How to help your child with reading

Tips to Help Children Learn to Read

Written by Dayva Segal

Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on August 18, 2021

Read Out Loud to Your Children

Experts agree that reading out loud to your children is the best way to help them learn to read. Start when your child is a newborn baby and continue throughout childhood. As a baby, your child is primed to learn the skills that will help them learn to read as they get older.

To make reading out loud as effective as possible, make sure to:

Read age-appropriate books. Babies, for example, enjoy board books that they can touch and play with. Older children may enjoy "big books" that help them to see differences in words and letters.
Use silly voices and voice effects. This helps your children to engage with the story and feel excited about reading time.
Point to words as you read so your child can follow along. Doing this helps solidify the idea that words are where the story comes from.
Talk about the pictures. Ask your child to name what they see in the pictures and talk about what the images show as it relates to the story.
Relate the story to life. Show your child how things in the book relate to things that happen in real life.
Answer questions. If your child asks a question, stop and answer it. That will keep them engaged and interested.
Read more difficult books. Once your child learns to read, keep reading out loud to them. You can read books that are above their reading level to encourage further improvement in their reading level.

Other Tips to Help Your Children Learn to Read

Besides reading out loud to your children, there are other things you can do to encourage literacy.

Listen to your child read out loud. Once they learn to read, encourage them to read to you. This helps them build confidence in reading. The goal with reading aloud is for your child to understand the story. So if they need help pronouncing a word, tell them how it's said instead of making them sound it out — that way, they don't lose their place or the meaning of the sentence. If your child accidentally uses a word that doesn't make sense, have them go back and reread the sentence.
Praise your child's reading. As your child learns reading, offering praise helps them gain confidence.
Make reading time part of your daily routine. Daily reading time creates a routine that lets your child know reading is part of everyday life. Many families choose bedtime as their preferred reading time.
Leave books in your kid's bedroom. That way, they can look at them and enjoy them whenever they want.
Let your child complete sentences. If your child learns the words in their favorite books, let them finish the sentences or "read" the whole book out loud.
Read books your child likes. This helps them to engage with reading time and enjoy it more.
Remember, anyone can teach reading. Some parents think that only teachers can teach reading to children. But parents can, too. Reading is an essential life skill.
Be patient. If your child shows no interest in a book, don't force it. If your child tries to write a word and gets a letter wrong, they still deserve praise. Patience and praise are more helpful for a child's learning to read than getting frustrated or yelling.
Talk to your children. Exposing your child to new words and language can help their literacy skills. Talking to your baby a lot, for example, can help them become better readers later on.
Encourage writing. Writing is part of literacy. Provide writing tools like crayons, pencils, and markers. Encourage your child to write, even if it's just scribbling. One idea is to write your child a letter and ask them to write one back.
Have your child tell you a story and write it down. Ask your child to tell you a simple story. Write it down and then read it back to them while pointing at the words.
Teach your child phonics. There are countless products available that help children learn the sounds that are associated with letters. This helps them to sound out words as they are learning to read. You can also just use paper and a pencil to help them learn this skill. Research shows that when children don't know phonics, they struggle more with reading.
Avoid "leveled" reading programs. Some people believe that children who get frustrated by reading difficult material will get turned off by reading. But experts say that children learn more when they're exposed to more challenging reading material. Easy-level books often train children to rely on word memorization because they often use the same words over and over. They also train children to rely more on pictures. That can lead to slower reading development. It's best if children are exposed to a variety of challenges in their reading materials.
Talk to teachers. Ask your child's teachers about their reading program and how they teach literacy. Look for them to include phonics, reading out loud in class, vocabulary, and writing practice.

What to Do if Your Child Is Having Trouble With Reading

If your child's reading is not progressing, you should work with their school to get testing done. That way, you can find out if your child has a learning difficulty or difference, or if it's simply that the reading program in their class doesn't work for them. If your child does get diagnosed with a learning difference, like dyslexia, they're entitled to receive extra services from their school for free.

You can also hire a tutor to help your child improve their reading. Free tutoring may be available for students from low-income families.

At home, provide ongoing emotional support to keep your child from getting discouraged.

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.

How to help your child fall in love with reading? 10 tips from a psychologist.

Do you notice how rare it is now to meet people reading, for example, in transport?
But, it would seem, now with the advent of numerous electronic "readers" everything has become much easier. It is easier to get the right book, easier to carry it with you not in the form of a pood volume, but in the form of a miniature device. But for some reason, the majority prefers to drive some ball or shoot on the same device. It's easier. You don't have to think.

Reading is a labor intensive process. After all, it is necessary not only to put letters into words, and words into sentences, but also to understand the meaning. And most importantly, create an image of what you read in your own mind. For a person, especially a child, who is used to receiving ready-made images from TV, this is a difficult job, because his imagination is not trained.
Even if the majority of adults prefer entertainment "for free", what can be demanded from a child for whom even the very process of folding letters into words is still difficult?

There are two reasons for this plight of reading - the easily accessible entertainment of television images and, oddly enough, the school. Often reading books from the compulsory school curriculum is perceived by the child as meaningless and hard work. How can we solve this problem, how can we help the child fall in love with literature and enjoy it? After all, people who do not read have poorer speech, as a rule, their imagination is not developed, and they write less competently.

Here are 10 tips to help you:

1. First of all, create a culture of reading in your home.
If a child does not see you enjoying a book, then he himself is unlikely to become an active reader. After all, children are taught not by our words, but by our actions.

2. Family reading aloud.

If possible, involve other family members in this activity. And read to each other. Choose a book on a topic that interests your child. By the way, think about how well you know his interests?
Do not ask the child to read to you yet, let him only listen if he wants to. You can simply tell him, “Dad found a very interesting book about... (the child's favorite topic) and wants to read it to me. If you want, you can listen too.”

Have a parent read an interesting passage from the book. And then adults can start discussing what they have read among themselves. Ask the child, what does he think?

Thanks to this activity, you will enjoy yourself, improve the atmosphere at home, and show your child that reading is a process that many people enjoy. In addition, while listening, the child develops creative imagination, which will help him in the future.
And take the time to read aloud to your child. This is not only an introduction to reading. These are moments of closeness that you will remember when the child grows up.

3. Deficit and challenge.

At the initial stage of learning to read, it is very important to do it casually, without any explanations, edifications and requests to the child to read for himself. Better, on the contrary, create a feeling of scarcity and inaccessibility of the book you are interested in, if the child asks for it, you can answer: “I myself want to read more. Okay, I'll give you this book, just for a while, I really want to read for myself what's next. And you still need to do your homework."
You can even add that the child is still too small for this book, that he will not understand everything. Such a challenge will encourage many children to prove that they are already smart and adults.
In this approach, the most important thing is that you yourself should be interested in this book, because otherwise the child will instantly feel false.

4. Draw illustrations.

Especially while the child is small, draw together with him illustrations for the book you are reading to him. Most children enjoy drawing, especially if you help. This will attract additional attention and love for the book, will provide an opportunity to discuss what the child remembers and impressed. And it will help develop the imagination.

5. Start easy and fun.

First determine for yourself why you want your child to read? So that he could master the school curriculum, and you wouldn't be ashamed of him? Or do you want to interest him in reading as a source of joy, interest and knowledge?
In the beginning, offer the child books that will be entertainment and joy for him. Which will be easy for him to read, according to his age. Let it be adventure, fantasy, stories about animals or first love - if only the child was interested. And when he loves reading, then it will be possible to offer him something more serious and difficult.

Of course, we want the child to be well acquainted with the classics. But the school curriculum offers, for example, Radishchev's Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. As a result, reading difficult, obscure works, and even written for adults, and more than two centuries ago, can completely discourage the novice reader.

6. Read the work in advance, before it is analyzed at school.

Quite often, in literature lessons, one chews and analyzes a work for so long and boringly that one becomes sick of it. After all, a work is often dissected as if the task of a school course is to prepare literary critics.
Therefore, it is better for a child to read, for example, "Crime and Punishment" as a detective story, and only then they will take it to pieces in the lesson.

7. Read the story at the same time as your child.

When your child needs to read a large, serious work, such as War and Peace, start reading with him at the same time. You yourself will enjoy, perhaps missed in your school years for the above reasons, and get closer to the child, become like-minded people. Share with him your findings and thoughts, explain difficult places.

8. Organize a reader contest.

You can organize such a competition in your child's class, or invite his friends to join it. We do this in our Courses "Managing the Future" - in trainings for children and adolescents. Offer the children a list of interesting books and announce a competition with an attractive prize, which should take place, for example, in 2 or 3 months. The first place will be taken by the one who read the most and was able to answer questions about the books. And let the rest get consolation prizes.

9. Get a reader.

Preferably with minimal opportunities to play games. Then you will always have interesting books with you. And at any time - in transport, in line - you can read to your child. And when he wants to - give this useful entertainment to him.

10. Never use reading as a punishment or condition for something else .

You can't say to a child: "You'll read the chapter, then I'll let you watch TV." This will teach the child to think that reading in itself is an unpleasant process. Reading should only be mentioned in the context of pleasure and interest.

I wish you exciting reading together!

Galina Dyatlova

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How to help your child fall in love with reading. Seven rules and three principles that don't work

Child development

How to help your child love reading. Seven rules and three principles that don't work

October 14, 2021 28 585 views

Marina Novikova

Reading develops thinking, memory, attentiveness, speech, imagination, literacy, general outlook, gives positive emotions. But for children, these words mean nothing. How can you help them love this process? How to get interested in reading at any age? Psychologist Marina Novikova offers seven practical tips to help adults and children fall in love with reading.

1. Value

Sometimes parents get so caught up in buying books that they forget about the right amount of books. If a child listens or reads all purchases with pleasure, great! If not, you should think about where to put away irrelevant literature for a while. Sometimes we begin to devalue what we have too much. Cultivate respect for books. Remember how in childhood we carefully “repaired” them for the library? Do not allow to tear, throw.

2. Accessibility

Let the child be able to reach the book on their own. Open horizontal narrow shelves are popular, on which parents put the book in such a way that the baby sees the cover, and not just the spine. Take older children to the bookstore, library more often so that they have the opportunity to pick up literature according to their interests.

3. Comfort and aesthetics

This rule is of particular importance for children of all ages: the type in the book should be clear and the illustrations should appeal to the child. Everything is individual - try, select, pay attention to the reaction and emotions of a small listener or reader. Choose books together!

4. Offer but don't force

Everything has its time. Violence has not yet led to a positive result for anyone. It's not the quantity that matters, but the quality when it comes to interest. It is better for a child to read one book with pleasure than several for a reward or out of fear. Pay attention to comprehension of what you read, ask to retell aloud, read by roles. Make the process fun. If we are talking about schoolchildren, it is not necessary to master the entire school curriculum. Some works can be read in summary or listened to in audio format. Interest often helps to overcome difficulties.

Read out loud more often. The Bunny Who Wants to Sleep book. Photo by the author

5. Creativity and interests

Offer not just to read a book, but to draw an illustration, mold a character, come up with a different ending. Or try to compose a story together “what happened next?” Link your child's interests to reading. What is important to him now? Some are fond of poetry, others - prose, others - scientific literature. What interests your child? What worries him now? Start from his needs.

6. Time

Sometimes we give up too soon or wait for quick results. Give your child and yourself time. Take it step by step, be consistent.

7. Personal example

Perhaps we should have started from this point. How often does a child see you with a book? Do you discuss what you read aloud? Read what interests you. Try to make adult books not only in electronic format. Sometimes parents say: “Yes, at his age I have already read so many books! And he…” No comparisons needed. All different. You don't have a competition. Let reading be a pleasure.

1. Incentives, gifts, payments. Sometimes parents think that extrinsic motivation can help. And that's right. It will work great today, but not in the future.