected in how the leant to read, and how they read. In fact it applies to all their school work.

[kiwimum]

Korrale - that is so cool and interesting thanks for sharing

[mum2tiger]

Kiwimum, my LO seemed completely off the chart.

I have always thought that the debate on teaching phonics or whole word first was a little redundant. This is based on my personal experience. I started off by teaching my LO whole words with YBCR and the Brillkids. With Brillkids, he liked the multisensory segments but it was just okay....Then I realised that he seemed to like the phonics part the end of each lesson best.  He was about 12 months at that point. So, I put the whole word plan on hold and focused on phonics, which was what he wanted. Boy, did he loved it

I noticed was he never had a problem differentiating 'd' from 'b' because the letter sounds distinguished them so clearly for him. Also, I introduced both Upper and lowercase at the same time. At two, whenever I show him a new word, he sounds it out phonetically first, albeit not always right since we haven't gotten to blends/ phenomes.

Lately, he is showing interest in whole words again, so we are climbing aboard the whole word train again will Brillkids as well as the Ladybird series.

Btw, he has always been more like Twin One from Korrale's babysitting history.

[kiwimum]

mum2tiger -  thats interesting, before your post I think i thought it was more the parents decision what method to follow but i can now see that you noticed where your child wanted to go and you did the right thing and lead him there. That make me feel even more confident in what I am doing as my dd is defiantly into whole words with comprehension, she turns away at the last phonic part of Little Reader cos the words are too new and don't have pictures.
You should write down your own chart from your own personal experience and share it here with us.

[Krista G]

Kiwimum,

KristaG - Did you make your own home made books to encourage reading phrases and sentences in books or did you just mostly help out with unfamiliar words in sentences and allow them to read our loud the words you know they know.

I made a lot of simple sentence books.  I would get cute pictures from magazines and write a simple sentence about it.  My kids learned to read a lot of words they had never learned before in these sentence books.  Also, we read a lot of other books and I would help them with words they did not know.

"We did not stop learning new words, as you mentioned above, they were still learning  more difficult words but.." Krista G - I never said they stop learning new words, Im not sure where you read that.

I did not word that well.  I was agreeing with you that they are learning new words even past the primary phases of learning to read, but they learn they extremely quickly.

Tanikit - you remembered a lot of phases that I have soon forgotten.  Thanks for the refresher.

Korrale4kq - Fascinating story.  Thanks for sharing it.

[Krista G]

Here is a blog post about the books that I made.  You can see a sample here.

http://teachingbabytoread.com/2010/04/09/teach-baby-to-read--how-to-make-your-own-reading-books.aspx

[seastar]

Here is a blog post about the books that I made.  You can see a sample here.

http://teachingbabytoread.com/2010/04/09/teach-baby-to-read--how-to-make-your-own-reading-books.aspx

This is going to be my project for the weekend, thanks for the inspiration

[Pilu]

thanks krista for sharing ur idea its Nice to make such personalized book for kids. I really liked it. will do it when my child will start reading sentences. Right now he is 1.5yrs old 

[Krista G]

Pilu,

I started using these books with my 12 month old.  It was not because I thought he was ready but because he would bring them to me.  His reading soared when we started using this books.  I would just point to each word and read him the books.  I strongly recommend that you don't wait until you think they are ready because they always surprise us.

[kiwimum]

I found this very interesting on the Your Baby Can Read Facebook page
Read more http://www.facebook.com/YourBabyCanRead


Research on “Your Baby Can Read” -- Studies 1-7
(Part 2 of 3)

1. TITZER, R. (1998, April). Case Study of an Infant Exposed to Written Language. Presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies. Atlanta, Georgia.
Case Study of an Infant Exposed to Written Language

PURPOSE

To determine the long-term effects of a baby’s consistent exposure to written language.

METHOD

The participant began the program at age 3 months, 8 days and her progress was followed through six years of age. The baby viewed words on paper plates, word cards, books and a prototype of the “Your Baby Can Read” videotapes using a multisensory, interactive approach. Through these activities, the baby was allowed to see the words, hear the words, see and hear what the words meant, and often perform physical actions related to the words, such as clapping or waving. The baby viewed words daily. She watched the videotape nearly every day for seven months. She watched the tape one to three times a day but she did not watch any entertainment-based television as a baby. The amount of time spent playing with words and looking at words varied from day-to-day based on the baby’s interest and
the researcher’s schedule. On average, she spent about an hour a day watching the videos or looking at words on cards or in books until the age of 12 months.

RESULTS

3 to 7 months

No indication that she recognized any of the words; however she enjoyed the interactive activities. New words were generally added a few times a week

7 ½ months

First demonstrated that she recognized a word – she touched her foot when she saw (but did not hear) the word “foot”

9 months

Demonstrated that she recognized 30 consecutive words by saying the word or performing an appropriate physical activity for each word

10 months

Consistently recognized more than 100 words visually

12 months
Consistently recognized more than 400 words visually, showed some generalizability of learning by flipping novel word cards from upside-down to up-right positions

14 months

New words were learned quickly by the parents simultaneously pointing and saying words in books, reading Go Dog, Go! By Dr. Seuss, favorite books – Word Bird ™series by Moncure, books with Tweety ™

18 months

Could phonetically read most words (including nonsense words), read first grade level books from the library that she had never seen, often generalized lower case learning

19 months

Used character voices when reading stories

24 months

Read an average of around 20 books per day – favorites included The Ladybug and Other Insects™ , The Earth and Sky™, and the Frog and Toad™ series

3 years

Preferred non-fiction books about dinosaurs, archeology, and geography; Read the 314 page The World of Pooh book by A.A. Milne in less than 2 hours

4 years

Continued interest in non-fiction books – mostly science related topics; Favorite series – The Magic School Bus, also had a high interest in fiction

4 years, 15 days

Was tested by an independent clinical psychologist using the following tests with the following results:

Woodcock-Johnson –Revised Tests of Achievement (for reading skills)
Test Grade Level Percentile
Letter-word Identification 5.8 Above 99.9
Word Attack 11.9 Above 99.9
Passage Comprehension 4.2 Above 99.9
Comments: (She) demonstrated very unusual skills for a child her age in phonics, and she was very capable in decoding a variety of nonsense words that were shown to her. She also did very well on the Letter-Word Identification subtest, for which she was asked to read actual words. Similarly, her score on the Passage Comprehension task was very outstanding for a child her age.

4 years, 15 days
Received a perfect score on a standardized IQ test administered by an Independent psychologist. The probability of receiving this score was 0.00003 or 1 out of 33,333.

5 years

Preferred fiction, especially mysteries and Winnie-the-Pooh stories

6 years

Preferred mysteries, fantasies and classics

DISCUSSION

This study detailed the remarkable progress of a baby who was allowed to see the language from the age of 3 months, 8 days onward. This illustrates that it is possible for babies to learn to read at high levels at the same time they are learning to understand and say words. This exposure appears to have enhanced her overall language mastery as was evident in the testing.

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