How Can I Help My Child Learn How to Read?

Many parents come to us in despair that their child is behind grade-level in their reading abilities. Successfully teaching your child how to read can be a hurdle for many parents. With this in mind, we’ve created a list of activities you can do with your child to help them increase their competence and confidence in reading!

1. Online read-aloud books
   TumbleBooks and Raz Kids offer a huge range of books in different genres and levels of difficulty. The beauty of these sites is that they read stories out loud to the audience, and highlight words as they go. This allows readers to see and hear words being sounded out to them in an entertaining manner. Ask your local library or classroom teacher to see if you can get access to an online read-aloud account.

2. Reading Logs 
   Reading logs are great to document success and reinforce the love of reading in your children. Print out a reading log like this one or this one and hang it up on your fridge. Celebrate small victories, like a sticker for every 10 books, and large victories, like a trip to the movies for every 100 books.

3. Word walls
   Word walls are also fantastic at acting as a visual reference for high-frequency sight words and allows students to view spelling patterns. Each time your child learns a new word, add it to the wall under the appropriate letter. You can use this template for personal use, or you can make a larger word wall in your home like this one.

4. Celebrating Failure
   All too often I hear parents say their children are discouraged from reading and give up before trying. I encourage parents to re-frame their child’s approach to reading by emphasizing improvement over perfection and fostering a growth mindset. By framing “failures” such as misread letters as opportunities for learning, students can overcome the fear of failure and gain resiliency in reading.

5. The Orton Gillingham Approach
   The Orton Gillingham Approach to reading uses dynamic, multisensory and sequential lessons that support learning in children who struggle with reading, such as those with dyslexia. The Orton Gillingham Approach is maximized in a one-on-one setting, and when used with the All About Reading Curriculum, can help students learn 97% of English words through phonetic rules.

Though each student will grasp reading in a different way and at a different pace, we hope these activities act as a starting point to help your child read fluently! We know that life as a parent can be hectic, and with this, our tutors can partner with you to help your child’s reading improve! Our tutors use the Orton Gillingham Approach and the All About Reading Curriculum to help our primary aged students develop reading skills. If you’re interested in learning more about the program or want to get your child assessed, please fill out our contact form.