Ten Hints for Teaching Your Child to Read
Learning to read should be easy and fun. Here are our suggestions for teaching children to read:
- First of all, read to your child. Help your student choose age-appropriate books.
- Share ideas about books you read to foster understanding, interest and comprehension. Be attuned to your child’s interests.
- Make up stories together. Write and read them, pointing out short repeated words.
- Encourage drawing or painting pictures. Scribbling is fun, and it is also valuable for forming hand-eye coordination, which helps reading and is essential in writing.
- Help the child write his/her name.
- Help with writing short words; give lots of space on the piece of paper. Keep the process short, fun and happy.
- Play board games, word games, memory games and card games, and use table toys that enhance coordination.
- Sing rhyming songs. Read rhyming books and poems. Encourage children to fill in the expected words as you read.
- Teach the word families used in each book. Point out what happens when the first sound changes and how easy reading a list of words becomes.
- Make reading sessions fit your child’s attention span. Readily help your child and have a warm and fun time together.
