Skip to content
Kadoo by Inovia Get Kadoo

Guides

How do you teach English to a child who can't read yet?

Teach English through the ears and eyes: let your child hear it often, point at things and name them, play finding games and sing. Children learn their first words by listening, looking and doing long before they can read, so letters can come later.

Kadoo's coast, one of the eleven places in its town

These ideas fit a child of 4 who can't read at all. They also fit a child of 6 who is learning to read in another language at school.

Can a child learn English before they can read?

Yes. Long before they read, children learn words from talk, picture books and play. A review of 38 studies found that children who can't read yet reliably learn new words from storybooks shared with an adult. They learned more when the adult asked questions and talked about the pictures, and when each word came up several times.

Why start with listening?

Understanding comes before speaking. In a study of 2-year-olds, children understood the new words well however they were taught. Saying the words was harder, and came more easily when the words were spread over several days.

So give your child a lot to listen to, and don't ask "Say it!" every time. Your child may understand much more than they say. Some ideas:

  • Use the same short English phrases every day, at the same moments: "Good morning!", "Time to wash your hands", "Let's put on your shoes."
  • Name the pictures in English in any picture book, even one written in your own language.
  • Play English songs and rhymes, and play the same ones many times.

How do I teach words by pointing and naming?

Say the word while your child is looking at the thing. Keep it short and clear: "Look, a cow!" "Shoes. Your shoes."

Then turn it around, so your child does the finding:

  • "Where's the apple?" Your child points.
  • "Can you bring me the towel?" Your child brings it.
  • "Is it a cat or a horse?" Your child hears both words and can answer with one.

Finding a word, not just hearing it again, helps memory. In a study with preschoolers, asking children to remember the names of toys again and again, with longer gaps each time, doubled how many names they recalled.

The same idea works on a screen. In a study of 2- and 3-year-olds, the youngest children learned a new name when they had to touch the named object on a touchscreen. Touching anywhere on the screen did not help. So in an app, look for finding the thing that was named, not tapping anything for a reward.

Do songs help a child learn English?

Yes, mostly for hearing and remembering words. In a study of 25 Spanish five-year-olds, three lessons built around one English song helped children recognize more words. Most of the children could not yet say them. In a small study in Ecuador, primary school children who learned an English passage as a song remembered it better, and said its vowels better, than children who learned it as a spoken poem.

So songs help children hear and remember words. They are not a shortcut to speaking. To get more from a song:

  • Sing the same song on many days.
  • Add actions, or point at pictures for the main words.
  • Stop just before a word your child knows, and let them fill it in.

Rhymes also train the ear. In a study of English-speaking children, knowing nursery rhymes at age 3 was linked to hearing the sounds in words better later, and to reading and spelling. It was a link, not proof of cause.

Will knowing many picture words help my child read later?

It helps, but it's only a first step. Reading has two parts: working out the words on the page, and understanding the language they stand for. Reading researchers describe reading as the two multiplied together: if either one is weak, reading is weak. A child can understand a story only as far as they understand its words.

For children reading in a second language, vocabulary matters a lot. A study in Norway followed young children learning to read in Norwegian, some with Norwegian at home and some with another home language. Only vocabulary predicted how their reading comprehension grew over time, and it mattered more for the children with another home language.

But simple picture words are not the whole story. A large US panel of experts, the National Early Literacy Panel, found that tests of pointing at or naming pictures had very limited links with later reading comprehension. Broader spoken language, like understanding sentences and stories, mattered more.

So use the words in sentences: "The cat is sleeping." "Your cup is on the table." Tell short stories about the pictures. Ask "What is the horse doing?"

When should letters come in?

A suggestion: later, once your child knows a good number of English words by ear. Letters and the sounds in words do matter for reading. The same panel found that knowing letters and hearing the sounds in words predicted how well children later worked out written words. But a child first needs words that mean something to them. Reading a word you don't understand gives you only a sound.

Until then, play with sounds without letters: words that rhyme ("cat", "hat"), clapping the parts of a word ("but-ter-fly"), or the first sound of your child's name. An alphabet song can be just a song for now.

What if my child is learning to read in another language at school?

Many parents worry that English at home will mix up the letter sounds. The research in this guide doesn't test this exact situation, so take what follows as plain suggestions.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says that using more than one language doesn't confuse children or cause speech or language delays. That advice is about speaking and understanding, not reading.

  • Let the school lead on reading. Keep English at home spoken: talk, songs, stories and finding games.
  • Bring in English letters when your child reads well in the school language, or when the school starts English.
  • When you do, say plainly that some letters make different sounds in English: "In English, this letter says…"
  • Keep reading together in the school language too. That's where your child's reading is growing now.
  • Tell the teacher that your child hears English at home, and ask what the class is learning.

How Kadoo fits

Kadoo is made so that children who can't read yet can play on their own: every word is spoken aloud and every action is shown. An Explorer says the word, a puppy shows where the thing is, and a little hand shows what to do. Written words appear for grown-ups and early readers, but nothing depends on them, and an ABC book with each letter's sound and words split into syllables are there for when your child is ready. Kadoo doesn't use the microphone, so it can't hear your child speak: its 48 sing-along songs invite singing, and the talking and the stories are best done with you.

Sources

Kadoo is free to download.

For iPhone and iPad, and Macs with Apple silicon. The house is free to play; Kadoo Full Access or Kadoo Family Plus opens the whole town.

Download on the App Store