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Education
is more than just what students learn in school. Education
begins at home where parents are the first primary
teachers. Parents therefore should never have a hands
off approach about any part of their child's education.
In fact children who are struggling in school need
the support of their parents more than ever. The trouble
is most parents are never quite sure exactly what
they can do to help. This article focuses on struggling
readers and what parents can do at home to help their
children.
There are
certain strategies that teacher's use in the classroom
that can be adapted for use at home. Teachers know
that Phonological awareness, Phonemic awareness, phonics,
fluency and comprehension are key skills that every
child should master. However a lot a parents don't
know exactly how to go about helping their child develop
these core reading skills.
To help
your child to acquire phonological awareness skills
which is simply the ability to break down the language
into smaller units, use nursery rhymes. Say them along
with your child and play rhyming word games with them.
You can say one word such as "cake" and have your
child tell you a word that rhymes. Clap to syllables
in word you call with your child for example: din/ner(two
claps) break/fast(two claps) bed(one clap).
Help your
child develop phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness
is the ability to manipulate phonemes (sounds). Teach
your child songs and then substitute different phonemes(sounds)
for the beginning sound in words.
For example:
Sweetly sings the donkey At the break of day, If you
do not feed him This is what he'll say, Hee haw, hee
haw, hee haw, hee haw, hee haw!
Can be
changed to: tweetly tings the tonkey At the break
of day, If you do not feed him This is what he'll
say, tee taw, tee taw, tee taw, tee taw, tee taw!
In this example "t" was used as a substitute.
To develop
phonics skills listen to your child reading. Play
the hang man game. Let your child touch and say words
as they write them.
To help
your child become a fluent reader do echo reading
activites. During echo reading you will read a sentence
or short phrase and then your child will repeat what
you have said. In this way you become a model. To
develop fluency you can also read along with the child.
Turn your home into a little theatre by acting out
different scenes in a book using the dialogue. The
whole family can get involved in this.
Get a copy
of the Dolch word list. You can get a copy from several
sites on the internet. The Dolch word list consists
of 220 words. These words account for about 75% of
all the words used in children's book. These words
can be made into flash cards. You can make them out
of construction paper or on the computer. Hold up
the words on the cards and have your child practice
calling a few of them everyday.
To develop
reading comprehension ask your child to predict what
will happen in a story before you read it to them.
These predictions can be based on the cover art and
title. At the end of reading ask questions that begin
with the five W's: who, what, when, where and why.
About
the Author: Simone Mary is a teacher, writer and artist.
She is the author of the eBook TEACHING READING AND
WRITING, for more reading strategies and for a free
copy of the eBook GET ON THE HONOR ROLL-TEST AND EXAM
TAKING TIPS THAT WORK visit www.thereadingandwritingshop.com
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Speech & Language Development
