I’ve been doing single words with my son and we are ready to transition to couplets. The book made me think that we just transition to couplets and stop with the single words. However, I was thinking I should continue with single words to expand vocabulary.
When you transitioned to couplets, then phrases, then sentences, did you continue to show single words to expand vocabulary and then work them into the couplets/phrases/sentence phase? When you respond, could you also let me know the phase you’re in with your child and how it’s going?
I just answered another post similar to this question. I have taught my son, now 4 years old to read, and am working with my daughter. I showed him tons of single words up until about two years old. We were reading sentences by that time, but I kept introducing new words. I would think of any word I could that he had heard that we could include in the program, words like excellent, terrific, stupendous. I started to have a lot of fun coming up with new words. We did jump around with the steps outlined by Doman. I began showing him sentences at 12 months old. I didn’t spend much time with couplets, we read sentences by pointing to each word. We also read a lot of books. Don’t be afraid to mix the order up a bit between words, couplets, phrases, etc… Many times they will overlap. Check out my blog at www.teachingbabytoread.com for ideas and tips.
thank you krista, your answer helped me too, I was going to do that but your views reinforced it. My child too loves it when I act silly with the flashcards. It is very hard for me (i am as serious as an owl), but she loves it, I have tried to use that with LR too . I get to sit with her and then we roll around, jump about. She hasnt yet warmed upto LR so we will see!
I am using flashcards and Little Reader with my daughter. She is still doing loads of single words and taking them in faster than I can keep up at the moment (need to make lots more words) Generally I show her couplets and sentences with the words she knows on Little Reader - in fact she is almost exclusively doing stories (one sentence per page) with Little Reader.
Because stories often need extra vocabulary I do occassionally introduce a word she does not yet know into a story (I try to limit it to a maximum of two words per story)
I do also make sentences out of her flashcards - usually I will make a sentence while she is sleeping for her to see when she wakes up.
Thank you all for your responses. It’s encouraging to get reconfirmed there’s no ‘right’ way. There are so many words my son is loving right now "amazing’, squeegee, squish, authority etc. I might just keep single words to those right now and continue with couplets/short sentences.
I’m just really questioning how much my son is learning via electronic media (YBCR & LR) vs showing on the flashcards. I’m a bit discouraged today because it seems the only words my son knows are the ones I’ve showed him on paper flashcards. I show him paper versions and he doesn’t recognize the words at all. Maybe I need to stop showing word/picture and just flash words on LR. UGH! It’s just a discouraging day for me today. Sorry to vent.