How to ensure your child will be a great reader.

One thing I am asked regularly, as a friend who happens to be a teacher, is how a parent can help a child to improve their reading. It is a very important question because reading can be such an important part of not only learning at school, but also for everyday life.

Reading is a skill that not only helps people acquire new information, but it also connects people, helps people investigate/research, helps with identifying or explaining problems, can give direction and inspiration, can lead to new passions, and quite frankly can just be an enjoyable way to relax. Me personally, the idea of reading curled up on the lounge with a cuppa in silence, is one thing I love. So as both a parent and teacher, I believe becoming a great reader is crucial.

But the question on everyones's lips is how do we help children become great readers?

I am going to put it out there and say I believe there are two main things which can encourage a child to become a good reader. First: A love of reading. Second: Relationship.

Now as a teacher there are millions of ways that I can help children with the mechanics of reading. Millions. But ultimately, they have got to want it, just like anything in anyones' lives.

A love of reading

One of the best gifts I have ever received was from a boy I taught in Year 4. He was very intelligent, quiet, well liked by everyone but didn't like to talk, and could respond to any learning activity with ease. But. But his parents were concerned that although he was achieving great results, he just didn't love reading, and he would never read by choice. I could completely understand their concern, so one morning before school I placed a favourite book of mine, quite challenging for a Year 4 student, on his desk with a post-it attached: "just thought you might like to take a look at this." A little while later I found the book on my desk with a note inside: "do you have the next book?" This went on over the year, and after finishing the series I didn't hear any more about it.

That is until one of the last days of school.

The child handed me a Christmas card without a word as others did the same. Later, I opened the card to find a gift voucher for a book store and a note: "I always knew how to read. Thank you for helping me learn to love it." I later found out from his parents that the child had saved his pocket money and purchased it himself. My best teacher moment ever.

Learning to read is more than decoding and fluency etc. It's about understanding that the words can lift off the page and come alive, taking you to places you'd never known before.

For some children it can be as simple as finding a book they love, especially if it is in a series. For others it can be realising that reading can allow them to investigate things in the word around them.

Parents can help develop a love of reading in their child by:

• Reading to the child. All. The. Time. Even when parents are tired and don't feel like it. Read and read and read. This is when they are younger, but also when they grow up a little and can read. It has been noted that students reading results tend to fall from Year 4 onwards, which is the typical age at which parents stop thinking it is important to read to their child.

• Listening to the child read. And not only school readers which can be more than boring sometimes! Let them pick familiar favourites and smile and listen. Importantly after they finish reading, make sure there is a comment ready such as: "I really like listening to you read" or "it makes me happy sitting here, listening to you." 

• Taking the child to the library. If the child is lost in the wilderness of not knowing what they like to read, take them to the library and give them lots of time to look. Allow them to choose lots of books if they want to, even if it is annoying to find space for them at home. Sometimes it takes a great deal of trial and error to find a book that draws a person in.

• Letting older children read picture books. Parents sometimes become concerned that their children only like to read picture books. Reading is reading is reading. If they are loving reading picture books, rejoice! It means they like reading. They will move on when they are ready. It is probably also helpful to note that the reading level of many picture books is up around a Year 3 or 4 level. Sitting down sharing pictures books with an older child can really take the pressure off all concerned.

• Accepting that reading factual books is still reading. This can be difficult for some parents, because reading means fiction to them. For some children reading comes alive when using the skill to discover the world around them. Asking a child to read what they find to be the most interesting, can be a great way to help with reading, because the child will want to inform the parent! 

• Showing the child that they love reading too. It doesn't matter what is read, as long as it is done preferably by both parents often, with the children watching the parent/s read. Kids know what is important and loved by their parents by watching them. Children also know what isn't.

• Keeping a list of all the books the child has read. Write a list of every book read, even the really short ones. It will help the child to feel good about themselves as a reader, rather than a struggler. In those I-am-a-bad-reader moments that some children have, this list posted somewhere central, can be a real help.

The last and most important thing parents can do to ensure that their children become great readers is to make reading a bonding experience.

Relationship

People love to connect with one another. They like to feel that they matter and that they are heard. Using an already established relationship with the child, to encourage a love of reading, and develop the skills needed to read, is a great idea.

This is the sequence I have suggested to friends-who-are-parents in the past:

Step 1 - Get back to the love of it
If a child is really struggling with reading and basically hates everything about it, the first thing to do is stop making the child read. Yep, completely stop. Go back to basics and just enjoy books together for a couple of weeks. Choose picture books or other books that the child perhaps loved hearing when they were very little and talk about them. Listen to what the child thinks about the book, questions the child has, or opinions a child is usually more than willing to give. The aim is to leave the brief reading experience happy. Make the experience all about the child and a special time together. Chances are the child will love that special time with a parent, with no other distractions.

Step 2 - Turn about
Reading aloud can be really confronting for students experiencing difficulty or who don't like to read. A way to get past this is taking turns. Start with "I read a bit, you read a bit," choosing small parts (even just a sentence) for the child, while the parent reads large sections. Apart from taking the intense focus off the child, it also helps the child hear what fluent reading sounds like and the child will attempt to mimic the parent.

Step 3 - Turn about, a page at a time.
Same as above, but a whole page at a time.

Step 4 - Listen to the child read all, with quick help
Once the child appears more confident and is happy to have reading time together, the parent can decide to have a cuppa at reading time, explaining that the child will have to read all the text. The key is to be super quick and subtle with help for unknown words, so that the flow of reading isn't lost.

Step 5 - Listening to the child read and encouraging additional reading time alone
Continue as step 4, allowing a little more time before jumping in to help with unknown words. It is also time for the parent to suggest that the child have a grown-up reading time alone! Reading by a night light can be super special, or creating a reading tent/teepee etc. The key is to continue to make it relationship based, with the parent commenting that they "simply can't wait to hear" what the book was like. This individual reading time should not replace reading time together.

From this point on, a parent doesn't need to look far to find opportunities to encourage everyday reading moments. Asking for help to read a recipe because the parent is 'too busy' stirring. Reading a school note to check for an item, because the parent is in the middle of cleaning the kitchen. Reading an instruction manual aloud while the parent holds the parts of the bookshelf together. Reading is a skill for living. No matter how much a teacher in a classroom tells a child that, the child will only really see it as fact through their everyday life with their family.

Reading is wonderful, but can seem just like too much hard work and another opportunity to fail for some children. Once they learn to love it, there is no holding a child back! I hope this has helped:)

Jen.x