Reading is a very important skill for all children to learn and to learn to enjoy. Children will need to become a confident reader in order to do well at school, and reading for pleasure can help your children to build a wider vocabulary, learn more about the world, and learn to communicate in a more effective way. However, if your child is struggling with their reading, helping them to enjoy reading can feel like an uphill battle. Here are some helpful tips to encourage a struggling reader.
Choose books carefully
When buying books for your struggling reader, try to make sure that you pick ones that your child naturally gravitates towards, but don’t have words in that they will find too difficult to read and understand.
The topic of the books you offer should appeal to them. Lively illustrations can do a lot to create a more positive association with reading and encourage them to enjoy it, instead of being intimate. Hi-Lo books can be the best bet for this. These books are designed to be of high interest, but have a low reading difficulty, for readers who struggle.
Ensure their success
The fastest way to put a child who is already struggling off reading even further and make them want to give up trying to read altogether is to give them something too difficult for them. A few more challenging words in a book are ok, especially if you are reading together, but make sure that there is some sort of context or illustrations to help your child to work out what the unfamiliar word means so they don’t get frustrated. An easy book can deliver a sense of accomplishment so your child will feel more confident reading and trying more difficult books.
Pre-teach new concepts
Before giving your child a new book, look through the book yourself first and find anything that you think they might have trouble understanding, like new words or different grammar than they are used to.
Take some time to teach your child these concepts before asking if they want to try the books. You can play word games, spend some time teaching sight words, or use flashcards to help them to learn new words and concepts. Taking the time to do this helps your child to build skills and confidence, without accidentally putting them off by giving them a book they can’t manage yet.
Read together
Another good way to make reading more fun and less off-putting is to get involved with reading time yourself. Take turns to read a page or a paragraph each. Doing this is a good technique to help a struggling reader for a few reasons. Your child can hear how you pronounce different words, how you read different forms of punctuation and how you read with expression. They can mimic some of your reading techniques in their own reading, and get in some quality reading practice, with you on hand and ready to help them with any difficult parts that they might come across in their book, whether it’s a word they don’t know or a new concept.
Be gentle, kind, and positive
Your child won’t want to read if they feel under pressure to do so. Help them to associate books with fun and enjoyment and they will be far more encouraged to keep trying to read until they get the hang of it. If you’re putting the pressure on all the time, pushing them to read when they don’t want to, or giving them books that are too hard for their reading ability, they aren’t going to learn to enjoy reading for themselves and will be put off from reading for school as well. Praise trying to read, but be ready to step back and let them take a break if they’re finding it too challenging. If you read together, make it a fun time, such as a bed-time story, rather than a lesson.
Encourage Learning
Try to encourage your child to learn things for themselves, and not just ask you for the answers. Teach them how to find the answers for themselves. If they reach a word they don’t know when they’re reading, don’t just tell them what it means. Instead, show them how to look it up. Use the dictionary together to find the unfamiliar word. Teach them how to sound out words so they can make a good guess at how to say them. This gives your child the tools to understand what they are reading, even if you aren’t there.
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