Taking an active interest in your child’s learning is one of the best ways you can help your child to do better in school. Learning is not just about what happens in school. Children are learning all the time through what they see, hear and do.
We encourage all of the children to read at home as often as possible as we know what a huge impact this has on the progress they make.
In school, children are taught a range of strategies they can use to help them work out unknown words.
Please see the list below for some support which may help when listening to your children read:
Important points to remember
- Allow your child to read to the end of a sentence without interrupting.
- Share the title rather than asking them to read it if the words are unfamiliar.
- Remind your child to point to each word individually rather than continuously run their finger underneath.
- Remember not to expect your child to work out a word that is not in their vocabulary.
- Alternate the strategies you suggest rather than giving the same strategy prompt e.g. sound it out
- Try taking it in turns to read. That allows you to model using punctuation to control pace.
- Encourage your child to break down tricky words and sound them out.
- Pause at regular intervals to check understanding.
- Older, more confident readers may not want to read aloud to you. Encourage older readers to summarise the plot so far, talk about what the characters are like and ask them to make predictions about what might happen next.
Reading with your child
Book Introduction: Spend time introducing the book. What do you think this might be about? Why do you think that? Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
Strategy Check: Ask your child “What can we do if we get stuck on a word?” Listing the strategies refreshes your child’s memory and gives them the confidence to tackle a new word.
Independent reading: During this time try to remind your child of strategies rather than giving unknown words.
Reading at home - tips for parents!
