How can I help my beginning reader at home?

 

Parents often hear that they should help their children with reading at home, and they sincerely want to. But they might wonder what helping looks like. What should they do and say? You don't need to be a reading professional to play an important role in helping your child gain traction as a reader. The suggestions below can help. And for more specifics on what to actually do and say, check out this excellent resource "Tips for Supporting Reading Skills at Home" from What Works Clearinghouse.

You've got this!

Read aloud to your child every day. 

Reading aloud exposes your child to a range of vocabulary, concepts and writing styles. This helps them develop listening comprehension, imagination, and curiosity. Switch it up. You can read books, magazines, newspapers, or anything that interests your child. Ask questions before, during, and after reading to encourage their thinking. Click here for some great questions to ask.

Let your child choose what to read. 

Giving your child some choice and autonomy in what they read can increase their motivation and enjoyment. Provide them with a variety of reading materials that match their interests, hobbies, and preferences. You can also visit the library or bookstore together and let them pick their own books.

Lighten the load by taking turns or reading together.

When your child reads to you, they can feel overwhelmed and tire quickly. There are many ways to take some of the strain off of your beginning reader so that they stay engaged. Click here for examples of ways to partner-read with your child.

Be a coach.

Beginning readers often make mistakes and get stuck. Gently coaching them in the moment can help their brains build the right connections for reading fluently. Help your reader sound out words by asking them to say the sounds of the letters and blend them together into words. Help them divide long words into syllables to read chunk-by-chunk. 

Avoid telling them to look at the pictures or guess the words from the context. This takes their attention off of the letters and teaches them to rely on inefficient brain pathways for reading. Click here for a step-by-step guide on helping your child sound out (decode) words.

Keep it positive.

Reading is a complicated process that requires rewiring of the brain, a significant amount of work for beginners. Praise your child's efforts and accomplishments–when they figure out a new word, notice and fix a mistake, read a complete sentence, or persevere through a whole page of text. Learning to read is a unique process for each person, and is not correlated to intelligence. Avoid making comparisons to other children or older siblings. Let your child know that, like every great skill,  reading takes a lot of practice, and they will get it!

If needed, find a qualified reading tutor.

If your child is lagging significantly behind their peers in reading, reach out for more support. Discuss your concerns with their teacher and take advantage of extra help available at school. If your child is not progressing, seek out the help of a qualified reading tutor, such as our team at Reading Rays, who can evaluate your child's needs and provide structured literacy instruction. 

Reading is a lifelong skill, and the sooner your child becomes an independent reader, the better. By following these suggestions, you can help your child develop a positive attitude towards reading and become a confident and proficient reader.

To learn more about supporting your child, check out our other articles,:

Signs of a Struggling Reader in Elementary School

What to Expect from Your Child's School Reading Instruction

What to Expect from Your Child’s School Reading Instruction

Over 40 years of research and practice confirms that the most effective way for students to become strong, independent readers is through a structured literacy approach. Structured literacy teaches reading and writing of the English language explicitly, directly, and systematically. 

As a parent, you want to make sure that your child is getting the education they need and deserve. Yet, schools function differently. Based on their resources, training, and personnel, schools use different reading approaches and curricula, and they respond differently to the needs of their students. Knowing what is fair to expect of your school will help you advocate for your child. Here are a few baseline expectations that can be observed in an effective Kindergarten - Gr. 3 reading program. 

1. You have received your child’s test scores. All students should take standardized, norm-referenced tests 1-3 times every year. These tests compare your child’s skills to other students throughout the nation. They don’t tell the whole story of your child’s learning, but they are a helpful snapshot. Pay attention to these scores. Your child should be getting extra help beyond the classroom instruction if they are at the 25th percentile or below. 

Request a copy if you have not received your child’s standardized test scores (In my local district, they are MAP scores).

2. Beginning readers are taught how to sound out and spell words. In kindergarten through third grade (and with older students who are still beginners), teachers should work directly with students for at least 30 minutes a day teaching letter sounds and how to blend them to sound out words efficiently, as well as spelling. Teachers should follow a carefully developed progression of skills, called a “scope and sequence.” As the students learn new sounds and spelling patterns, they get lots of practice reading stories that apply the letters and sounds that they have studied so far. These practice stories are called “decodables.” This goes for both the whole class and intervention instruction for developing readers.

In effective instruction, students are NOT:

• Told to guess or substitute words with similar meanings. 

• Expected to absorb reading skills primarily through exposure to good literature. 

• Left on their own for long periods of independent reading with limited teacher guidance, especially if they are beginners. 

• Taught letter sounds and spelling patterns for just a few minutes a day, or in a haphazard way that corresponds more to a story being read than to the structure of English.

Find out if your school uses a structured literacy approach. If they do not say “yes,” they probably do not. 

3. If your child is behind, you have been told how they will be helped. Effective schools have a plan for how they will analyze test scores, assign groups for extra help, and do periodic check-up tests, called progress monitoring. Teachers or school leaders are able to explain how they will make changes if your child is not catching up. These may include forming smaller groups, providing longer or more frequent intervention lessons, using a more in-depth reading program, or recommending further testing for special education services. Intervention programs should employ a structured literacy approach and be taught by teachers who are well trained in this approach.

If you believe your child needs extra support in reading, ask the school what their plan is. Ask how their support will be intensified if your child has received extra help but is not catching up.

You can use the expectations above as a starting point for asking questions at your child’s school and becoming familiar with the school’s reading program. While there are many other aspects to a quality literacy program, the features above are important observable components. You are your child’s best advocate, and time is of the essence. If your child needs additional help in reading, the sooner, the better.

If you have done all you can to work with your child’s school, and your child still isn’t getting what they need, you may need to look for other school options or seek outside help. Contact Reading Rays for more information about the structured literacy programs and in-school tutoring at our partner schools.

Signs of a Struggling Reader in Elementary School

If you are a parent of an elementary school student, you may wonder if your child is reading at the expected level. Reading is a crucial skill for academic success, but some children it is a challenging skill to learn for various reasons. Here are some signs of a struggling reader to watch for:

• Difficulty sounding out words. Your child may have trouble pronouncing words that they should know or confuse the sounds of certain letters. This may indicate a problem with phonological awareness, which is the ability to isolate and manipulate sounds in words. In an alphabetic language such as English, a strong awareness of the separate sounds enables students to sound out and spell words. For example, children who aren’t tuned into the separate sounds in words may read or spell “trunk” as “tuck” and have difficulty learning the word even after being taught.

• Difficulty recognizing common words. Your child may not recognize simple words or may confuse similar-looking words, such as “what” for “want.” This may indicate a problem with word recognition, which is the ability to identify words automatically and accurately. Word recognition is developed through the repeated practice of accurately sounding out words and paying attention to each letter in a word. 

• Lack of fluency when reading. Your child may read slowly, take frequent pauses, or lack expression when reading aloud. This may indicate a problem with reading fluency, which is the ability to read smoothly and with appropriate speed and intonation. When students struggle with fluency, they are usually working so hard to figure out the words that they lose the meaning of what they are reading.

• Problems understanding what they read. You may notice that your child confuses concepts or has trouble recalling or summarizing what they have just read. A common cause of difficulty with reading comprehension in the elementary grades is weakness in the foundational skills of phonemic awareness, decoding, word recognition, and fluency. Often students who have low comprehension while reading to themselves have much higher comprehension when listening to others read.

• Frustration, distress, or avoidance when reading or writing. Your child might say that they “hate reading” and drag their feet when they need to do reading assignments. They may act out, because of frustration, or as a way to distract others from noticing their reading challenges. You may observe that as they get older, they become less engaged with school or less confident as learners. 

If you notice any of these signs in your child, stay calm. Help is available. There are many possible causes of reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, or lack of adequate instruction. All these causes can be addressed. By being aware of the signs of a struggling reader and seeking help when needed, you can support your child to achieve their full potential as a reader and learner.

Learn more at www.ReadingRays.com.