Why Flashcards Don't Improve a Child's Overall Reading Ability

Teaching reading with flashcards is a very widespread practice and is simple to do.

In a nutshell, the teacher prepares flashcards with common words. He/she teaches the child to read by drilling the child (showing the cards) until they see the words often enough to know what each word says.

Although this lesson seems successful in the short term, does this really work to raise the child's overall ability to read?

Often a child still does not perform better in real-life reading situations, such as spontaneously reading words around them that they have never seen before.

For example, they still struggle to read words on doors, signs, cereal boxes, or in books they haven't read before.

Why don't flashcards improve the overall reading ability for some smart children?

During flashcard drills the child is merely memorizing whole words rather than reading the words by sounding them out through an understanding of their parts.

Since a word was memorized, the child knows what the word says not because they are truly reading the word, but because they are merely recognizing the word they saw on the flashcard.

When a child knows what a word says through recognition, they struggle to read new or unfamiliar words.

This is because the recognition of a word from a flashcard is not true knowledge that can be applied to reading other words.

For example, a child may learn that 2 + 2 = 4 by memorizing the answer to the question "What is 2 + 2?"

However, the child that truly understands the concept of addition is able to apply what they learned from 2 + 2 to other numbers in other situations requiring addition.

In this respect, teaching reading with flashcards is like giving the child the answer to math questions without having them do the work to arrive at the answers.

This is why it is always best for a child to learn to read by sounding out words through an understanding of their parts, namely, the letters and phonics that make up the words.

I hope your have found this information helpful for you and your child.

If you want to take a break from the flashcards and try sounding-out methods, then please check out the Unique Teach Reading Program through the link below.

Also, if you are a homeschooling parent, check out the homeschooling course link in the menu. You may find its methods to be helpful if your child is struggling in any subject.