15 Things You Can Do Today to Help Your Child Become a Better Reader
Are you worried about what you can do to help your child succeed as a reader? You are in good company because many parents struggle with how they can help their children in their reading development. Reading is such a foundational skill that is essential for academic success, so it’s no wonder so many parents worry. But don’t worry! Here are some quick tips that you can start today to help build better readers at home.
Share Your Love of Reading, Even If It Isn’t Completely Your Thing
One important way to get children excited about reading is by showing them that the adults around them love to read. While not everyone is an avid reader, it is extremely beneficial that the adults in their lives demonstrate the importance of reading in everyday life. And you don’t have to start reading novels to showcase this.
Something as simple as sharing how much you love reading with them at bedtime or talking about how much you love reading new recipes online can significantly impact a young learner. Children need to see the value in reading if we ever hope for them to work through the challenges it takes to begin to learn how to read.
Read Together Often
Make reading together a rigid routine in your daily schedule. Consistently reading with your children has immense benefits to your child’s reading development. However, there is no need for reading to be regimented. Look for those downtimes to pick up a book to read together throughout the day. If you have time in the morning rush, a good book is a great way to connect with your child before the hustle and bustle of the day begin. When you read with your child often, they will understand how valuable it is to share books with others.
Bring Books Everywhere!
The great thing about books is that they are small enough to pretty much travel anywhere! Pack up books to bring in the car, the doctor’s office, or on vacation! If you really think about it, many nooks and crannies of time throughout the day lend itself perfectly to picking up a good book. This is sometimes a perfect time for your child to practice reading independently. Even just looking at the pictures and making up words is an important developmental stage for very young children to build foundational reading skills.
Get Others Involved
The more people who get involved in your child’s reading life, the better! This helps to strengthen the love of reading and builds loving relationships around books. Often, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older cousins are great resources for finding new reading partners. Your child will cherish those memories, making them more motivated to become readers themselves.
Make Reading Books a Part of the Daily Routine
As mentioned earlier, children don’t necessarily need a structured time that they must read each day. Instead, build reading into the normal daily routine of each day. Bedtime is the best and most common time to include reading books. It is a great way to relax with your child and wind down from the day. This routine will help your child become a better reader and help them sleep better because of the calm environment reading creates.
Encourage Them to ‘Read’ on Their Own
While reading with your child is really important for modeling good reading behavior, rhythm, and tone, it is also important to give your children time to look at and explore books on their own. Even infants will enjoy exploring books on their own. It might include a little munching on the cover, but even that is building some excellent developmental skills.
As children get a little older, give them opportunities to look at books at their own pace. Keep books within reach so they can explore without assistance from an adult. If you’ve read a book often enough together, you might be amazed at how much of the book they remember as they try to read it independently. Even if they don’t memorize the words, they are practicing book handling skills and various other early literacy skills as they make up stories and look at pictures independently.
Make It Fun, Not a Chore
Children never like to have chores and try to avoid them at all costs. So when getting out books to read becomes a chore that is forced each day, it is time to reevaluate how you manage reading in your home. By finding books that interest your child, reading together, and giving them choices in their reading, you are much more likely to get a child who is a willing participant in daily reading.
Read a Variety of Books
The variety of books available for young children is endless! Nursery rhymes, poems, fairy tales, fiction, non-fiction, funny stories, and silly stories are all great options for young children. Make sure to include various books for you and your child to read. Showing children the various ways to enjoy books will help build their reading knowledge, so they will know what kinds of books they enjoy as they choose their own books.
Revisit Old Favorites Frequently
If your child loves are particular book and wants to read it again and again, you’re not alone. Many children become fascinated with one of their books and want to read it repeatedly for days or even weeks. Even though you might be sick of it, it is a great sign that your child is growing their love of books and reading. Just know that the phase won’t last forever, and there are many great reasons to read a book more than once. For example, by reading a book repeatedly, your child can start to recognize the pattern, tone, sequence of the story. This is an essential skill for early readers. Your little reader might also one day take the book from your hands and read it on their own! This helps build ownership of their reading and further develops their reading skills.
Talk With Your Child
Talking to infants and babies has been highly studied as a huge benefit for early literacy skills. During the first year of life, children will hear all the sounds they need to develop their native language. Talking with your child also helps build the vocabulary knowledge necessary for developing readers.
The wonderful thing about talking with your child is that the wider the topics, the better. Discuss the weather, the food they eat, the animals they see around them, or anything they discover in their books. These discussions have HUGE benefits for children as they develop their speech, language, and reading skills.
Attend Literacy Events In Your Area
Depending on where you live, you might have opportunities to take your young child to literacy events. This is a great way to socialize with other children and parents, but also a great learning experience. Literacy events are great not only for reading development but also for social and emotional development. And who doesn’t love to make a few new friends once in a while! Check with your local library or child care resource center to see if any events near you fit your schedule.
Create a Special Reading Place
Reading with your child can be a fun and relaxing experience, but it can also be wild and fun! Many times children love to have their own little corner or space that they can use to cuddle up with a good book and read. When they need a space to relax and recharge, a reading space might be perfect. This doesn’t need to be fancy. A couple of blankets and pillows will often do. And it can make their reading time all that much more special for them.
Give Books a Gifts and Rewards
While some people may say you can never have too many books, there really is a point where you have so many books that it overwhelms your child. However, many times giving books as gifts or rewards can be a great alternative over other toys or treats. Just make sure you do this sparingly so you don’t end up with a mountain of books on your floors.
If you don’t want to spend the money on new books, a trip to the local library is another great idea for a reward. Then your child can pick up any books that suit them, and you won’t need to store them indefinitely.
Get Acquainted With Your Local Library
The library is a fantastic resource for families who can’t afford new books or don’t want to store them. This gives children the opportunity to find new books that interest them as often as you can make a trip! The best part about the library is that most library cards are free to set up, and as long as you return your books on time, you won’t have to pay for your little bookworm to read as much as they desire.
Give Choices
Nothing dampens a child’s love of reading more than being told what they can and cannot read. Give your child a choice in the books they choose. Let them explore new topics and expand their horizon. Even if the book is too difficult for them to read independently, they can still look at the pictures to gather new information. Of course, there is always parental judgment needed for books that include developmentally inappropriate topics. While some topics might not be suitable for specific age groups, there are still many options for children to choose from to create their own reading preferences.
Build a Love of Reading at Home and Your Child Will Blossom as a Reader
Hopefully, these ideas will help you and your child begin to build a love of reading at home. The most important aspect of developing successful readers is to create an internal love of reading. This will give children the motivation and desire to learn those challenging skills needed to become better readers.