Learning to read is a complicated task involving many different skills. Parents can help children be ready to begin by doing certain things with them during the pre-school years. They can also help in many ways once their child has begun to read. Finally, parents can make all the difference for those children who are finding reading a difficult task to master.
Pre-school
Nearing School Age
Beginning to Read
Beginning to Read Independently
If Your Child is Experiencing Difficulty Learning to Read
The best preparation for starting to learn to read is a great deal of experience of books, stories and language in the pre-school years.
Give your child as much experience as possible by looking at a wide variety of books and listening to a wide variety of stories.
- Babies can begin to enjoy lift the flap and feeling books from the age of 6-9 months.
- Toddlers will enjoy simple stories about familiar situations or favourite characters.
- By 3-4 years children can be introduced to a wide variety of new ideas and longer stories.
Reading to your child can be one of the most pleasurable experiences for both of you and provides a calm time with lots of opportunities for cuddles.
- Join your local library that will have a range of books for all ages including babies.
- Nursery rhymes. Research shows that children who have good knowledge of nursery rhymes tend to find learning to read much easier than those who don’t. As much experience as possible of nursery rhymes, simple songs, games such as pat-a-cake will begin to build up your child’s understanding of sounds within words from an early age.
As your child nears school age it is helpful to begin to bring their attention to print.
- Don’t ask them to ‘read’ words but talk to them about what a word is, where the front of a book is, and which bit of the book you are actually reading.
- Looking at shop signs and street signs and letting the child know that the print on them conveys a message is also useful.
At the same time as developing this print-awareness, help your child begin to listen to and become aware of initial sounds.
- A fun game can involve sorting real objects into groups on the basis of the sound their name begins with.
Parents sometimes worry about whether to talk to their children about alphabetical letter names or sounds since they are unsure what will be taught in school. In fact it is useful for children to know both things i.e. that there are individual letters and that each letter makes a particular sound or sounds. So talk to them about letters in the way that comes naturally to you.
Once your child starts school you will be asked to help at home with their reading practice.
This help is very important since the teacher will only have limited time to hear each child in the class read.
Schools will have slightly different methods of teaching and the school should give you a clear idea of what is expected of you. If you have any doubts about how to go about things you should speak to your child’s teacher in the first instance.
Whatever the method used in your child’s school, parents can do certain things at home to ensure their child gets most benefit from the reading practice.
- Firstly make sure you have a quiet time and place free from distraction if at all possible.
- This can be an ideal opportunity for a special time for you and your child but you will need to make sure he or she is not competing for attention with the TV, telephone or newspaper. Try to settle other children before you start also.
- The way you respond to your child when reading plays a key part in their confidence. It is very important to give frequent and ongoing praise and encouragement.
- Do say ‘well done’, ‘yes’, ‘good’, ‘great’ and other encouraging phrases frequently as your child reads. Don’t stay silent and nod or smile since your child won’t be able to see you doing this.
- Don’t say ‘no’, ‘don’t be silly’ or ‘you know that word already’. If your child has not managed a word, just tell them what it is after a few seconds.
- Continue to read stories to your child, to sing songs and rhymes and begin to play games such as ‘I spy’. Carry on talking about the words and print you come across in everyday life.
As your child begins to learn to read more independently you will be involved in helping him or her choose books to read. It is important to choose books that are at the right level for your child.
- To further develop reading skills books should be neither too frustrating nor too easy. In practise when 90-95% of the text is read correctly, there is not so much difficulty that the child will not be able to make sense of what is being read but there will be enough challenge to allow them to make progress
- Plenty of practice at reading books that can be read fluently and without effort is also great for encouraging pleasure in reading.
If your child makes a mistake when reading use a simple prompt to encourage them to correct their error. If the word read has not made sense, encourage them to consider the meaning of the sentence. If the error has made sense encourage them to look more closely at the sounds within the word.
Continue to make hearing your child read a special time without distractions and continue to offer frequent praise and encouragement.
Continue to read aloud to your child so that your child can listen to more difficult material.
It is important to remember that children all learn to read at different rates. Try not to compare your child’s progress in reading to that of siblings or friends.
- Remember to be consistently encouraging, warm and positive. If a reading session is becoming stressful or upsetting, leave it until tomorrow.
- Don’t neglect reading because your child finds it difficult. Little and often is better than an occasional long session.
- Don’t let your child try to tackle books that are too difficult for them. This will be discouraging.
- Continue to give your child practise with rhymes, sound awareness games, ‘I spy’ etc.
- Remember to keep on reading to your child so that pleasure in books is sustained.
- Talk to your child’s teacher about your concerns. Your child may have a specific difficulty that is affecting his or her progress in reading. The teacher should be able to advise as to whether this may be the case and what further steps can be taken.