- The most avid reader reads in two days what the most reluctant reads in a year.
- The amount that someone reads makes a difference not just to development of reading ability, but to the growth of vocabulary and general knowledge.What you know is directly related to the amount that you read.
- Children with poor reading skills and habits are in danger of low educational attainment. What can be done to prevent this from happening and how can parents help their children?
Read, read, read!,
Books are the source of most of the new words that children learn once they are in school. Of course, children learn new words from television and through conversation, but the research shows that the majority of new vocabulary comes from books.
Research has also shown that children who read more have wider vocabularies. This is not just to do with social advantage or intellectual ability - research has found that the beneficial relationship between reading ‘volume’ (amount) and vocabulary is not affected by a child’s intellectual ability.
An Early Start
Getting off to an early start in reading helps children quickly pick up the skills they need to expand their knowledge and vocabulary. These two areas are key:
1. Good early phonics-based teaching of word-decoding skills. This means helping the child to recognise and understand the sounds that letter combinations make.
2. Supporting and encouraging children to engage with reading.
Being able to decode is not enough - unless a child gets practice and experience of reading, he or she won’t capitalise on those decoding skills.
Units of SoundNow everyone with access to a computer can learn to read.
Units of Sound is a proven tool for teaching hard–to–reach students in schools, colleges and community centres. Its sister programme Units of Sound:
Literacy that fits allows you to use this excellent resource at home. At last parents can ‘do’ something to help their children who need a boost with their literacy.
Visit the Dyslexia Action Shop to order your copy. Supporting Early Reading
Research shows that children benefit from being read to from an early age, as this helps them learn how books ‘work’ and develops familiarity with written forms of language. This knowledge and experience makes things much easier when they then encounter print.
During early reading children are exposed to printed words and begin to develop word-recognition skills and start to see links between sound and letters. This ability, which is known as phonological awareness, is a vital foundation for building fluency of reading.
Struggling and Reluctant Readers
For those children who find it hard to master the principles of decoding, early intervention is important, a more serious learning difficulty may be the problem. The longer a child is left struggling the harder it is to improve their skills.
Big factors in developing reading are confidence and motivation. There are more and more books with high interest and lower demands on independent reading skills which are very helpful for providing practice and developing confidence in reading.