10 Ways to Help Your Children Becpme Better Readers

Reading begins in the home.  Before they ever go to school, children acquire knowledge that lays the foundation for reading.  Most children will learn how  to  read, but whether they will become good readers depends upon your help and encouragement.  As a parent you can:   1.   Help your children acquire a wide range of knowledge.  Your child’s ability to understand even simple stories can depend upon their having both common and not-so-common knowledge.  Visits to the zoo,  museums, stores, parks, etc.  provide experiences that give children important background knowledge necessary for learning to read.   2.   Talk with your children about their experiences.  This helps them to learn new vocabulary and understand their meaning.   3.   Encourage your children to think about events. Asking children to describe events makes them reflect upon experiences and helps them learn to give good descriptions and tell complete stories.   4.   Read aloud to your children. This is probably the single most important activity you can do to encourage your children’s success as readers.  By reading to your children, you are helping them build a storage of knowledge they will use when they begin to read in school. Encourage children to participate in the activity by identifying letters and words and by talking about the story and the meaning of words.   5.   Provide your preschool children with writing materials. This is an important way for children to learn about letters and words.  If children are too young to hold a pencil or crayon, magnetic letters can be used to help them learn about letters and words.   6.   Encourage your children to watch TV programs that have educational value.  Watching television programs that teach about reading and language have a positive effect on your children’s learning.   7.   Monitor how much TV your children watch.  Watching quality television programs up to about 10 hours a week can have a slightly positive effect on your children’s achievement in school.  As the number of hours increases, however, it becomes a negative influence on their schoolwork.   8.   Monitor your children’s school performance. Visit your children’s classrooms and find out how they are doing and how you can help them become better students.  Research shows that children tend to be more successful readers when their parents have an accurate view of their school work.   9.   Encourage your children to read independently. The amount of reading your children do outside of school influences how well they read in school.  Keep plenty of books in your home and visit the library often.   10.  Continue your personal involvement in your children’s growth as readers. Set a good example for your children by reading newspapers, magazines and books.  Suggest reading as a leisure time activity and make sure your children have time for reading.  You might try setting a bedtime hour after which reading is the only activity permitted other than sleep.