Supporting reading at home

Concentrate on reading quality.

There can be an opportunity to read on any occasion. Read leaflets, instructions, newspapers, comics, webpages, lyrics and subtitles. Reading does not always have to be in books.

Questions are key.

Give reading a purpose so that children can engage with the process; this will assist with their understanding of a text. Read with your child, not ‘to them’. Ask questions that begin: who, what, why, where, when and how. Why did the character behave like that?

Make predictions.

Be a detective! Look for clues in whatever you read. The front cover, or the last chapter could give you clues. What do they think the outcome will be? For a recipe/ process- ask them to name the next step/ ingredients. This way children are actively engaged when they read as they want to see if their predictions were correct.

Ask them to summarise what they have read.

Acting out what you have read; creating a timeline of events; summarising the information into 5 bullet points and drawing/sketching the information read can all assist with understanding and help children remember this information.

Write about what you have read.

Can you turn the writing into a new creation? Capture it in a treasure map. Become word wizards and find out more about interesting and new vocabulary. Look at the etymology (the word’s history/ where it originates from). The morphology (the word’s structure and parts) does it have a prefix (before the root word) or a suffix (after the root word)? E.g.: autobiography- auto= ‘oneself’ bio= ‘life’ graphy= ‘writing’.

Make reading an important part of your lives.

Encourage children to discuss what you have read together with your family- through video calls. Set up an online reading club with their friends. Get in touch with authors through social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Motivate them.

At any opportunity encourage children to read and highlight the enjoyment of it. Reading unlocks education and will enable your child to follow their hopes and dreams.

Turn the subtitles on.

Numerous studies have found that children are drawn to, and actively engage with subtitles when they are watching TV and subscription services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube Kids and Sky). As a result, this can expose children to a variety of vocabulary, sentence constructions, grammar, and punctuation. This is not to replace reading, but to supplement it and help with a child’s reading fluency.

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