Toys That Help Kids Learn to Read

Reading is an essential skill that all children need to learn. But for some kids, it can be a bit of a challenge. That’s why it’s important to give them toys that help with phonological skills and other reading development toys.

Phonics learning toys are helpful if your child sometimes struggles to:

• get their message across
• understand information that’s being presented to them (in either spoken or written form)
• answer questions clearly
• tell a story in the correct sequence
• use the right tense when speaking or writing

Here’s a breakdown of some of the specific types of toys that can help your child learn to read.

1. Phonological Awareness Games

Phonological awareness is responsible for ensuring we’re able to distinguish the different sounds that come out of people’s mouths when they speak. By honing our phonological skills, we’re able to break these sounds down into separate words and decipher the message being told.

If a child isn’t able to hear and manipulate the phonemes of verbally spoken words, they will also struggle with writing and/or reading. Therefore, alphabet phonics toys that help kids learn how to read will also help their verbal language skills (and consequently, this will improve their social skills too).

There are some fantastic boardgames and flash card games out there that specifically deal with teaching phonemics and expanding a child’s phonological awareness – such as the Phonological Awareness Chipper Chat, or Story Starter Writing Cards.

2. Toys & Games for Improving Grammar & Syntax

Grammar is essential for communicating in a clear way and interpreting things the way they were intended. Good grammar skills allow us to communicate clearly with people, broaden our vocabulary, and generally express ourselves better. Phonics toys that deal with grammatical formation can help to train your child out of incorrect or inaccurate speaking/writing habits, such as “I want to go to the park” instead of “me want park”.

The Question Challenge Card Game and Grammar Gum Balls are fun and highly interactive resources for helping your child learn to read, and because they are multiplayer, it’s a great way to bond with your child as well.

3. Story Books

It goes without saying that story books are another great resource for teaching children how to articulate written sentences properly, while verbal storytelling is useful for reinforcing the rules of syntax and word structures like ownership, plurals, verb tenses and so on. Once your child is at a point where they can understand concepts like spelling, grammar, inferencing, questioning, reasoning and expression; they’ll benefit greatly from reading story books to improve their literacy skills.

Until then, alphabet phonics toys and games for phonological skills are a great way to introduce your child to these concepts and equip them with the independence to hone these skills on their own.

Fun Stuff supplies a wide range of phonics learning toys for teaching kids how to read

From Basic Concepts to Grammar & Syntax, Phonological Awareness & Literacy, Inferencing and Questioning Skills, Fun Stuff Educational & Therapeutic Resources stocks a wide selection of carefully chosen phonics learning toys, which we categorise into the above-mentioned concepts for easier browsing.

If you’re looking to support your child with toys and games that will help them learn how to read, don’t hesitate to explore our great range online.