How to Read With Your Child

Choose the right book using the “Five Finger Rule.” Have your child open the book to any page in the middle of the book and read that page. Each time he/she comes to a word they does not know they should hold up one finger. If she gets to five fingers before they finished reading the page, the book is too hard. If he/she doesn’t hold up any fingers, the book is probably easy for your child and can be used to build reading fluency. If they holds up two or three fingers, the book is likely to be a good level for her reading to grow.

Use “sound” strategies to tackle a new word.

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  Ask your child to sound out an unknown word. Look at the letters in a difficult word and have your child pronounce each sound, or “phoneme.” Then see if he/she can blend the sounds together to pronounce the word.


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  Help them memorize irregular words. Explain that words like “where,” “hour” or “sign” are hard to sound out since they don’t follow normal sound patterns. Point these words out when you’re reading to help your child learn to recognize them on his own.

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  Use the story to help your child learn.


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  Ask your child what word or idea would make sense in the plot of the story when he gets stuck on an unfamiliar word.


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  Encourage your child to look at illustrations, pictures, or titles to figure out the meaning of new words.


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  Challenge your child to figure our new words, but always supply the word before he becomes frustrated.


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  After your child has read a story, reread it aloud yourself, so that he can enjoy it without interruption.

**Ask your child to retell the story starting from the beginning to the end.

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  Be a good role model. Let your child see you reading, and share excitement when you enjoy a great book of your own.

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  Make reading a priority. Whether is 10 minutes every night before bed, please listen to your child read daily.

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  Make reading fun. Play around with funny voices to impersonate animals or unusual characters in stories.

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  Keep reading aloud to your child. Don’t stop reading aloud to your child once they learns to read by herself. When you take a turn at reading, you let your child enjoy books that are beyond her independent reading level and build vocabulary to exposing her to new words. Reading aloud is also a chance for you to model reading smoothly and with expression