Helping children reading
Finding Help | Reading Rockets
Children with reading difficulties benefit from the same thing all children benefit from — excellent reading instruction tailored to their needs. But sometimes kids who struggle need more.
Several people may be able to provide your child with extra help:
- Classroom teachers
Your child's teacher may be able to provide more intensive instruction
- School specialists
Specialists at your school — such as the reading specialist, speech/language pathologist, or special education teacher — may be able to provide extra assistance
- Tutors
The school, another organization, or private tutors may be able to provide your child practice with reading or more intensive help
- Professionals in private practice
Educational psychologists and other professionals in private practice may be able to provide an assessment, diagnosis, and/or a plan for helping your child
- Reading clinics
University and private reading clinics may be able to provide an assessment, diagnosis, and/or a plan for helping your child
Help from private tutors and others outside of the school may be very effective but also quite expensive. Some public school services, which are free, are only provided if a child is diagnosed with a learning disability, the most common of which is difficulty with language and reading.
If you suspect your child may have a learning disability (or ADHD), the best place to begin seeking help is your child's school. Public schools have professionals trained to make a diagnosis. They do not charge a fee for these services.
If you disagree with the school's diagnosis, you have the right to ask for further testing or to seek a diagnosis from a professional in private practice. Similarly, if the school does not think it necessary to assess your child, you may want to seek a diagnosis from a professional in private practice.
Remember, in order to qualify for special education services or accommodations, your child must have a diagnosis that clearly shows he or she has a learning disability that meets the criteria defined by law. In general, federal law says that a person is eligible for accommodations when a documented disability significantly interferes with a major life activity such as learning.
Most states use criteria related to the discrepancy between a child's ability and achievement. Federal laws also set clear guidelines on what special education accommodations must be provided.
The bottom line is that it's important to know upfront what services are available from the school and how a child's eligibility for those services is determined.
Tutoring
Sometimes kids just need an extra dose of reading help. Many schools provide tutoring support that includes one-on-one reading instruction. To make sure that your school has a high quality tutoring program, ask these questions:
- How are the tutors trained?
It's important that the tutors understand the goals and purposes of the lesson.
- What is the structure of the tutoring session?
Good tutoring programs use a lesson plan that is based in the best reading research.
- How frequently will my child receive tutoring?
Students should be tutored at least twice a week, for 45 to 60 minutes each time.
Some students will need more. - Are the students assessed regularly to determine progress?
A reading specialist should supervise the assessment program.
- What types of materials are used during the tutoring sessions?
Students should be carefully guided through books that are written at their reading level.
- Does the content of the tutoring session support my child's classroom instruction?
It should.
- Does the content address my child's specific needs?
If your child sounds out words well but struggles with vocabulary, the tutor should spend more time on word meanings than phonics.
Special education
Even with good classroom teaching and extra help, its possible that your child may continue to struggle with reading. Special education may be the answer — and it's required by law for students who are identified as having a learning disability.
The special education process includes these steps:
- Referral
You or your child's teacher suspects a problem and requests an evaluation by the school.
- Evaluation
With input from you and your child's teacher, a team of school professionals completes a full evaluation of your child. This same team — which may include a school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, and a reading specialist — reviews the results to determine whether your child is eligible to receive special education services.
- Eligibility
If your child is eligible, you and the school team develop your child's Individualized Education Plan (IEP), as required by law. Annually, or more often, you and the school review the IEP and its impact on your child's progress.
If your child is ineligible, continue to push the school for help. If your child is not eligible but still struggles with reading, the school must figure out what will work for your child. You can also turn to private testing.
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11 Ways Parents Can Help Their Children Read
Parents often ask how they can help their children learn to read; and it’s no wonder that they’re interested in this essential skill. Reading plays an important role in later school success. One study even demonstrates that how well 7-year-olds read predicts their income 35 years later!
Here are 11 practical recommendations for helping preschoolers and school-age students learn to read.
1. Teaching reading will only help.
Sometimes, parents are told early teaching is harmful, but it isn’t true. You simply can’t introduce literacy too early. I started reading to my own children on the days they were each born! The “dangers of early teaching” has been a topic of study for more than 100 years, and no one has ever found any convincing evidence of harm.
Moreover, there are hundreds of studies showing the benefits of reading to your children when they are young.
2. Teaching literacy isn’t different than teaching other skills.
You don’t need a Ph.D. to raise a happy, healthy, smart child. Parents have been doing it for thousands of years. Mothers and fathers successfully teach their kids to eat with a spoon, use a potty, keep their fingers out of their noses, and say “please.” These things can be taught pleasantly, or they can be made into a painful chore. Being unpleasant (e.g. yelling, punishing, pressuring) doesn’t work, and it can be frustrating for everyone. This notion applies to teaching literacy, too. If you show your 18-month-old a book and she shows no interest, then put it away and come back to it later. If your child tries to write her name and ends up with a backwards “D,” no problem. No pressure. No hassle. You should enjoy the journey, and so should your child.
3. Talk to your kids (a lot).
Last year, I spent lots of time with our brand new granddaughter, Emily.
I drowned her in language. Although “just a baby,” I talked — and sang — to her about everything. I talked about her eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and fingers. I told her all about her family — her mom, dad, and older brother. I talked to her about whatever she did (yawning, sleeping, eating, burping). I talked to her so much that her parents thought I was nuts; she couldn’t possibly understand me yet. But reading is a language activity, and if you want to learn language, you’d better hear it, and eventually, speak it. Too many moms and dads feel a bit dopey talking to a baby or young child, but studies have shown that exposing your child to a variety of words helps in her development of literacy skills.
4. Read to your kids.
I know everyone says this, but it really is a good idea — at least with preschoolers. One of my colleagues refers to this advice as the “chicken soup” of reading education. We prescribe it for everything. (Does it help? It couldn’t hurt.) If a parent or caregiver can’t read or can’t read English, there are alternatives, such as using audiobooks; but for those who can, reading a book or story to a child is a great, easy way to advance literacy skills.
Research shows benefits for kids as young as 9-months-old, and it could be effective even earlier than that. Reading to kids exposes them to richer vocabulary than they usually hear from the adults who speak to them, and can have positive impacts on their language, intelligence, and later literacy achievement. What should you read to them? There are so many wonderful children’s books. Visit your local library, and you can get an armful of adventure. You can find recommendations from kids at the Children’s Book Council website or at the International Literacy Association Children's Choices site. [Reading Rockets also provides guidance and lots of themed booklists in our Children's Books & Authors section.]
5. Have them tell you a “story.”
One great way to introduce kids to literacy is to take their dictation. Have them recount an experience or make up a story. We’re not talking “Moby Dick” here. A typical first story may be something like, “I like fish. I like my sister.
I like grandpa.” Write it as it is being told, and then read it aloud. Point at the words when you read them, or point at them when your child is trying to read the story. Over time, with lots of rereading, don’t be surprised if your child starts to recognize words such as “I” or “like.” (As children learn some of the words, you can write them on cards and keep them in a “word bank” for your child, using them to review later.)
6. Teach phonemic awareness.
Young children don’t hear the sounds within words. Thus, they hear “dog,” but not the “duh”-“aw”- “guh.” To become readers, they have to learn to hear these sounds (or phonemes). Play language games with your child. For instance, say a word, perhaps her name, and then change it by one phoneme: Jen-Pen, Jen-Hen, Jen-Men. Or, just break a word apart: chair… ch-ch-ch-air. Follow this link to learn more about language development milestones in children.
7. Teach phonics (letter names and their sounds).
You can’t sound out words or write them without knowing the letter sounds.
Most kindergartens teach the letters, and parents can teach them, too. I just checked a toy store website and found 282 products based on letter names and another 88 on letter sounds, including ABC books, charts, cards, blocks, magnet letters, floor mats, puzzles, lampshades, bed sheets, and programs for tablets and computers. You don’t need all of that (a pencil and paper are sufficient), but there is lots of support out there for parents to help kids learn these skills. Keep the lessons brief and fun, no more than 5–10 minutes for young’uns. Understanding the different developmental stages of reading and writing skills will help to guide your lessons and expectations.
8. Listen to your child read.
When your child starts bringing books home from school, have her read to you. If it doesn’t sound good (mistakes, choppy reading), have her read it again. Or read it to her, and then have her try to read it herself. Studies show that this kind of repeated oral reading makes students better readers, even when it is done at home.
9. Promote writing.
Literacy involves reading and writing. Having books and magazines available for your child is a good idea, but it’s also helpful to have pencils, crayons, markers, and paper. Encourage your child to write. One way to do this is to write notes or short letters to her. It won’t be long before she is trying to write back to you.
10. Ask questions.
When your child reads, get her to retell the story or information. If it’s a story, ask who it was about and what happened. If it’s an informational text, have your child explain what it was about and how it worked, or what its parts were. Reading involves not just sounding out words, but thinking about and remembering ideas and events. Improving reading comprehension skills early will prepare her for subsequent success in more difficult texts.
11. Make reading a regular activity in your home.
Make reading a part of your daily life, and kids will learn to love it. When I was nine years old, my mom made me stay in for a half-hour after lunch to read.
She took me to the library to get books to kick off this new part of my life. It made me a lifelong reader. Set aside some time when everyone turns off the TV and the web and does nothing but read. Make it fun, too. When my children finished reading a book that had been made into a film, we’d make popcorn and watch the movie together. The point is to make reading a regular enjoyable part of your family routine.
Happy reading!
Sources:
Ritchie, S.J., & Bates, T.C. (2013). Enduring links from childhood mathematics and reading achievement to adult socioeconomic status. Psychological Science, 24, 1301-1308.
Karass J., & Braungart-Rieker J. (2005). Effects of shared parent-infant reading on early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 133-148.
10 Fun Ways to Get Kids Reading
Despite the fact that today almost everyone carries most of the world's library in their pocket, the overall level of literacy, erudition and horizons of children is not increasing.
And here we are again faced with the eternal question: "What to do?". And this is not a rhetorical question at all. It is necessary to show children that reading can be fun and positive emotions. Alikhan Dinaev, based on the research of the philologist and teacher Evgenia Abelyuk, and based on personal experience, talks about ten effective techniques.
1. Read aloud to the children
And start as early as possible. Many experts, based on scientific research, advise starting literally from the first day of a child's life. The more you talk to him, the more he hears the words around him, the faster he will speak and become interested in books.
2. Show your acting talents
At the same time, you should not mumble something incoherent under your breath, but read "with feeling, with sense, with arrangement." Read as if you are the only actor in a big play playing all the roles at the same time. Say the words of a child in a sweet and funny childish voice, the words of a grandmother in an senile female voice, dilute the speech of some monster with frightening notes.
If the author writes that the hero shouted, shout, if he whispered, do the same! And if he howls, then why not play the role of a wolf for a few seconds by the light of the moon?
Do you think this is funny? That is how it is. But who said that if it looks comical, then it's bad? Believe me, the children will be completely delighted, and their sincere and contagious laughter will spread throughout the house. The author of these lines successfully tried this method on his nephews. It equally captures an 11-year-old fifth grader, and 7-year-old girls, and even a 2.5-year-old boy who, showing miracles of endurance, listened enthusiastically to the story from the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for almost 15 minutes. And when his grandfather began to loudly ask about what they were all doing here, the child who still could not really speak put his index finger to his mouth and said: “Shh!”
3. Read until the most interesting part - and stop
Use the same trick as screenwriters with directors of good series.
Usually an episode or an entire season ends at some unexpected, climactic moment, forcing viewers to wait weeks or months to continue, discussing almost every frame of the last episode. The same can be done in reading books: the child will look forward to continuing. And many simply cannot stand it and will ask to be taught to read as quickly as possible in order to find out how it all ended. If you apply this method to a child who already knows how to read, then for sure he will look for a book the next morning and read it himself.
4. Let the child choose books himself
Today, publishers make such beautiful covers for children's books, they are so colorful that they are sure to attract the attention of even the most selective child. Try to teach your child to be surrounded by books everywhere. Go with them to bookstores and let them wander through the rows of books, explore all the shelves. Take the kids to the library, show them how beautiful it can be. And if the library turns out to be large, then any preschooler or student will be impressed for a long time by its size, beauty and views from the windows.
5. Lead by example
This is perhaps the key piece of advice. Parents should read for themselves. Otherwise, the likelihood that their children will be carried away by reading is extremely small. Let children from an early age regularly see you with a book in their hands, read and study your home library.
6. Introduce your teen to book apps
There's nothing wrong with reading e-books instead of classic paper books. And if the phone has already become a natural and integral extension of the hands of your children, then let them use it to good use. Invite them to download, for example, the Bookmate app. This is not just a reader with a huge library. It is also a real social network for book lovers, where they can find new friends, share experiences and exchange bookshelves.
7. Draw parallels between the characters and yourself, find common and different things
Compare literary characters with yourself, relatives, friends and, of course, with the child himself.
Ask him a question: “How are you like the Little Prince? And what makes you different? And what would you do in his place, if you met the Fox? These and similar questions fuel interest in the content of a novel, short story, or fairy tale.
8. Make an adventure out of a book and look for hidden meanings in it
There are always riddles in a good book. And if a student reads, for example, Jules Verne, then they are there on almost every page of any work. But you can ask yourself other questions as well. How to get Oblomov off the couch? How to help Mumu escape from Gerasim and save her from death?
9. Illustrations for a book can change attitudes towards it
Sometimes it is important for a young reader to see the main characters and the places where they live. Pictures, drawings, graphics - all this can be of great help. And if your child is not even interested in Harry Potter, then he is unlikely to refuse the same book, recently published with illustrations by British artist Jim Kay.
His drawings amazed even JK Rowling. They are so beautiful, bright and exciting that you want to look at and study them all the time. They interest and captivate, giving room for fantasy and imagination. And this is what we need.
10. Choose the right books
Of course, all ages are submissive to many books. But if you want to get your child interested in reading, then "Deniska's stories" by Viktor Dragunsky or "Journey around the world in 80 days" by the same Jules Verne will be among the best examples. But if your 15-year-old son says that he doesn’t want to read novels written by “long-dead, gray-haired and bearded old men from the century before last,” then advise him, for example, the book Outcasts, a classic of American literature recently translated into Russian for the first time. Its author Susan Hinton wrote The Outcasts when she was 18 years old (she started writing at 15), and the main characters of the novel are from 14 to 20 years old. Despite the writer's young age, Hinton's book became a bestseller with a total circulation of more than 20 million copies.
Six Ways to Make Reading Interesting - Child Development
Some children find reading very difficult, tiring and not at all fun. Therefore, in order to interest a child in reading, parents need to show ingenuity, as well as turn to the experience of other parents and teachers, which will help achieve the desired goal.
Among all the tips and tricks on how to turn reading into an exciting activity, we have identified six of the most effective.
Option 1: read the right books
Nothing lessens the motivation to read than a child trying to read, say, a Dostoevsky novel instead of a book like The Kid and Carlson Who Lives on the Roof by Astrid Lindgren , more appropriate for his reading level.
Make sure that your child reads books that really suit him, and not books that are too complicated, which can cause internal tension and discourage him from opening a book for years to come. In order to choose the right books for your child, use the simple "Rule of Five Fingers".
Remember: the extreme complexity of the book is equal to the demotivation of the child.
Method #2: Give Children the Right to Choose a Book
Children love the feeling that they can make a difference in their lives. So if you're heading to a children's bookstore or children's library, let your little one load all the books they're interested in into the basket. This approach will encourage the child to open the most attractive book for him as soon as he comes home and immerse himself in its fascinating world with interest.
Way #3: Go beyond regular books (use audio and e-books)
Did you know that listening to audiobooks also counts as reading? Yes, this is aural comprehension that is not related to visual recognition of letters and punctuation marks, but this way of reading is also useful, and here's why: it allows you to replenish vocabulary and gain knowledge on various topics, including literary devices and literary turns.
And the best thing about this is that the child is much less tired and more focused on the story itself, which helps him feel the magic of this exciting activity. And that's the key to loving reading.
Also, don't forget to read books with electronic devices such as e-readers or tablets. Because many children are mesmerized by the latest technology, high-tech devices can make reading very tempting.
And finally, remember about children's magazines with a minimum amount of text and a maximum number of illustrations. Do not forget that this is also reading, or at least a powerful springboard to it.
Method #4: Create a fabulous reading space in your home
Create a reading space in your home that your child will want to spend as long as possible. For example, a small tent, carpets with oriental patterns, lamps inviting you to a fairy tale, pillows in patterned covers, posters with fairy-tale and cartoon characters, as well as a shelf with your favorite toys.
Create an atmosphere of fairy tale, celebration and entertainment, and then put a book in the center and start reading with intonations that match the created atmosphere. The story continues. The child is immersed in the fairy-tale world of stories.
Option 5: let your child be a little naughty
To make reading a child feel at ease and feel some benefits, try allowing him the following types of indulgence: .
Rule #6: Don't Ignore Your Child's Difficulties
If your child needs help with reading difficulties, be sure to help them. Perhaps the child needs to be tested, visit an optometrist, invite a tutor - whatever.
