Struggles with Reading

Growing YearsIf your child (grades 3 and up) is struggling with reading, you can encourage reading by making a strong connection between reading and life.

Hearing a story read aloud is an excellent way to encourage reading. Encourage your children to listen, make comments, and ask questions. Children want to read books or stories that makes them laugh, cry, or shiver and gasp and poems that reflect what they feel. They need to be able to imagine themselves in a character’s shoes for a spine-tingling adventure. Children love chapter books, with one chapter read at a time (daily).

Give your child opportunities to read and write lists, messages, letters, notes, and postcards to relatives and friends. When you make out your grocery list, give it to your child and ask your child to look through newspaper ads to find the prices of as many items as possible, write them down, then look through your coupons to select the ones you can use. List the birthdays of family members, relatives, and friends, and ask your child to create birthday cards with a short verse inside.

Find a fable, fairy tale, or other short story for your child to read. Then ask your child to illustrate a part of the story he or she likes best or describe a favorite character.

Ask your child to read a recipe to you as you work, and tell the child that each step must be done in a special order. Let your child help mix the ingredients. Ask your child to look for other recipes from the cookbook to help make.

Help your child start a journal. Discuss topics that can be written about, such as interesting things at school or home. Encourage your child to write at least one thing each day.

When planning a trip, let your child see the road map and help you plan where you will go. Talk about where you will start and where you will end up. When driving, ask your child to look for a sign that indicates where you need to go (“We need to exit the highway at Exit 25, please watch and let me know when you see the sign that says Exit 25”) or the street you are looking for.

Clip out an interesting news story and cut the paragraphs apart. Ask your child to read the paragraphs and put them in order. Look up the movie page and ask what he/she thinks the movie is about.

Have your child name 10 favorite shows. put them into categories according to the type of show they are (family, cartoons, comedies, sports, science fiction, news, information), and devise a rating scale from 1 to 5. Ask your child to check the guides and let you know what the shows will be about each week, and write down five unfamiliar words heard.