Raising Confidant Readers Dr J Richard Gentry

Raise a Child Who Loves to Read How do kids really learn to read? And how can you encourage interest in reading and writing from the start? In Raising Confident Readers, based on the five phases of literacy development, Dr. J. Richard Gentry provides fun and easy ways to teach your child to read and write successfully. When it comes to language, the most critical brain growth happens in early childhood. Raising Confident Readers shows you how to activate and accelerate this capacity for learning: The key is to introduce the right activities at the right time. Whether your child is a baby or toddler, in preschool or kindergarten, or first or second grade, Dr. Gentry helps you identify your child's literacy phase and take the next steps to build writing, reading, and spelling skills. You'll discover: How your child's brain learns to read--and why encouraging drawing and scribbling is as essential as reading aloud The best at-home activities to develop literacy early, naturally, and joyfully Recommended children's books for each phase Strategies for overcoming dyslexia, delayed reading, and other challenges Checklists and a milestones diary to celebrate your child's progress As your child moves through the five phases, they'll soon be sounding out and spelling words correctly, reading chapter books independently, and writing creative stories on their own. Complete with samples of children's writing throughout, Raising Confident Readers is an essential resource to foster your child's lifelong love of reading. Editorial Reviews From Booklist Children's first teachers--their parents--get first crack at nudging them toward becoming readers. Drawing on 30 years' experience as an educator and literacy expert, Gentry offers sound advice on how parents can develop strong reading and writing skills in children starting at birth through age seven. He provides plenty of activities through five literacy learning phases, from a child's early attempts at scribbling to handling early-reader books alone. Gentry's advice ranges from the well known (reading to children at an early age and talking to them at length and in an encouraging manner to help develop vocabulary) to the more neurological based (understanding the importance of drawing as a preparation for learning to read). He tackles the debates on reading theories--whole language versus phonics-based. Using age-specific vignettes, he describes capabilities and methods of teaching reading and writing, focusing on a child's individual development, and advises parents on how to monitor development and "test" for progress. An abundance of graphics add to the value of this useful resource for parents. --Vanessa Bush Review Library Journal, 7/8/10 "Gentry provides concrete teaching examples that are easy to implement; his user-friendly lessons offer opportunities for parents to have fun with children while they learn." Booklist, August 2010 "Gentry offers sound advice on how parents can develop strong reading and writing skills in children starting at birth through age seven...An abundance of graphics add to the value of this useful resource for parents."Blogcritics, 7/17/10