Learning to read unlocks access to the world. It’s a power that lets us learn, communicate, make change, and take charge. When kids struggle to learn to read in school, parents and caregivers may wonder what they can do to support their kids through the learning to read journey. We’ve got some ideas to get started.
When we read, our brains connect how printed letters and words look on the page, how letters and words sound, and what words mean. In order to do this, we need to know how to translate how letters and words look when printed into how they sound when we talk out loud. That process is called decoding or word recognition. We also need to know what words mean. We need to understand lots of vocabulary words and we need to understand the context of what we’re reading. That process is called language comprehension. These two processes—word recognition and language comprehension—form the foundation of reading.
Parents and caregivers can support what kids learn in school by helping kids grow their word recognition and language comprehension.
Play with rhymes. Sing rhyming songs. Play guessing games. Say, “I’m thinking of an animal that rhymes with log. Can you guess it?” (It’s dog!)
Help kids learn the sounds that letters make. When kids are learning the alphabet, help them learn not just the names of the letters but also what sounds they make when you say them out loud.
Sound it out. Listen to your child read out loud to you. When they stumble or make a mistake, encourage them to take their time and think about each sound that the letters make. Make the sound of each letter slowly and then blend them together to make a word.
Read together. Read all kinds of books with your child. Read picture books, poetry books, and nonfiction books. Talk about what makes all of these books different from each other.
Discover words. Kids need a rich vocabulary in order for their reading to make sense. Keep an ear out for rare or interesting words in books, movies and everyday life. Talk with your child about what new words mean.