FREE LITERACY TREATMENT
How to Engage your child in Reading
Please see Services section on Enhance Reading & Writing for more information on how Amy can enhance your child's flourishing reading skills!
ENGAGE!
1. INTEREST!
Allow him or her to choose a book, or even a magazine... whatever interests him or her that is readable and is at their reading level! You can find out what their reading level is from your child's teacher and school, and match it with your local library and sometimes bookstores. The key word here is interest. If they are not interested in the material, they will not engage in, grasp, or continue to read it.
2. Reading Time TOGETHER!
Set aside reading time for you and your child and take turns reading to each other. One night you read to them, the next, they read to you. Tell them how long you will do this for each night so they are prepared for it. It only has to be 20 minutes even. Leave 10 minutes at the end to discuss what you read.
3. VOCABULARY
OLDER CHILDREN VOCABULARY - USE A DICTIONARY!
Discuss vocabulary words! If the older children get stuck on a word they don't know the meaning of, have them get in the habit of keeping a dictionary close by and looking up the meaning, and other words used for the same meaning. Don't give them the answer, even though you might feel compelled to do so! Teach them how to do it on their own, either through the dictionary or from the context surrounding the word in what they are reading. Once they have figured it out, discuss it!
YOUNGER CHILDREN VOCABULARY-
MULTISENSORY! MULTISENSORY! MULTISENSORY!
Younger children need to experience vocabulary words in order to fully comprehend and use the newly learned words in conversation correctly. Ways to do this are to demonstrate or illustrate the vocabulary words you would like to concentrate on for the day in real life during play, or together time through modeling. Later, during reading, the child has an image to associate the word with and can recall that image during discussion with your assistance.
For both, older children and younger children, keep a running list of those vocabulary words. With younger children keep it simple. Just write the words on a list and keep it visible so they are more likely to see them and hopefully use them. With the older children, their lists should be more complex. Keep a special notebook that includes the word, the definition, and a sentence using the word, a synonym, and an antonym. There are special forms for this kind of thing called "graphic organizers". Here's a good graphic organizer specifically used to increase vocabulary for an example. /uploads/7/5/7/4/7574967/org-wordweb.pdfweeblylink_new_window
4. WRITING
Don't forget, reading and writing are heavily corresponded and develop together. Have your child write about what he or she is reading; what they think about their readings and what they might like to read next.
The more practice and exposure to reading and writing, the better! So keep your children exposed! And remember, they model after their parents, so if they see you reading, and if you do it with them, they will feel more compelled to do it more often! The most important thing that parents can do to prepare their children to succeed in school is to read aloud to them everyday.
Here's another website for more on summer reading help: http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/forparents/a/summer.htm
Building Blocks for Reading
-foundational literacy skills
| prfbooklet.pdf |
Classroom Accommodations
The ways in which each child acquires their education; learns in the classroom, is different for each child... especially a child with a learning disability or dyslexia. Talking to the teacher to make them aware of your child's' classroom needs is crucial. Taking action is imperative. Simple things such as taking steps to assure that your child sits in the front of the class during floor time and at desks as well as near minimal distractions (i.e, not near the window or door where it could be noisy). Please download the below document for assistance in beginning this detrimental conversation with your child's educators.
| accommodationsldhandout.pdf |
Trick for learning b and d
Children who have difficulty reading and writing, often confuse the letters and sounds b and d. This is often misconstrued as the misconception of people with dyslexia having to do with reading and writing backwards. A good trick, along with the song above, is having the person write down the word "bed" in lower case. Ask the person to say the word aloud, identifying the sounds /b/ and /d/. Ask them to keep this word written in a notebook they will use as their assistance notebook. When they get confused, they can go to their notebook, check the word bed, sound it out, and visually see which way the /b/ faces and which way the /d/ faces.