Give your child the ultimate gift: The Gift of Reading

Research shows that how well a child can read by the age of 7 has a massive impact on their future learning and prospects. So how can you help them develop those reading skills? The best way is to teach them to love reading, something which we are striving to do in school. Here are some suggestions for how you can help do this at home.

Start with Talk

You can start to develop your child’s vocabulary and understanding long before they begin to read, through talking to and with them. This can be through everyday conversation or through teaching them nursery rhymes, songs and fairy tales.

If you have a young child, use a pushchair which faces towards you so that you can converse with your child while out and about (this also helps develop communication skills such as eye contact). Try to put your phone away when with your child so that you can give them your full attention.

Don’t dumb down your language – the more words children are exposed to at an early age, the more they will be able to understand when reading and communicating. Instead, encourage them to as you about words they don’t understand, so that you can help them learn meanings.

Surround them with things to read

Books can be expensive, but there are ways round that. Cheaper second-hand books can be found in charity shops or online…or you can visit your loval library and borrow up to 30 books for free! Other ideas include asking friends and relatives to give your child book vouchers as Christmas and birthday presents – this is nicer than asking for books, as you can then take your child to a bookshop to choose for themselves.

If you have family or friends with children, arrange to hand down books to each other when children grow out of them, or do book swaps so that the children get to read some new things.

Don’t forget there are other things children can read. If you want to buy them a treat while out shopping, you could let them choose a magazine rather than an edible treat.

If you pass a stand with relevant leaflets, let your child collect some to take home. Sometimes places you visit may have activity trials involving reading or signs which your child can read to you or a younger sibling.

Show that you a reader

Let them see you reading books, magazines or newspapers – maybe talk to them about what you are reading or read aloud bits they might find interesting.

Take an interest in what they are reading – talk to them about the books they are studying at school or reading for their home reading.

Tell them about books you enjoyed when you were young – maybe you still have some of your old favourites which you could pass down to them or you could buy new copies for them.

Spend time reading together – not just your child reading to you, but the other way round. Research shows that being read to by an adult has a massive impact on children’s vocabulary and future learning. You can read all kinds of things – stories, information books, poetry, magazines, e-books…

Think outside the box – reading doesn’t just have to be sitting down time. Do some cooking together which involves reading a recipe; help your child fix their bike by using a non-fiction book; build a model together following written instructions; choose what to do in the holidays by looking at places to visit online; use a gardening book to grow some things outside or on a windowsill; look up an insect they’ve found in a nature book…

Make it special

Make reading into something special, not a chore. Perhaps allow a set amount of reading time after bedtime – for example, they have to be in bed by 7:15 but can read until 7:30 – so that by reading your child is able to stay up a bit later, turning it into a treat.

This could be special time for the two of you to share, away from siblings and other distractions; perhaps your child could read to you for the first half, and you read to them for the second. Give them a choice about what they want to read or have read to them.

Be patient if your child wants to hear or read the same book over and over; this is part of the way children learn, and is very beneficial as they gain deeper understanding with each reading (as well as enjoying hearing a text they know well).

Make it fun – both of you and your child can give the characters in books you are reading different voices, or add actions to the story when you read. Where books or poems contain repeated phrases or rhyming, get your child to join in or predict what comes next.

Best practise for listening to your child – Zoey’s top tips

• Find a cosy reading place and snuggle up with your book
• Look at the front cover together, read the title to your child if you need to and talk about what the book might be about – discuss characters and make predictions
• Encourage your child to ‘listen’ to their own reading. This will help them to follow the story, check if their reading makes sense and help them to begin to include intonation and expression. Say. ‘Can you make this sound like a story you would love to listen to?’
• When your child needs to problemsolve a word, ask them to run their finger under it and say it slowly. What else can they use to help them? The pictures? The meaning of the story? The structure of the sentence?
• If your child notices something they’ve read doesn’t quite look or sound right and they go back to correct themselves, give them specific praise for this. Tell them, ‘That’s what good readers do.’ Even if they’re not able to solve it without help, the fact that they have noticed means they are becoming more independent readers.
• Model wellphrased and expressive reading for them to copy. Say, ‘Can you put those words together so they sound like cross/frightened/excited talking?’
• Children may need to sound some words out aloud to problem solve but others they will begin to recognise on sight or can sound out in their head. Say, Did you need to sound that out? Can you keep it in your head for next time?’
• Reading familiar books is a really valuable way to promote not only comprehension but also fluency and expression. Encourage and develop their ‘story voice’ because it will help build their confidence and develop their love of reading.