Children can be taught successfully to read words in a second language by hanging signs that represent those words around the house. The parents point to the signs and say the word, and the child repeats the word.

The words must represent concepts that are familiar to the child. A new concept will not work.

In an interesting study, parents hung multicolored signs in the living room in order to train their children. Guests immediately understood the purpose for signs on the strings even though they did not use the system themselves. They walked into the living room and showed how well they could read the words. But the children in that family could read them equally well. This method empowered them to read from a book right away. They were excited that the words they had learned from the string in the living room appeared in the book that they held in their own hands.