11 Ways parents can help their kids read
Remember that a child’s education is not simply practiced in a brick and mortar institution. Children learn by observation, and worldly lessons are part of their educational journey. As a parent, we should not just consider it good practice to help our kids read, but a necessary pursuit. A child’s literacy development is more robust if we can follow a system of learning that is accompanied by the development of life skills. If we lead by example, adults can help to lay the foundation down to expedite early learning and help to show a child how much you are investing in helping them through their education.
If you are stuck trying to figure out how to help your struggling child with reading, try the following ideas. Reading books should not be the only thing you use to help your child’s reading. Reading activities should be based on goals that connect with specific developmental milestones. Start by introducing your child to easier activities first and build up as they reach their target goals.
Talk to your baby—and don’t ever stop
It’s never too early to start helping your child. Talk to your baby! It doesn’t matter what it’s about exactly. You can even describe to your child what you are doing in the present moment. Exposure to language boosts babies’ abilities to make connections in speech patterns and recognize certain phonemes associated with their first language. This awareness of speech patterns and phonemes can lend a helping hand when first decoding simple words during early literacy acquisition and can help with reading. Even having adults speak new languages to your baby will help your child to build literacy awareness.
Read to your child early. Reading can even start when they are in utero or while they are a tiny infant. It’s ok if you don’t have any children’s books yet. Even reading a magazine to your child will be enough for your baby to begin their exposure to literacy awareness.
Build phoneme awareness to help with reading
Find new and fun ways to help your child to develop their reading skills. Discuss phonemes, words, and patterns within words that can help your child to make connections while they learn. Don’t limit games, songs, and conversations to the dinner table but use these helps during free time. At the park, in the car, and even showing off new skills to Grandma and Grandpa are all great ways for your child to rehearse literacy skills. Some easy, “no-prep required” ideas to ask them: “What are some words that start with sssss?” or “How many words can you think of that rhyme with ‘map’?” This type of verbal play helps your child with their auditory and listening skills while helping them with their reading skills.
Pick songs that allow you to play with switching phonemes, such as “The Name Game” or “Apples and Bananas.” Another fun idea is to change the lyrics of songs you know. Talk about how changing a letter in one word changes the entire meaning, such as “Farmer in the Dell” being changed to “Farmer in the Bell.” More often than not, your child will giggle at this silly alternative. Humor is a great way to help your child to remember facts for later recall.
Isolate individual phonemes in a word, taking care to point out if the sound is at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. CVC words are the best type of words to use with your child to help them with reading. CVC words have a specific beginning consonant, the vowel in the middle, and consonant at the end. The CVC words you should be working with to help your child should not be ambiguous or break standard rules. Some great examples of CVC words to start with could be: “cat,” “mom,” “dad,” “bed,” and so on.
Talk with your child about word families in simple words: such as words that end in “-ab” or “-in”. Ask your child to look at an alphabet chart and help your child to “put” a new letter at the front of a word. By doing so, “cab” can turn into “dab,” or into “fab,” and so on. If your child is struggling with doing this in their head, you can help them to write each letter on an index card, and lay the words out on a table for your child to see, so that removing a letter from a word is as simple as sliding a new one into place.
When reading to your child, segment the words by separating the individual sounds and emphasize certain word blends. The word “dog” can be stretched out to “/d/” “/o/” “/g/,” and say each sound slowly with your child. Play a game, and after separating each sound, ask your child to “say it fast.” “That’s right! /d/ /o/ /g/.”
Another way to stretch out the sounds in a word is to ask a child to clap when segmenting the word and clap each time they hear a new sound. So the word “dog” should have three claps, one for each phoneme. Then see if they can put the three sounds back together. “Can you say it slowly? Now let’s say it fast! Ready? Dog!” You can start blending sounds together once segmenting is comfortable. If your child is stuck or struggling to put the sounds back together, you can help them by using a toy car on a paper road to help them to practice this skill. Simply draw a small road on a piece of paper, from bottom to top. Write the first letter on the bottom and move up to the top, so that the last letter is at the top of the paper, or end of the “road.” Have the child take a toy car and drive it from the first letter to the last, saying the sounds as they go. You can slow down or speed up according to your child’s needs.
Get silly with your child! Play around with rhyming, making sure to point out those words that may look close, but are not a rhyme. This is a concept that should be covered once the easy rhymes are easy for your child. “Bag,” “tag,” and “rag,” all rhyme, but why doesn’t “fan” rhyme with these, even though it shares the same vowel? Why does “wish” rhyme with “fish” but “win” doesn’t?
Create a routine
Set aside a special reading time to help your child with reading every single day. It’s easy to read one to two stories every evening. Reading time also helps to provide special time to bond with your child.
Ask your child questions after an appropriate time in the story: who, what, when, where, and why. Some examples: “Who was the penguin going to visit?” “What did he bring in his suitcase?” “When did the penguin decide to tell his friend the secret?” “Where did the penguin build his igloo?” and “Why was the penguin so hungry?” Use your imagination and ask your child questions often, even if you feel they are too simple or redundant. Asking your child these questions while reading can help them solidify concepts within the story and encourage your child to ask questions as they read. When your child is reading more independently, challenge them to ask questions they don’t know the answers to. “What do you think happened to the penguin and his friend after the story?” or “Why do you think the fisherman was so angry?” Asking your child these types of questions can sometimes lead to interesting conclusions.
As a fun activity, kids can write a continuation of their favorite story. With this activity, your child has control over characters they care about, and can be motivated to create a book that follows an adventure they are interested and invested in. Giving your child opportunities to write will generate more conversations and practice with the skills they have learned while you have helped them with reading.
Pick a chapter book that both you and your child are interested in reading, and choose a time of day to read one chapter in that book. Reading a long book over the course of time can help your child slow down and analyze plots in more complex stories. Reading a chapter book can also be a great reward when your child reaches the end and “finally” finds out what happens to their new favorite character.
Make activities multi-sensory
Make individual letters on flashcards, and try to build words with your child. You can also build words with stacking blocks (like legos) or playdoh.
Vary the materials you use. Make a word or a sentence by cutting out letters in magazines, or use magnetic letters to create silly phrases.
Make reading visual, and talk about how the book is put together. Make sure to note what side of the page you start reading the words. Make a note of the author, and if appropriate, the illustrator. Use your finger to highlight the words as you read them, and read slowly as you emphasize each sound.
Remember to have visuals handy when helping your child with reading or writing. These can be general alphabet posters with a visual reminder of what types of words start with particular sounds or even a worksheet that you created together while learning a new concept. Concepts such as “When there is a silent “e” at the end of the word, the vowel says its name” or “c sounds like s when followed by i or e”. Make sure to add pictures that help your child with easy recall later on.
Build an environment to support literacy
Make visits to the library part of your schedule. It’s crucial for your child to see that other adults in society also value reading and that libraries have an essential role in our communities. Teaching your child the early fundamentals of researching a topic is invaluable for their higher education opportunities. There are also wonderful opportunities to join book clubs and other literacy focused groups at the library.
Label familiar items and furniture in your house with Post-it notes. Seeing the words for common words daily can assist struggling readers with recalling these visual reminders when it comes to recognizing these words later. Window, refrigerator, toy box, and door are all great. It doesn’t matter if these words are long or above the level your child is currently reading. The sight of these words and continuous exposure is what is essential for a struggling reader.
Create fun (and free) literacy games to play with your child
Help your struggling reader by going on a letter or word scavenger hunt. Hide Post-it notes with short CVC words on them, and hide them around the house, then ask them to find a particular word. For a stronger reader, provide a short list of words with a letter missing and a simple drawing next to it. Then ask your student to find the missing letters. For example, the list may have a word written like “B__T” with a picture of a bat next to the word. If the child sees the picture of the bat, they should be looking for an “A” hidden somewhere in the house.
Play the classic game, “I Spy.” The beauty of this game is that it can be played anywhere, with virtually no materials or prep. It’s simple enough to play in the car on the way to a dance class. An example of this could be to ask your child to guess what you are thinking of: “I Spy something that starts with a /p/ sound,” or “I Spy something that starts with M,” and even, “I Spy something that rhymes with ‘go.” These simple games are excellent learning and reading development games for parents and children to enjoy.
Teach with flashcards …but not in the traditional way. Create physical learning games out of writing words or letters on paper, and play the familiar game “Simon Says.” “Simon says, step on the letter that starts the word, ‘cat,’” or, “Simon says, jump on the letter that says, ‘mmmm,’” or, “Simon says, hop three times on the word that rhymes with ‘sad.”
Make a simple game out of thinking of a silly sentence or a phrase. Write each word of the sentence on an index card, and then lay the words out in the correct order of the sentence. Then, add some extra nouns, and start switching some words! Or, keep the same structure of the sentence but change the subjects only. Mad Libs, short stories that have specific words left out so the reader can add their own, are fun, and let your child feel in control! Mad Lib or other brand printables can be found on the web. This can also help teach children about parts of speech.
Encourage writing skills
Ask your child to author a story. Show your child a picture and explain what is happening in the picture. Encourage them to write some letters or words describing the image. The simple act of doing this gets your child to think about letters, how they might look, and where they might go. Even if it does not make sense visually to you, ask them to read the sentence or story back to you and see what they say. How they explain their thinking could illuminate where you can begin supporting literacy with some fun and easy learning games.
Teach visually with a dry erase board to encourage discussion about how words might be written. Think of a fun, short, simple sentence, and talk to your student about what letters they think might make those sounds. Write out your collective thoughts so they can visualize the thought process.
Appeal to their interests and connect on a personal level
Use your child’s interests to build motivation. Children are not invested in activities they do not find value in. Encourage your child to read words that are not found in books. Menus, video game instructions, and the backs of trading cards are all great examples of utilizing everyday materials to encourage your child to read. Students who struggle with traditional books may find it easier to read more familiar or favorite items that they recognize by sight.
Work on learning letters and sounds by writing their own name. Children like activities centered around things they are familiar with or that they love. Writing doesn’t have to begin with a paper and pencil. Keep a printed model of their name when they are first learning, use their fingers to write in a tub of sand, or use play-doh to form the letters. Turning it into a multi-sensory experience will help solidify the context of those letters. Do the same activities with friends’ and family members’ names. Keep examples of their work up, so they often see the names and have time to reflect on the letters and the sounds they make.
Ask your child what books and topics they want to read about. Superheroes, non-fiction animal readers, and television characters can brighten up a child’s awareness of books available when the early literacy reader books are just not getting them excited. Encourage your child to find a favorite author and challenge them to pursue as many stories as they can find by that author.
Write up a simple sentence for you to read together. It can be about something exciting you will be doing that day, a silly statement, or even just writing a sentiment about your feelings for them. Have them identify certain letters or smaller words that exist in more complex words. Make comparisons between words that sound similar, or that have the same letters or sound blends. Ask your child to write the sentence on their own so that they are making a physical (kinesthetic) connection to the letters and sounds.
Seek complimentary child’s reading activities through technology
Printables can be found online, often even at no cost. There are popular education platforms available on the web for free that offer all levels of reading and learning opportunities.
These free games, apps, and activities specifically target phonics development, reading comprehension, and aim to keep your child interested in reading and literacy.
Keep calm and carry on
Reading for most struggling readers is a journey and not one that is attained overnight. These skills are developed over several years. Many children who are struggling to read can get embarrassed at school; this embarrassment can lead to lowered self-esteem and eventual loss of motivation to keep trying. Educators need to identify and target instruction for these struggling readers at the earliest opportunity.
Keep instruction at the right stage of reading development and keep instruction simple. If they become frustrated, stop and try again later. If things are not going smoothly, do not let your frustration show; this will only enhance the negative emotions they have around reading and literacy in general. Keeping things short, light, and positive are all ways you can enhance good feelings while reading.
Be an example
One of the best ways for a parent to encourage and help a child to read is to model enjoyment of reading. Children learn by example, and if they are observing you and others in their family engage in reading often, they will want to know what makes reading so exciting. Join a book club, and let your child see that adults have fun and exciting conversations about books. Ask questions, make connections, and discuss the topics in their books. Show them that you value their opinions they have about the books you have both been reading about together.
