Reading at home: some ideas to support your child

Here are a few ideas you might want to try to support your child in their reading. 

• Recognize and be proud of your child’s success in reading.

• Ensure that your child knows you value and enjoy reading yourself.

• Continue to read to your child if he/she enjoys it.

• Expose your child to a wide range of materials, e.g. letters, newspapers, recipes, TV guides, magazines etc.

• Encourage reading to younger/older siblings.

• Get them to help with reading and explaining instructions, e.g. for new appliances.

• Read articles from the newspaper and get their opinion of them. Have an argument!

• If your child makes a mistake when reading aloud, allow some time for self-correction.

• Ask your child what would make sense when they get stuck on a word, encouraging them to break the word down into syllables (chunks) to aid pronunciation. Then encourage them to read on for meaning.

• What was their favorite part of the book? Their least favorite?

• Does the book make them want to do something or take action?

• What did they think of the characters? Do they remind them of someone in their own life?

• Encourage your child to draw/write about books /articles.

• Has something that happened in the book/article happened in their own life or to someone they know?

• What would they change in the book? Would they change the ending?

• Get a children’s cooking book and plan a cooking session.

• Include humorous/joke books when selecting books for your child.

• Read some of the books your child enjoys so that you can share reactions and pleasure together. Encourage a conversation and get them talking.

• Read books that have been made into films and encourage your child to talk about the differences between the books and the film.