How can parents promote reading at home? Signs your child may be struggling with reading. And what to do if your child encounters difficulty learning to read.
One of my favorite authors wrote, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Any guesses as to who the author is? (Answer below) Some children naturally gravitate to books and develop a life-long relationship with them. Others not so much.
According to NAEP, which essentially operates as the nation’s report card, two-thirds of 4th graders cannot read proficiently. If your child is one of these struggling readers, it can possibly set them up for future difficulties in school and life. The good news is that there are a lot of strategies, tools, and techniques that parents can tap into to help their child not only learn to read, but to use their reading skills to propel them toward the life they want.
Why support your child’s reading at home
Reading is the single most important academic skill your child will learn, because reading drives every other subject in school. A study cited by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that students who do not read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to not graduate from high school than students who did read proficiently.
Reading aloud to your child is a powerful way to support their literacy journey. According to Reading Rockets, reading aloud to your child helps build language and literacy skills, including text structure – how a story is put together – and comprehension skills such as inferencing, predicting, and understanding a character’s actions and motivations.
Reading also builds background knowledge. By selecting a variety of texts: fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, nonfiction, biographies, etc., you help your child better understand the world around them. It also helps promote connections between topics.
The Child Mind Institute states that books help children develop empathy and how to handle big emotions. While reading together a parent can ask their child, “Have you ever felt embarrassed like the character in the book? How did you handle it?”
A final reason to support your child’s reading, as the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development shares, is that text in books tends to be more complex than conversation, which can expose your child to vocabulary they may not hear in oral speech. Developing a rich vocabulary will benefit your child in school and on those pesky standardized tests.
Ways to promote reading at home
There are many simple ways parents can promote reading at home.
Make a comfortable space/reading nook
Somewhere in your home set up a reading space. Perhaps it is adorned with big pillows or a beanbag chair. Try to have a variety of reading materials on hand: books, magazines, encyclopedias.
Create routines beyond bedtime stories
Reading at bedtime is a wonderful way to wrap up a day. But develop other routines for reading such as family reading nights, reading to siblings, or relatives via FaceTime. Don’t forget reading to pets! (seriously)
Help books come alive
Make books more relatable. For example, read about certain animals then go visit them in a local zoo. Or read about a person from history then mosey over to a local museum.
Audio books
Allow your child to listen to stories, but have the physical text too so they can follow along, matching the audio version to print version. There are many good platforms such as audible.
Online resources are okay
Boys especially may be more interested in articles on ESPN.com than in a fictional book. Allow and encourage your child to read about their interests. (This writer eschewed books when school age and lived in Skateboarder and Modern Drummer Magazines.)
Finally, if your child is resistant to reading, do not force or demand they read. This will more than likely create an adversarial relationship with reading and only entrench that negative feeling towards reading. Rather, discuss topics of interest and find resources such as magazines or websites that focus on those topics. Offer to read these materials with your child. Allowing your child to “nibble” at information may lead to more consumption and eventual full course meals in books.
Signs to look for if your child struggles with reading
Of course you can set up a beautiful space in your home for reading that would make Martha Stewart jealous, adorn it with a variety of text materials, and your child may still struggle with reading.
Why?
Some children struggle to learn to read for any number of reasons. The National institute of Child Health and Human Development share that a child may have problems sounding out words or have difficulty recognizing sounds and the letters that make up these sounds. Other signs your child may be struggling with reading are that they are poor spellers and or are slow readers. Finally, they may have trouble understanding what they just read.
Another sign of difficulty reading is your child may have trouble reading with expression and fluency.
Yet another reason is dyslexia could be undiagnosed. According to the International Dyslexia Association, “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.” As many as 20% of the population have it, according to the NIH.
A final possible culprit could be attention issues such as ADHD or ADD, which can certainly affect reading and comprehension. In other words your child’s literacy skills may be fine but he cannot focus long enough to attend to a text and comprehend.
What to do if you suspect your child is struggling with reading
If your child exhibits any these issues that may signal trouble with reading, there are many paths for parents to pursue.
First, rule out any vision issues by making an appointment with your local eye doctor.
Discuss your concerns with child’s teacher. If it is not parent conference time you can still request a meeting to learn about what the teacher is seeing in class and any suggestions she may have to help at home.
If the teacher shares your concern, seek professional help from trained reading instructors who use proven methods like Orton-Gillingham. The teaching of reading has changed and it ought to be multi-sensory, sequential, and draw from developmental and cognitive psychology along with neuroscience.
Another aspect to consider is to limit screen time such as video games or television. Children who struggle with reading will more than likely turn to these activities because they are escapes. These prolonged sessions on screen will only exacerbate reading struggles. Notice we said to limit not prohibit.
Lastly, choose books and reading materials that are on your child’s reading level. If you are not sure what your child’s reading level is, ask their teacher. A good rule of thumb is this: If your child makes more than one reading error in ten words, the reading level is likely too difficult.
Final thoughts
Students who are on grade level in reading by 4th grade tend to stay on grade level throughout their schooling. Conversely, those students who struggle with learning to read and are not proficient by 4th grade tend to face many challenges, including meeting high school graduation requirements.
The good news is that there many things a parent can do to support their child’s reading at home. By making a comfortable reading area, supplying a variety of texts, and fostering a series of reading routines, your child will be in a position to establish a lifelong relationship with reading. As Dr. Seuss stated in I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
If your child struggles with reading or you suspect they are not on grade level, contact Jennifer Disch at Engage the Brain to discover how an Orton-Gillingham trained reading specialist could help your child unlock the confounding code that is reading and develop a love of books.