How can I help my child outside of school?

As a parent, supporting your child outside of their classroom is essential. Students need to take the reading skills that they learn in school and practice reading books at home. As your child is reading, it is important to know how to support their developing reading skills. Having your child read aloud to you is a great tool. However, to be effective parents should know how to provide effective scaffolding or help. The statement "sound it out" is completely ineffective, even though it is a very common saying used by parents. If your child is stuck on a word, the following 5-step practice is a quick and effective way to provide help. 

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1. Wait. Children sometimes need a couple of seconds to rethink the word they are reading. By waiting 5 seconds, the child may self-correct the error. 

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2. Finish the sentence. By reading the rest of the sentence, students can use context clues to assume what the unknown word is. 

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3. Brief help. If the student cannot get the word after waiting and using context clues, slowly uncover the word with a coverup and have them decode the word slowly.

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4. Provide word. If the first three steps fail, provide the word. If you draw out the scaffolding, the student will lose track of the story. Simply provide the word and continue reading. 

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5. Reread. This is the most important step because the student needs to get back into the plotline of the text. Always have the student reread the sentence before continuing.

 

The main thing you can do as a parent for your young reader is make reading a fun activity, not a chore. Reading should be fun and time should be set aside each day to complete some kind of reading activity. Once children see reading as a chore, their progress slows down rapidly. Keep reading fun and enjoyable by getting engaging and interesting books. Be sure to provide simple and quick help to not take your child's focus from the story. 

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