1. How to support your child’s development with reading and writing.

2. Helping your child to read
Tips when reading:
Talk about pictures
Model pointing to each word (not slide beneath)
Ask child to copy
Allow child to correct themselves
If child doesn’t know a word – try different strategies to support
Encourage child to say sounds in words and blend sounds together
Give lots of praise
Try and ensure your child makes sense of / understands what they have read.
After reading:
Can child point to and read the key words? Can they find the same word(s) in other books?
Discuss the story and characters. Can child re-tell the story in their own words looking at the pictures?
Give lots of praise
How to encourage reading?
Let child see family/different people read books, newspapers, recipes, food packets
Write shopping lists together
Encourage child to write birthday, thank you cards etc
Read a bedtime story every night if possible

3. Reading: concepts & skills
Children need to understand:
Written words give a message
Words on the front of a book are the title
Pictures can give meaning to the words
Words on a page are read left to right
The same spoken and written words have the same meaning
How words are expressed adds meaning
Describing parts of books:
Front and back
Cover
Page
Title
Author
Illustrator
Blurb
Top/ bottom of page
Picture/ illustration
Word/ sound
First / last
Beginning, middle, end
Speech
Capital letter
Full stop
Bold type
Exclamation mark !
Question mark ?
Give children the chance to:
Talk about what has happened in pictures
Use pictures to predict what might happen
Retell a story in the correct sequence
Talk about the characters, setting, problem and solution
Look at, point to and say words on a page
Point out high frequency words
Point out some upper and lower case letter
Talk about elements of the text that give specific meaning

4. Word Packs What are they?
Contain key words that children need to know by sight
13 different word packs
A word can appear twice with a lower case or capital first letter
Teacher/ TA will change the word pack when child has read the words correctly
Helping to learn words
Memory game – place a small number of words on a table, child covers eyes, you remove a card, child names the missing card
Pairs – Copy set of words, face all down and turn to find matching pairs
Grab – make a smaller list of words (from pack), turn pack words face down, turn over and if it matches , grab the word or turn back over
Flash cards – give words in a random order, ask child to put words into a short sentence
Word detective – give child a word, ask him to find it in his reading book/ any book
Keeping track
A master list is kept in the back of childs reading record

8. Helping your child to write
Tips to support writing:
Praise any attempt at writing
Ask, Can you read what you have written?
Let child see you writing
Encourage to write for a purpose, e.g thank you cards etc.
Support children to segment words as appropriate
Clap longer words to break into syllables
Do not expect all words to be spelt correctly
Tips to support handwriting:
Encourage tripod pencil grip
Talk through letter formation
Act out letter formation: magic wand, light sabre, sand, foam, mud, paint
Sing finger action songs

9. Letter formation

10. Pre cursive

11. Helping with Phonics How to help with phonics:
Focus on the weekly sounds, letters and tricky words
Use sounds, not letter names when segmenting and blending words
Play games, point out the above in newspapers/ magazines/ books
Sing nursery rhymes and songs, encourage listening
Play I spy, show that every word begins with a letter
Segment words, e.g ‘pass me the c-u-p’

13. Useful links Development Matters Jolly phonics actions
Jolly phonics actions
Letters and Sounds
Phonics Play