Core Principles of Teaching Children How to Teach Themselves to Read: - Effective early reading instruction is based on activities that guide the child from speech to print, from sound to symbol and which move from the concrete to the abstract. - Teach the alphabetic principle before you teach the alphabet. - Letter knowledge and decoding skills are best learned through the child's application of the alphabetic principle using self-guided materials to match speech sounds to printed letters and words. - Freedom to choose activities in the learning environment is key to gradually shifting responsibility for learning to the student. - Freedom to choose individualizes the learning experience for the student, according to his strengths and interests. - Repetition is the healing balm of education. It is the teacher's best teaching tool and the quickest, most direct way for a child to master early literacy skills. - Emphasis must shift from a traditional model of memorization through drill, to a deeper, more permanent learning through self-guided hands-on activities.