Ask any grade school teacher how to improve your child's reading skills and you are likely to hear a very simple answer. "Read with them!" Give your child the best advantage any parent can offer - time together. Reading time. A time just for you and your child! Encourage consistent and daily reading time. Let them see you reading. Turn off the television or the Wii. Give your child the gift of a love for reading!
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Reading with children and helping them practice reading is one of the best ways to better grades! University researchers have found five essential components of reading. Adults can help children learn to be good readers by systematically practicing these five keys to reading:
1 Recognizing and using individual sounds to create words, or phonemic awareness. Children need to be taught to hear sounds in words and that words are made up of the smallest parts of sound, or phonemes.
2 Understanding the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds, or phonics. Children need to be taught the sounds individual printed letters and groups of letters make. Knowing the relationships between letters and sounds helps children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically, and "decode" new words.
3 Developing the ability to read a text accurately and quickly, or reading fluency. Children must learn to read words rapidly and accurately in order to understand what is read. When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. When fluent readers read aloud, they read effortlessly and with expression. Readers who are weak in fluency read slowly, word by word, focusing on decoding words instead of comprehending meaning.
4 Learning the meaning and pronunciation of words, or vocabulary development. Children need to actively build and expand their knowledge of written and spoken words, what they mean and how they are used.
5 Acquiring strategies to understand, remember and communicate what is read, or reading comprehension strategies. Children need to be taught comprehension strategies, or the steps good readers use to make sure they understand text. Students who are in control of their own reading comprehension become purposeful, active readers.
Set aside some time each day for reading together. Skip an hour of video games or TV and enjoy the time reading with your children. You won't miss much - and the benefits will long outlast the memory of any game or TV show.
Bring your
child to the library and
check out a few books for them to read. Teachers recommend reading
with your child as often as you can. Talk about school around the
family dinner table. Ask your child what was discussed
in class that day. If your children are like mine and offer up the
handy "nothing" response, try another
approach. For example, ask them to read aloud with you. Encourage them
to write down their thoughts or create a story.
Childhood passes so quickly - give your child the most valuable gift of
all - the gift of time! At least a few minutes each day. Those minutes
will be the best part of your day! Many a
parenting expert has suggested that, to a child, love is frequently
spelled "t-i-m-e". Time spent with our children and loved ones is
the best, and most memorable time of our lives.