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Parenting -
Studies
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Reading is important for a variety of reasons and helping your child to develop better reading skills will help him or her as they continue through life. All professional teaching skills aside, you are actually the best person to help improve your child’s reading skills. Your child respects and trusts you and you have a bond that no teacher in the world can have with your own child. That being said, there are specific steps that you can take to improve your child’s reading skills and these will work whether your child has overall problems with reading or you simply want him or her to be an advanced reader.
First, you should begin by being an example. The more your child sees you read the more apt he or she will be to read. Most parents get so caught up in life that they rarely take time to simply sit back and relax with a good book. If you prefer you can read magazines or even one of your child’s books. The thing is to let them see you reading and that will foster their desire to read as well.
You should read to your child, particularly if they are under school age. Improving reading skills includes both reading and listening so the more you read to your child the better they will be at reading themselves. This begins long before school. Reading to your unborn child in the womb is an excellent idea as is reading to them while they are still babies. For older children, encourage questions and allow them to interrupt when they do have questions. This encourages reading comprehension and can help immensely with vocabulary skills in the future. If you have more than one child then by all means read to them as a group. Just keep in mind that each child also needs private time with you so schedule time to read to each child individually as well.
Giving books as gifts is a wonderful idea but be sure that you are choosing books that actually interest your child. If a child is not interested in a particular story then he is not going to read the book. Find out what interests your child has and purchase books based on those interests. If your little girl likes horses then choose books such as National Velvet. If your son is interested in wizardry then the Harry Potter series is an excellent choice. Keeping them interested in the storyline will assure that they spend more time reading.
Reading software is also a good idea. There are many computer programs that help to encourage reading and these are not all for younger children. As your child grows older be sure to upgrade their reading software to include activities that interest them at their specific age group. There are many free software programs available online and several that are very affordable as well. Allowing your child some computer time to engage in reading software activities will improve overall reading skills as well as computer skills which are also important today.
When you are reading to your child be sure to allow them to reiterate what you have read. In other words, have him or her to narrate back to you what you have read. This will help them with their reading comprehension as well. Narrating back to you is simply your child summarizing what they have learned from the story. This is an excellent activity for children of all ages and ensures that they are actually paying attention to the story as you read it.
Above all, make the activity as entertaining as possible. Your child will not want to do something that they feel you are forcing them to do. Most children get their fill of schoolwork at school so choose reading activities that are fun and engaging in order to peak their interests. Improving their overall reading skills will not happen quickly but over time you will begin to notice a significant improvement in the way that your child reads.
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