Helping Your Child Read

This is a personal story about my older son’s reading difficulties, but all of the advice in this article is backed up by my experience as an elementary educator and school librarian. When it comes to helping your child learn to read, parents play a very important, and powerful, role. Your teacher may be working daily to teach your child to read, but you, as the parent, can make a huge difference in your child’s reading success!

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When my oldest son, Jacob, had been in first grade for about 2 months, my husband and I were called in to speak to the teacher. Apparently Jacob wasn’t at the reading level he should have been by that point in the year. Because of this, he was now considered to be “at risk.”

My husband and I were shocked. Our child, at risk? I had worked in education for years and I would have never associated my own child with those who were typically labeled “at risk.” Those kids were from families where the TV was on all day. Those kids were from families where the parents didn’t read to their children nightly, like we did, or where there was no one at home after school to check the backpack for homework. Those kids had no books in the house and didn’t see anyone around them read. Those kids had parents who worked two jobs each and who didn’t have any extra time or energy to put into helping their child learn to read.

That was not our son. Our son had all those advantages, plus he was surrounded by voracious readers on both sides of the family. Our son even had his own library card! How could he be considered “at risk” for anything, especially for reading?

After we got over our initial shock (and our initial snobbery), we asked the teacher what we could do. Not to worry, she told us. She was sure a child as bright as ours would catch up. But there were some things we could do to help him read at home. Here’s what she said.

Read to your child. All the time. Reading to your child is the single most important predictor of reading success later. Your child also needs to see you reading – for pleasure or for information. Join the library. Go to storytime. Go to websites like Lookybook where you can read books on the computer, or a website like Storyline where books are read for you. When you read, make sure you read with expression. Give the characters different voices, if you’re so inclined. Read the book so it comes alive for your child.

Point out the words that are all around us. Read road signs in the cars, or billboards, or the names of stores. Read menus.

Read high quality picture books, but tweak the way you read them to mimic the way that teachers teach children to read using guided reading books (these are the easy reader books that are often low on plot but high on sight words).

• “Pre-read”the book by flipping through the pages, looking at the pictures as you go. Ask your child what he/she sees in the pictures. Ask what he/she thinks is going to happen in the book based on the pictures. Point out words in the text that match the pictures.
• Slow down your reading pace a bit, making sure you’re still reading fluently, but enough so you’re giving your child a chance to follow the text with you.
• Point to each word as your read it, or at least follow along with your finger as your read.
• After you’ve read the book, have your child “read” the book back to you. You’re not aiming for word-to-word match, at least not in kindergarten or first grade, but he/she should have retained enough from the pre-reading and your reading of the story to recall the basic plot.

Read high-interest books. This can include traditional story books, but it can and should include non-fiction. There are some fantastic non-fiction books that include beautifully written text and amazing illustrations. It also won’t kill you to read a few books about TV characters. I don’t like books based on television shows, personally, but children like them because they’re about characters they know and events that are predictable – two plusses when children are learning to read. So go ahead with the Dora the Explorer or Pokemon books. As long as you mix it up with some quality children’s literature, give the kids what they want.

Relax. Just because school and the standardized test says your child has to be at a certain level by month 2 of the 1st grade, doesn’t mean your child is developmentally ready to be at that level. He/she will eventually catch up with the help of a quality teacher and your attentiveness at home. And when that lightbulb finaly goes off for your son or daughter, it’ll probably really light up. Once our son caught on to reading, for example, he lept 8 levels in a two week period…and it was the two weeks he was out of school for the winter holidays! It wasn’t all because of what we were doing at home, but I know we played a crucial part in that leap to comprehension.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas of ways you can help your child learn to read, or to read better and with more fluency, at home. You don’t need to be highly educated or have a teaching certifictae or even have tons of spare time to make a big difference in your child’s ability to read. You really just need to use these few simple tricks and tips and do what you’re probably already doing. You have more power to help your child than you think!

Do you have any more hints for parents who are trying to help their child with reading?