Helping Your Child Read


Ways to Help Your Child Read 

It is expected that children will struggle at times when reading. Instead of simply telling them the word or to “sound it out,” try these tricks: 

  • Say nothing. Give them a chance to figure it out. 
  • Say, “Look at the picture.” 
  • Say, “Let’s get the first sound in our mouth.”
  • Say, “What would make sense?” Even if they get the wrong word, you can say “Yes, it’s a kind of house, but the author chose a different word. Look at the first letter and see if you can get it now.”? 
  • Say, “Chunk it.” Are there smaller words in the bigger ones (e.g., "going" has the word "go" in it)? Find the little words in the big word. 
  • Say, “Let’s reread.” Before you tell your child the word, see if they can re-read the sentence and get it with a “running start.” 
  • Skip the word and come back when they have the context of the sentence (be sure they do).
  • Find little words they know.?If your child knows "at", they will more easily be able to identify "hat."
  • “Try the other vowel sound." Ex. long vs short vowels, or "j" for g, as in giraffe and "s" for c as in celery. 
Tell them the word. You do not want to hinder the comprehension of a story by getting stuck on a single word. Instead, give your child the word and have them re-read the sentence so that the word sticks in their mind for the next time they encounter it! 

 

To build comprehension/thinking strategies, have your child:

 

  • "Does that make sense?"

  • "Make a prediction."

  • Ask questions about the story.  
  • "Make a picture in your head." Visualize what is happening and make a movie.
 





Other skills to work on that build word knowledge: