Suggestions To Help Build Your Child's Reading Skills

Babies

• Read to your baby for short periods several times a day. As you read, point out things in the pictures. Name them as you point to them. Cardboard or cloth books with large simple pictures of things with which babies are familiar are the best books to begin with. 

Children Ages 1-4

• Talk with your child as you read together. Point to pictures and name what is in them. When he is ready, ask him to do the same. Ask him about his favorite parts of the story, and answer his questions about events or characters.
• Wherever you are with your child, point out individual letters in signs, billboards, posters and books. When she is 3 to 4 years old, ask her to begin finding and naming some letters.

Children, Kindergarten

• Read predictable books to your child. Teach him to hear and say repeating words, such as names for colors, numbers, letters and animals. Predictable books help children to understand how stories progress.A child easily learns familiar phrases and repeats them, pretending to read.
• Practice the sounds of language by reading books with rhymes and playing simple word games (i.e. How many words can you make up that sound like the word “bat”?)

Children, First Grade

• Point out the letter-sound relationships your child is learning on labels, boxes, newspapers and magazines.
• Listen to your child read words and books from school. Be patient and listen as he practices. Let him know you are proud of his reading.

Children, Second & Third Grade

• Build reading accuracy by having your child read aloud and point out words she missed and help her read words correctly. If you stop to focus on a word, have your child reread the whole sentence to be sure she understands the meaning.

*Taken from the U.S. Department of Education “Helping Your Child Become A Reader” and The Partnership for Reading “Put Reading First” publications

Recommended Reading

AGE:   2-4

• Runaway Bunny
  - Margaret Wise Brown
• A House for Hermit Crab
  - Eric Carle

 AGE:   5-7

• Where the Wild Things Are
  - Maurice Sendak
• Is Your Mama a Llama?
  - Deborah Guarino

AGE:   8-10

• Freckle Juice
  - Judy Blume
• Harriet the Spy
  - Louise Fitzhugh

AGE:   11 and up

• Where the Sidewalk Ends
  - Shel Silverstein
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  - C.S. Lewis

 Other Great Sources for Parents:

Help your child strengthen the skills tested on the FCAT!
FCAT Explorer is an online practice tool designed to help children strengthen the critical skills that are outlined in the Sunshine State Standards and tested on the FCAT.

Beginning Reading Instruction - Practical Ideas for Parents (PDF)
Provides information on learning to read and activities for you to use to help your children become readers
En Español

Helping Parents Promote Literacy Skills
An informative article on how to influence a child's reading development at home

The Achiever
A U.S. Department of Education No Child Left Behind newsletter for parents.

SUNLINK
A state database of school library media center holdings in Florida's K-12 public schools.