Ready Set Read Specific Activities To Make Your Child A Reader

Ready, Set, Read: Specific Activities To Make Your Child A Reader!

Providing positive, enjoyable literacy experiences give young children opportunities to gain the knowledge, awareness, skills, and love of learning that they need to later learn to read independently. Here are 8 ways you can provide those experiences:

CHOOSE THE RIGHT BOOKS

Choose books that have large colorful pictures or photos; a few words on a page; rich language; and relate to concepts, people, or things in children's lives. With this exposure, young children learn that books and reading explain the world they live in and ultimately help them better understand themselves. Sound like a tall order for a toddler?

Not really when you consider perennial favorites such as The Hungry Caterpillar. This book does not contain many words but teaches counting and science concepts.

READ OUT LOUD

Read to children regularly and often. Pick a regular reading time, but also watch for opportunities to read books, signs, letters, or other print spontaneously. The experience of reading as a typical, everyday occurrence helps children gain confidence that they can learn to read themselves.

Stories influence children's learning for life. Some research suggests that the more stories children hear before entering school, the more likely they will be successful academically. Listening to books benefits their vocabulary and comprehension.

Spending just 15 minutes a day on this worthwhile activity can reap tremendous benefits!

MAKE READING FUN

Use a variety of expressions, tones, and voices to make a book even more fun.

Allow a child to listen at her own pace. If a baby fusses or a toddler wanders away, don't worry. Set the book aside and try again later. A baby may only listen for a minute or two at a time. Toddlers may want to wander around while you read, or listen to a few pages, move on to something else, and then return for a few more pages.

Encourage a child to join in on repeating phrases or rhymes, and honor requests to read the same book over and over.

MAKE BOOKS AVAILABLE

Make books available to babies and toddlers every day. Babies don't distinguish books from other toys and may pull, toss, or chew books. This tactile, physical exploration of books and how they work is important to literacy development.

Show how books work. Point out the cover, show which is the top and bottom, front and back of the book, and talk about how words are read from left to right on the page. Use your finger to point to a word and the corresponding picture on the page.

TALK TO YOUR CHILD

Remember literacy is about more than reading the printed word, it is about communication and understanding.

According to the National Research Council in Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Reading Success, "Talk is essential - the more meaningful and substantive the better." Babies and toddlers learn about the sounds, meanings, and ideas in language when adults talk with them. Preschoolers expand their vocabulary and learn sentence structure.

Conversations with your children about what they are reading are critical to children's learning. Discussing books helps them understand how stories work, and how language works. When reading, stop and talk about the pictures and words on the page.

LISTEN TO YOUR CHILD

As much as babies, toddlers, and preschoolers need to hear language, they also need to practice and imitate sounds and words with interested listeners. Respond to your child's conversation and repeat their words back to them. Ask questions to show you are listening and that encourage a child to talk. Listen carefully and acknowledge answers. Listen to children's questions and take time to answer.

SING WITH YOUR CHILD

Children love to sing and can learn a great deal about stories and language from many popular children's songs. Songs also often teach through their content (alphabet, counting, etc.) Many nursery rhymes can also be learned through song and knowledge of nursery rhymes is an important part of overall literacy.

Pull out old favorites like "This Old Man" or "Where is Thumbkin?" and make up your own songs, too.

LET YOUR CHILD WRITE

When children write, they naturally begin to pay attention to the sounds words make and the letters that form words. And it doesn't matter how they spell! Recent research shows that young children who are allowed to write often with invented spelling, develop the ability to become good readers.

BONUS : Ready Your Child For Reading

It's never too soon to start your child on the path to reading. Simply talking to your infant and toddler helps her develop the vocabulary she will need as she enters school and begins to read. As you point and name objects, she will begin to understand the meaning of words, and will eventually begin to incorporate those words into her vocabulary.

The U.S. Department of Education recommends beginning to read to your baby when she is six months old. According to their 2003 report, "Hearing words over and over helps her become familiar with them. Reading to your baby is one of the best ways to help her learn."

In that same report, the Department of Education also recommends that parents reach out to groups that can:

* Help you find age-appropriate books to use at home with your child;

* Show you creative ways to use books with your child and other tips to help her learn; and

* Provide year-round children's reading and educational activities.

A child's love for reading grows when the words on the page come to life through experiences shared as a family. For example, after reading Eric Carle's Ten Little Rubber Ducks to your toddler, you can learn all about real ducks, make ocean snacks, or go on a family outing and feed the ducks at a nearby pond.

In order to help your child get ready to read, the Department of Education also recommends:

* Using sounds, songs, gestures, and words that rhyme to help your baby learn about language and its many uses.

* Pointing out the printed words in your home and other places you take your child to, such as the grocery store.

* Spending as much time listening to your child as you do talking to her.

* Taking children's books and writing materials with you whenever you leave home. This gives your child fun activities to entertain and occupy herself while traveling and running errands.

* Creating a quiet, special place in your home for your child to read, write, and draw.

* Keeping books and other reading materials where your child can easily reach them. Having her own bookshelf or small bookcase will not only make her feel special, but will also communicate to her that reading is special.

* Reading books, newspapers and magazines yourself, so that your child can see that reading is important.

* Limiting the amount and type of television you and your child watch.

The best thing for you do to ensure that your child will grow up reading well and loving to read is to read to her every day. The time you spend reading together will create a special bond between the two of you, and will open the doors for a dialogue that will continue throughout the more trying years of adolescence. The Department of Education suggests that, when you're reading, you discuss new words. As an example, they suggest that you say, "This big house is called a palace. Who do you think lives in a palace?" Likewise, they suggest taking time to ask about the pictures and what your child thinks is happening in the story.

The same report suggests additional strategies for early literacy:

* When reading a book with large print, point at each word as you read it. Your child will understand that the word being spoken is the word she sees.

* Read a favorite book over and over again.

* Read stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat, and have your child join in.

* Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, poems, and non-fiction.

The more strategies you can incorporate into your child's reading experience, the more likely you are to help your child develop into a strong reader.