Help Your Child Learn to Read Tips for Parents Casey B. Smith, Literacy Specialist Blue Ridge Elementary School

YOU Are Your Child’s First And Most Important Teacher Read with your child every day Encourage your child to read his/her favorite books when reading together Ask questions about the story and pictures Make connections with the story and your child

Read Everything Around You Grocery Items Signs Household items Menus Words on TV Recipes Mail Magazines, Newspapers

First thing’s first… Your child MUST have letter/sound knowledge Without letter/sound knowledge, you can’t read or write! Letter/sound fluency will lead to segmenting and blending with ease Use flashcards, computer games, magnets, alphabet books Repetition is KEY

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo… How to pick the right book to read Talk to your teacher and get suggestions Ask a Librarian Find something that interests you Beginning readers should choose a book with 1-2 lines per page Make sure you can read MOST of the words on the page

Frequently Asked Questions Should my child point to the words when reading? YES!! Finger-pointing is a strategy that beginning readers use to stay on track. It helps them focus on each individual word. Covering up the pictures helps my child learn the words, right? Actually, the pictures give the reader clues. It is a good strategy among all readers.

Frequently Asked Questions Is memorizing words okay? Yes. Memorizing is developmental and will help build reading fluency or automaticity. If my child doesn’t know a word, what do I do? Use pictures for clues What is the first sound in the word? Try to sound out the word if possible (phonetic) Still no luck? Go ahead and tell them the word.

More Strategies… Read through the sentence to figure out what makes sense Word patterns Chunking Prefixes/Suffixes Does your guess make sense and fit the letter pattern?

Reading and Writing are LINKED Decode = “sounding out the word” Encode = “write what you hear” (inventive spelling) Segmenting sounds, transferring to paper Write notes, words, letters, lists using all types of materials Let your child read their own writing to you!

My Advice to you… BE PATIENT! Make reading a fun experience Practice makes perfect… Read easy books to build fluency and CONFIDENCE PRAISE = MOTIVATION MOTIVATION = SUCCESS

Sources http://classroom.jc-schools.net/waltkek/ National Institute for Literacy National Reading Panel North Carolina State Improvement Project II: Foundations Level Training in Reading