Teaching children to read should be done without any kind of pressure or expectation. Simple methods and techniques should be used so that the child learns to read with a sense of pleasure. Various methods can be used for teaching a child different alphabets.

Following tips can make it easier for the child and parents to start school:

• Prepare Alphabet Soup using Alphabet pasta which is easily available in the market. Apart from alphabet soup, alphabet biscuits can also be used as an alternative. This will make both, eating and learning, fun.

• Decorate the walls of the rooms which the child visits often, such as the child's play area or bedroom, with alphabets by hand-painting them or by the use of stencils.

• Singing Alphabet songs in different tunes and adding rhyming two-liners at the end of the songs can also make learning fun. The most common Alphabet song is ABCDEFG…HIJKLMNOP…QRS…TUV…WX…YZ… Now I know my ABC…Won't you come and sing with me.

• Different kids of Alphabet Games can also be played. Games such as arranging the alphabet cards in proper sequence or arranging them in sequence and remove one alphabet from it and ask the child to find out the missing alphabet, and so on can make learning joyful.

• A child can play different games with Alphabet blocks, like making new words, arranging them in proper sequence, unscrambling words, arranging them in reverse order, or sorting out the vowels and consonants. Alphabet blocks also help in improving hand and mind co-ordination.

• When a child is taught to write alphabets, it is advisable and reasonable to use wide-lined paper. Use of special paper initially helps in improving the child's performance.

• Phonetics and Phonology deal with sounds in language and to tacit rules governing pronunciation. They help the learners to identify the sounds and also learn to pronounce according to their native language. These should be taught at an early age.

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