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Reading programs are everywhere. You can find books, tapes, videos, and online programs. If you live in a city there is likely a tutorial program available as well. As a parent you know that learning to read is one of the most important skills your child will have to master in early childhood and you feel rather overwhelmed by the challenge.

It is only natural to think it would be a lot easier to buy a program and use it to teach your child to read. However there are two big problems with this method. First of all, not all programs work as effectively as they profess. For every "satisfied" customer you see used in the promotional material you do not know the number of dissatisfied customers there might be lurking behind the scenes. Secondly, you do not know if this particular program will be an effective match for your child's learning style. The program might work fine for some kids but not for others. Learning to read is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Most professional reading teachers employ a mixed-bag approach that uses a combination of methods and techniques.

Either one of these problems is a major concern when you think about the financial cost of most of these programs not to mention the time commitment involved. Plus, you could invest a lot of time (and money) and in fact negatively impact your child's reading progress.

The real truth (that these so-called educational companies do not want you to know) is that there is a wealth of free information available to help you teach your child to read and very often employing a simple common sense approach can be more effective than all those expensive reading programs combined.

Step one: Make sure your child knows the alphabet (both visual recognition and the sounds the letter makes)

Step two: Develop print awareness and literacy by reading books and other materials (signs, greeting cards, handwritten notes, etc.) so children understand that books are read from front to back, lines from left to right, and pages from top to bottom

Step three: Go beyond step one to develop understanding of beginning letter sounds and then add in ending sounds (rhymes). Show how many words can be "decoded" by breaking them into beginning, middle, and ending sounds

Step four: Teach sight words with various exercises and regular repetition

Step five: Help put it all together by making sentences with the words they know or can decode and then introduce books (carefully selected or made up by you and the child) that include those words and sentences

If you employ these five simple steps then you can teach your child to read without purchasing an expensive reading program. You can make your own materials at home, glean materials to use from the internet, or borrow materials from your local public library. You do not need to spend one dime on these free reading lessons except whatever you choose to purchase to build your child's personal library of books.