The alphabet is the basis for communicating in English and the sooner that a child can comprehend their ABCs, the sooner they can express themselves. Provided below is an overview of several ways that books can help children enter the world of literacy.
Different Books Exist for Different Ages
While teaching children their ABCs is vital, not all ABC books are geared toward the same formative age. Some books will only display the upper-case version of a letter on each page while others will show both the upper- and lower cases. Even the texture of the books can vary based on their intended age group; books for babies and toddlers tend to be made of soft materials because those ages are most concerned with how things feel to the touch. In short, the younger a book’s intended audience is, the simpler its content will be to express for reading and absorbing; each page within the best books for little ones will likely just have a single letter or word in a large font and a bold, simple related image.
Treat The Books As Part of A Child’s Playtime
Even the youngest of students can become difficult when learning feels like work. A good approach to teaching young children about the alphabet is to associate their exposure to books with positive feelings. This means keeping the book opened and reading them aloud while snuggling with the child or otherwise keeping the book relevant to their attention for as long as they are willing to give their attention to the book; if the kid decides that they no longer want to engage with the book, that is fine and you can simply come back to it at a later time. Another way to equate reading with play, and thus better cement their recognition and understanding of letters, is to treat each letter with some form of physical activity or movement; you might reinforce the letter A with some sort of arm motion, the letter B with bouncing while seated, as so on.
Some Books Involve Repetition or a Melody
Poetry is one of the finer constructions of the English language and one of the foundations of poetry is that the words rhyme or have some sort of rhythm. Books that encourage singing out the rhyme or rhythm can encourage a greater degree of attention and learn within a child, if only because it can stir their imagination. While children who are just beginning to grasp basic letter sounds might not gel much with a rhyming alphabet book, toddlers and older may have a much better appreciation of books that explain the letter C with a phrase like “The cat sat on the big white mat” or the letter D with “The dog got on the log to jog across the bog.” Another form of melody would be if the entire book is written with a certain song to be maintained throughout its pages. In short, these sorts of books tend to work well as children are fond of the pleasing sound of music and rhyming and this fondness can increase their likelihood of learning the alphabet sooner.
The Books Focus on Common Vocabulary
One of the better forms of reinforcement for learning the alphabet can come from using words that a child is regularly able to interact with. This is why so many alphabet books will focus on words that are related to pets, vehicles, clothes, colors, and food. Since these terms are common, the child can gain a greater comprehension of not only how the letters are supposed to sound but also recognize those terms and even their growing library of letter sounds to describe something like a cat, a bowl of rice, the color green, or a bicycle.
Wrapping Things Up
When it comes to teaching children about the alphabet, there are several different types of books that you will want to consider. Some books double as vocabulary lessons for the various people and things that share the child’s world, some stimulate the human love of rhythm and rhyming, some are designed to be incorporated into playtime, and, much like with people, some are more complex than others.
