Reading development benefits greatly when children receive consistent support both at school and at home. This dual approach ensures that children have ample opportunities to practise and refine their skills in different contexts, leading to better fluency, comprehension, and overall confidence in reading. By involving parents in the reading process, children receive the encouragement and reinforcement they need to become successful readers.
If you're a teacher/SENCo reading this, you might want to send over the URL to a parent so they can see for themselves.
Of course, at home is just one place to improve a child's reading skills. To look at tips for in the classroom click here, for assistive technology click here, and for extra support you can click here.
Pre-Teaching and Repeated Reading
Pre-teaching and repeated reading are effective strategies used to improve students' comprehension and engagement with class texts, particularly in a secondary school setting. Pre-teaching involves introducing key vocabulary and concepts before the student encounters them in the main text, giving them a head start in understanding the material. Repeated reading, on the other hand, involves reading the same text multiple times, allowing students to deepen their comprehension and retention of the material.
How This Helps:
Pre-teaching prepares students for what they are about to read, reducing the cognitive load during the actual reading process. By familiarising students with difficult vocabulary and complex ideas beforehand, they can focus more on understanding the overall meaning of the text rather than getting stuck on unfamiliar words or concepts. This strategy is particularly beneficial for students who may struggle with reading comprehension or those learning in a second language.
Activities to Try at Home
Pre-Teaching Vocabulary
Introduce key vocabulary and concepts before students read the text. Discuss these in the context of the upcoming reading to give students a clearer idea of what to expect.
Multiple Readings
Allow students to read the text multiple times. During the first reading, focus on general comprehension. In subsequent readings, encourage students to pay attention to specific details, themes, or vocabulary.
Pair with Discussion:
After each reading, talk to your child about what they have read. Ask them questions, or encourage them to ask you questions!
How to get involved
Parental support with reading involves parents actively participating in their child's reading journey by engaging in activities like reading together, playing word games, and integrating reading into daily routines.
This support helps children see reading as a natural and enjoyable part of life. When parents read with their children and engage in reading-related activities, it strengthens the child's reading skills and builds a positive association with reading. It also provides an opportunity for parents to model good reading habits and strategies. Additionally, using tools like decodable books and phonics apps can reinforce what children are learning at school.
Before you begin, make sure you know your phonics. In early schooling, all children are taught to read through phonics. See phonics page here. Make sure you are pronouncing your letters correctly, in their purest form. For a demonstration of how the alphabetic sounds should be pronounced, watch the free film “Articulation of Sounds.”
Activities to try at home
Read Together
Parents should spend time reading together with their child using decodable books that match their reading level. This not only helps improve their reading skills but also provides a bonding experience. At home, children should be reading texts comfortably, without too many struggles with words. As a guide, anything over 90% accuracy (no more than 1 in 10 minstakes) will be impactful. If your child is repeatedly coming home with books from school that are harder than this, it might be worth having a chat with the teacher.
Play "Word Hunt":
Turn reading into a fun game by playing "Word Hunt" around the house. Have your child find and read words on everyday items like cereal boxes, labels, or signs.
Incorporate Reading into Daily Activities
Integrate reading into practical tasks that parents are doing anyway, making it both functional and fun. For example, reading the the options aloud on Netflix or reading out a recipe (or for older children, reading out a newspaper article).
Frequent Short Sessions
Implementing frequent, short reading practice sessions at home can significantly improve a child's reading fluency and comprehension. Regular, brief sessions—such as 5-10 minutes each day—are often more effective than longer, infrequent ones. We know that children often are less patient with their parents!
Active Reading Strategies
Active reading involves engaging with the text through questioning, predicting, and summarising. Encourage your child to ask questions about the story, predict what might happen next, and summarise the main points after reading. This helps deepen their comprehension and makes reading a more interactive experience.
Shared Reading:
Shared reading is when you and your child read a text aloud together. This strategy is particularly useful for building fluency, as it allows the child to hear the correct pronunciation and pacing of the words while reading along with you. It’s also a great way to build confidence, as your child feels supported by reading with someone else.
Repeated Reading
For this strategy, you can read a sentence, phrase or line, and your child can repeat. This works really well for children who are reluctant to read aloud or lack fluency and confidence. Plan in a cue (e.g. tapping the table) for when they are ready to read alone.
Tips for older children
As children grow older, their reading needs evolve, and parental support remains crucial in helping them navigate more complex texts.
Supporting older readers involves encouraging independent reading while providing guidance when they encounter challenging material. This support can include discussing books, integrating real-life reading tasks, and using tools that cater to their specific needs, such as high-interest, low-level books or assistive technology like audiobooks. See the below for more tips.
Tips for older learners
Encourage Independent Reading
Support your child in choosing books that interest them. High-interest, low-level books are particularly useful for keeping older readers engaged without overwhelming them.
Discuss Books Together
After a child finishes a book or a chapter, have a discussion about the content. Ask open-ended questions about the themes, characters, and their thoughts on the story. This practice enhances comprehension and analytical skills. You can even do this after a short section of text if the child is reluctant to read. Alternatively, make predictions together about what is to come next.
Integrate Real-Life Reading:
Involve the child in real-life reading tasks such as following a recipe, reading instructions for assembling a project, or exploring news articles. This makes reading relevant and practical, helping them connect reading to everyday life. Encourage them to read around their own personal interests, e.g. football, Warhammer, creative arts, Fortnight!
Audiobooks and Podcasts
These days many people discover their love of reading indirectly. Finding audiobooks, podcasts or Youtube videos that discuss a topic, might be a good precusor to reading physical books. Audiobooks have a number of benefits for children and young people, including embedding language patterns, learning vocabulary, enhancing literacy repertoire and self-soothing.
Frequent Short Sessions
It's not about the child reading volumes and reels of text. Improvement comes from little and often, just 15 minutes a day is enough.
A Final Word
Don't push it. Try to accommodate your child's interests and level of engagement, choose a time that works for them, and make it fun and successful, but ultimately, if your child is reluctant to read, don't force it. Talk to the school and try alternatives, such as audiobooks, then try again in a few weeks.
Recommended tools
Assistive technology tools like text-to-speech and speech-to-text can be highly beneficial for students with a high risk of dyslexia, especially those with dyslexia or other reading challenges. These technologies can also be useful at home - we have written about this in another article, click here for more information.