Parent Reading Tips

What can you do to help your child become a better reader?

Reading well is at the heart of all

learning. Children who can't read well, can't learn.

Help make a difference for your child.

Reading with your child and helping them practice specific reading skills can

dramatically improve their ability to read.

You can have a powerful impact on your child’s literacy and learning:

by reading aloud to them providing lots of books and reading

materials at home (visit the public library or use your child’s books from school)

promoting positive attitudes about reading and writing….they need to see that you think reading is important!!

Invite your child to read with you every day.

IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT CHILDREN LEARN TO READ BY READING!!!

Struggling readers need to read a lot because it is during

the actual reading that they can practice all those complicated strategies and skills they are developing

all at one time. ‐Allington, R. A. (2009). What Really Matters in Response to Intervention: Research‐based Designs. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

As few as 15 extra minutes of reading make a difference,

especially for struggling readers. Taylor, B. Frey, M., & Maruyama, K. (1990). Time Spent Reading and Reading Growth. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 27, pp. 351‐362.

Strategies to use when reading with your child:

1. When reading a book where the print is large, point word by word as you read. This will help the child learn that reading goes from left to right and understand that the word he or she says is the word he or she sees.

2. Read a child's favorite book over and over again.

3. Read many stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat. Invite the child to join in on these parts. Point, word by word, as he or she reads along with you.

4. Discuss new words. For example, "This big

house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?”

5. Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening in the story.

6. Read from a variety of children's books,

including fairy tales, song books, poems, and information books.

5 Components of Reading:

1. Recognizing and using individual sounds to create words, or phonemic awareness. Children need to be taught to hear sounds in words and that words are made up of the smallest parts of sound, or phonemes.

2. Understanding the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds, or phonics. Children need to be taught the sounds individual printed letters and groups of letters make. Knowing the relationships between letters and sounds helps children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and “decode” new words.

3. Developing the ability to read a text accurately and quickly, or reading fluency. Children must learn to read words rapidly and

accurately in order to understand what is read. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. When fluent readers read aloud, they read effortlessly and with expression. Readers who are weak in fluency read slowly, word by word, focusing on decoding words instead of comprehending meaning.

4. Learning the meaning and pronunciation of words, or vocabulary development. Children need to actively build and expand their knowledge of new written and spoken words, what they mean and how they are used.

5. Acquiring strategies to understand, remember and communicate what is read, or reading comprehension strategies. Children need to be taught comprehension strategies, or the steps good readers use to make sure they understand text. Students who are in control of their own reading comprehension become purposeful, active readers. They need to be able to answer questions about what they have read.

Alarming Statistics!!

Children who have not developed some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school are 3 - 4 times more likely to drop out in later years. 

Parents who read to preschoolers and listen as older children read aloud help children become readers.

Children who learn from parents that reading is fun may be more likely to sustain efforts to learn to read when the going gets tough.

A five-year old who has not been read to daily will enter kindergarten with far fewer hours of "literacy nutrition" than a child who has been read to daily from infancy. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours.

Children ages 3 to 5 spend an average of 13 hours and 28 minutes a week watching television. When children are plugged into television instead of reading books, they are not developing key literacy skills that will prepare them for school and help them learn.

Reading aloud to young children is so critical that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors prescribe reading activities along with other advice given to parents at regular check-ups.

Without a doubt, reading with children spells success for early literacy. Putting a

few simple strategies into action will make a significant difference in helping children

develop into good readers and writers.

Through reading aloud, providing print materials, and promoting positive attitudes about reading and writing, you can have a powerful impact on children’s literacy and

learning.