Begin Bright's 5 top tips for reading with your child

15.12.17 02:07 PM By Begin Bright

At Begin Bright we believe that reading with your child is one of the most important activities that you can share together. Reading helps to build the foundations of all social and academic learning. No matter the age of your child, make storytime exciting and fun! Check out our top tips below!

1. Take turns

Instead of just one of you reading, you can take turns reading each page. This way your child can hear the expression in your voice and you can show them how punctuation, such as a full stops, question marks or exclamation marks sound when reading aloud.

2. Talk about the book

Before reading, talk about the cover of the book, the title and the pictures, and discuss what the book may be about. Will it be a made-up story or real? Who will be in the story? What will happen at the end? During reading the book, discuss what has been read up to that point and predict what might happen next.

3. Point out the grammar and punctuation

Ask them to point out different things within the text such as capital letters, full stops, question marks, speech marks and particular words such as sight words that they may need to revise.

4. Go over the story at the end

After you've finished reading with your child, talk with them and ask questions about the story and the pictures. See if they can remember details such as the characters names and what they looked like or did. You could ask if they enjoyed the book and had a favourite part of the story.

5. Pause, Prompt, Praise

When your child is reading and encounters words that are difficult for them, use the Three Ps technique Pause, Prompt, Praise to support them:

Pause

When your child comes to a word they don’t know, try not to jump in straight away. Wait and give your child time to work out the word.

Prompt

If your child successfully works out the problem word, suggest they go back to the beginning of the sentence and re-read it before reading on.

If they can't work out the problem word, prompt them with some suggestions:

  • "Try reading on for a sentence or two, miss out the tricky word and see if that helps you to work it out."
  • "Look at the sound the word begins with, use that clue, and think about what may make sense here? Look at the pictures."

If prompts like these are not working, simply tell your child the correct word.

Try not to spend too much time prompting, as your child will find it difficult to maintain the overall meaning of what they are reading.

Praise

Always praise their effort and success. Reading should be fun and enjoyable and this is one of the most important things to teach your child.

 

Find out more about how the Begin Bright programmes can help set the foundations for reading success!