How To Help Your Child Learn To Read

This is a common problem. Kids often want to read books that are well beyond their present scope of reading (usually 'chapter' books!) While there are more and more easy 'chapter' books being produced, the text can still be quite complex. Likewise, 'picture' books often have quite complex text, despite having less text per page.

 Children need to be able to read 95% of the words in any text to help improve their reading skills. They will often struggle through text that's too hard, either completely unaware or completely unconcerned that they are not comprehending it.

What to do when another 'too-difficult' book comes home with your child:

1 If he can read fewer than 90% of the words on a page, you do the reading. Focus him on the content. Talk with him about the people and ideas if it's an informational book, or characters and events if it's a narrative book. Share what you both think the author would add if there was one extra page at the end.

2 If he can read 90-95% of the words on a page, take turns to read the pages. You read one, he reads the next etc. This way he is well supported and will still feel successful at reading. Kids really enjoy this turn-taking. You can also take turns with sentences if that seems more appropriate. Sentence turn-taking also helps them pay attention to where sentences begin and end.

3 If he can read 95% of the words on a page...he can read this level of text independently. BTW, it's a good idea to start practising the 'turn-taking' idea with a text he can read independently. It introduces it as just a fun thing to do every now and then.

4 Get across the idea that it's ok to read just a few pages of a book. Quite often children (and adults) get caught up thinking they must get to the end in one go.

5 Teach your child the 'Five-Finger Check' if he can read small amounts of text successfully (not if he can't read or has only just started reading.) It's a great way to get him to select books himself that are perfect for him. Show him how to look at any page in a book and put a finger down for each word that he doesn't know. If more than five fingers go down, the text is too difficult and a different book should be chosen.
Children respond well to being taught this strategy as long as you explain why it's a good idea. They need to know that if they have to think hard about each word to work it out, it is very difficult to get the actual meaning of the information or story...and that understanding what the author has written is the whole point of reading!

6 Teach your child to 'read on' past a difficult word to the end of the sentence. This is a reading strategy that often helps children work out words they don't know or can't 'sound out'. 'Sounding out' only works for some words, as I'm sure you've discovered.