When to teach a child to read

After watching different talks on neuroscience, I wanted to share a fragment from one of them developed by Francisco Mora Teruel, Doctor in Neuroscience and Medicine.

He explains very clearly the importance of neuroscience in education and how it can help us in our work as teachers and parents to understand our little ones' learning processes.

He talks about one of the topics that generates great debates, which is the moment a child begins to read, which you can see below:

Therefore, I consider it important to start taking neuroeducation into account in our teaching task to be able to understand how our students learn.

On the other hand, regarding the moment a child has to learn to read and write (something that seems to be “demanded” to happen perfectly during the Preschool Education stage), it is also important to consider what is contemplated in the educational laws that govern our teaching. In Spain, we find references on this topic in the recently published Royal Decree 95/2022. For example, in article 6 which, within the pedagogical principles of the stage: “without being a requirement to face Primary Education, a first approach to reading and writing may be favored” and in article 7 it establishes as one of the general objectives of the stage to initiate the child in reading and writing.

To favor this approach and initiation in literacy, we can do it through different activities and with a mixed methodology that incorporates the best suited from each of the existing methods to the diverse needs presented by our students.

As an example, we can work on phonological and syllabic awareness with materials such as vowel and syllable houses. Also work through flashcards the global method and many other activities. Some materials can be found in the resource shop on the website.