| Welcome Parents!
Thank you for clicking on this door!
YOU are the most significant factor in the reading success of your child.
I wish there were a "secret" to reading success...one simple act that
parents or teachers could perform to provide a child with flawless skills and
a desire to read.
Unfortunately there is no single act that will make successful reading
happen.
However I can tell you that there are some KEY conditions you can create
at home that will give your child an ENORMOUS advantage at school.
BRAIN BUILDING
Research shows that an important period of brain development occurs between
the ages of 2 and 4, and another developmental spurt occurs around the age of
6. What you do at home with your child during these years can make a
difference in your child's reading success.
* PHONEMIC AWARENESS -- This is the ability to notice, think about, and
work with individual sounds (not visual letters) in spoken words. Point out
objects with names that begin the same or rhyme. Play games with words -- Is
that a cat or a hat? I'll say a word that begins with "t" and then it's your
turn. I'll say a word, you clap when you hear "mmmm". Clap word parts.
Click on my home page button "Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness" for some
great links to activities to promote phonemic awareness.
* IMMERSE YOUR CHILD IN LITERATURE -- Create an environment at home
that is full of books and magazines. Model reading so that your child sees
you doing it as a habit. Give books as gifts, rather than give toys.
* READ TO YOUR CHILD -- Make it an interactive process. Ask questions
about what is going on or what might happen next. Talk about the characters
and their feelings and their facial expressions in the illustrations. Connect
happenings to yourself or to people you know.
Older Children:
So what can you do when your child is past those key brain development years?
How can the older child succeed in reading?
* IMMERSE YOUR HOME IN LITERATURE. (see above)
* READ TO YOUR CHILD AND ENCOURAGE HIM/HER TO READ TO YOU with fluency
and expression. Re-read to improve fluency and expression...practice is a
good thing. Choose books that your child can read with ease, so that his/her
words will flow.
* ASK QUESTIONS AS YOU READ. These will help your child connect with the
text. Get higher thinking going by asking questions like, "What would you
have done differently?", or "How is this like something that happened to
you?", or "How does the character feel about that?".
* ENCOURAGE INDEPENDENT READING. The more your child reads, the better
reader he or she will become.
* ENCOURAGE SUMMER READING. Without the continuation of reading during
the summer months, most children will lose ground. Summer reading should be
fun. Have your own contests. Visit bookstores. | |
