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parents role
Reading is fun and exciting. It opens
the door to your child’s imagination and creates memories you share with your
child. It is important to remember
that there is no perfect way to instantly make your child a reader. Every
child is different and will learn at their pace, just as they learned to
crawl, walk and talk at their own pace. There are, however a lot of things
you can do to help your beginning reader.
 Start by setting aside a special time to
read and discuss books.
Find a quiet, cozy place to read.
Have your child color and decorate a shoe
box to store books published by your child as well as booklets they will be
bringing home from school.
Most importantly read, read, read some more
to your child.
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What
books should I choose?
When
your child is ready to begin reading look for books that:
ü Have large print and big spaces between
words
ü Have pictures that support the text
ü Have repeated phrases of text
ü Have words that your child already knows
ü Are interesting to your child
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Is
it okay that my child seems to be memorizing the books?
Memorizing text is normal. In many ways it helps the
reader by allowing the reader to focus on the parts of the text that change. It
also helps the reader to become more fluent and confident in their reading.
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Why do beginning readers asked to
point to the words as they read?
Pointing
at the words helps to focus the reader on the text. It helps the reader match
their spoken words to the written words and therefore making that language
connection to print. It also helps the reader to understand the concepts
about print, such as when one word ends and another begins, that there are
spaces between words and punctuation.
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Is it okay that my child uses the
pictures instead of reading the words?
Good readers use the pictures as a tool to help them read.
It is one strategy used to help them read.
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Why shouldn’t my child sound out
every word?
Matching letters and sounds
is important not only for reading, but writing as well. Because young readers
are taught to use multiple strategies for reading unknown words, such as
picture clues, there is not a need to “sound out” every word. Some of the
other strategies will help the reader to read the word quicker and will help
in those situations where sounding out does not work.
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Strategies
for Tricky Words
Look at the picture 
The dinosaur is big.
Look at the beginning sound The dinosaur is big.
Get your mouth ready 
Try it 
Look for parts in the word that are
known The car is behind the truck.
Ask yourself: Does it make sense? 
Ask yourself: Does it sound right?
Ask yourself: Does it look right?
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Activities for Beginning
Readers
 Read daily to your child – even if all
you have is 10 minutes
 Reread stories and as your child gets
to know the story pause and let him/her finish the sentence.
 Put magnet letters on the refrigerator and
spell out words your child can copy like their name. “cat,” “dog,” “mom,” and
“dad”
 Read alphabet books and then help your
child make his own by cutting out and gluing magazine pictures to separate
pages.
 Have plenty of markers, crayons, pens, paper,
and other materials on hand and encourage kids to make books, write, and
draw.
 Ask your child to tell you a story
about what they have drawn. Write their words on the paper and read it back.
Also, ask your child to retell a story.
 Encourage children to invent word
spellings. They may look like nothing more than strings of letters but this
is how children connect sounds to letters, and is important for learning
letter sounds.
 Label furniture in your child’s room. Ask
your child to read words on billboards, cereal boxes, and signs.
 Visit the library with your child.
Children loving having their own library cards. Purchase used children’s
books from yard sales.
 As your child begins reading aloud, let
mistakes go as long as they don’t change the meaning of the story. For
example, if the sentence is, “She ran up the hill,” and the child reads, “She
is running up the hill, ”don’t correct it. If she reads, “she rain up the
hill,” ask if it makes sense. When correcting, do it gently.
Copied with permission from
the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory’s Comprehensive Center, Region
X.
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