Help Your Child Learn to Read with these 5 Simple Reading Strategies

Help your child learn to read with these five tried and true reading strategies for decoding text.

As my children were growing up, one of my favorite things to do was to read with them. I loved to be able to share my love of reading and books with them.

We read stories that took us back in time and transported us to enchanting places. We fell in love with extraordinary characters and embarked on adventures that brought out a variety of emotions.

These moments we had together helped my children to become lifelong readers.

How can I help my child learn to read?

As a veteran teacher, parents often ask me how they can help their child read. First it is important to understand that there are three parts to reading: decoding, comprehension, and synthesis. Today, let’s focus on decoding.

Decoding is when your child reads the words in the text. In order to do this, they need to have developed an understanding of letters, sounds, and how they come together to create words.

So, what do you do when your child comes to a word they don’t know?

Today I am sharing five simple, tried and true reading strategies to help your child learn to read.

5 Simple Reading Strategies for Decoding Text:

1.  Sound it out or stretch it out. Think about the letters and their sounds and sound out the words.
2.  Look for word chunks or word parts. (Example: -ing in the word sing)
3.  Look for little words inside of larger words. (Example:  ear inside of hear)
4.  Look at the pictures. The pictures tell the story without the words.
5.  Skip the word and read to the end of the sentence.  Use context clues to think about what word would make sense in the sentence.

Also, remember children of all ages love to be read to. If your child is not ready to read yet, that is ok. Continue to read to them. Your young reader will learn learn vocabulary, hear the intonation in your voice, and begin to develop their comprehension strategies.

So, the next time you sit with your beginning reader, give these reading strategies a try.  I hope that you enjoy some magical moments with your child!