Reading is the foundation of our education. Reading and comprehension are critical skills that children develop at a young age. What can parents do to help their children address any factors that are impacting their ability to read and comprehend? Keep reading to find out what some literacy advocates recommend parents do to help set up these children for success.
Ask Teachers About Your Child’s Reading Behaviors
It is so important for parents to ask teachers about their child’s reading behaviors (both strengths and challenges) to determine how to best address these issues at home. When it comes to a child’s understanding, it’s all about comprehension and whether a child can understand what they are reading when they are independently reading a story or listening to someone reading a story to them. Ask questions before, during, and after reading.
When it comes to vocabulary, introduce new words through text and conversation. Fluency happens when children are reading and re-reading texts.
Finally, phonemic awareness and phonics (letter/sound relationship) activities and games will help children decode or figure out any unknown word on the page. When parents understand these 5 components are essential to help their child achieve reading success, they can find out how their students perform in each component and support them accordingly at home.
Ask Questions About What They Read
Pose them inquiries regarding what you read in class. In addition to helping youngsters gauge their comprehension of a material, asking them questions encourages them to reflect more deeply on what they are reading (or listening to).
At this age, students spend a lot of time in class studying words. They are learning to distinguish between the various sounds that make up words and to combine those sounds to create new words. The meanings of unknown words can be understood by using base (root) words, prefixes, and suffixes, that they are learning. To aid in their understanding of the relationships between sounds and letters, you can play rhyming games. They can analyze words to determine their component elements and corresponding meanings.
Young children get the physical stamina and motor abilities necessary to eventually write words, phrases, and paragraphs through sketching and painting. Help your child develop the neural pathways necessary to later link sounds to letters and letter patterns while they are starting to read by having them practice drawing individual letters.
Accompany Children to the Library
Accompanying your children to the library regularly will help your kids to develop their reading and comprehension skills. This is an effective strategy if you do not have many books at home or cannot afford the books for your kids which is one of the factors impacting their reading skills of kids.
Kids are intrinsically curious, and once they are habituated to seeing books all around, they will inevitably pick up a book. The most pivotal aspect is how much time you are spending with your kids to read with them. Since kids learn more by observing than listening, you, as a parent, need to read too. Borrow the books from the library and read the sentences aloud to your children.
Creating a Literacy-Rich Environment at Home
Parents can significantly enhance their child’s reading and understanding skills by creating a literacy-rich environment at home, which includes providing access to a variety of age-appropriate books, newspapers, and magazines. Engaging in daily reading sessions together and discussing the content critically can foster comprehension and analytical skills.
Additionally, establishing a consistent dialogue with their child’s teachers to align on reading strategies, and participating in community reading groups or library programs, can offer a broader socio-cultural context to their learning experience. These traditional, screen-free methods not only promote a deeper understanding and appreciation for reading but also nurture a lifelong love for literacy.
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