The Springboard to Confidence for your Child

Books! A habit worth having

Children who are better readers at school are used to a home environment where reading is an everyday activity. We show you how to make reading a part of their world!

Your younger toddler will be fascinated by any book that relates to his experiences, so look for books that relates to his experiences, so look for books that reflect his world; ones with photos of toys, foods and other children are especially good. These will give you the chance to chat about the story. Say things like: ‘You’ve got a teddy like that, haven’t you?’ to encourage speech development.   Even if he doesn’t say many words, such discussions will add to the mental store of words he’s building. Books with pull-tabs, flaps and peepholes are a good way of encouraging his involvement in the book and by doing so he’ll be learning invaluable pre-reading skills:

• How to hold a book
• How the cover differs from the inside
•  How to keep the book still to ‘read’ it
• How a book works – from front to back

Make storytime fun!

As your growing toddler develops a greater interest in books, have a selection of them placed at a level he can easily see and reach. Letting him choose what book you read together will only increase his confidence. But don’t worry if your child chooses the same bedtime story over and over again. Although it may drive you mad, it can help his listening skills – and he’ll love catching you out when you miss out a word! In fact, reading researchers have found that having a favourite book at aged three can be a significant factor in later reading success.

He’s never too young to join your local library. Try to go regularly and give him plenty of time to look at the books on display. Your child will also enjoy the grown-up feeling he has when returning books and being able to choose his own books. Many libraries often run story-time sessions and take advantage of any activities going on at the library, such as story-time sessions.

Pre-reading skills

When your child is small, sit him on your lap while you look at books together. Make sure your child can see the pictures as you read to him. Small children start to interpret the sequence of stories through the illustrations well before they can read the words. Even for a beginner reader, the details in the pictures give an extra dimension to the words, ‘colouring in’ details, like the sort of clothes a character wears. Let him set the pace, stopping to talk about the pictures and story if he wants to.

A big step towards eventual reading is understanding the difference between pictures and words. At first words will just be black squiggles, but explain that as he learns to read, the ‘squiggles’ will become words that tell him the story, too. This is a good time to pay more attention to the words, following them with your finger as your read. Books that are repetitive are good in encouraging her to guess what will come next – the Three Little Pigs is an excellent example.

Language development

 Is he ready to read?

Look out for these pre-reading skills which show he may be ready to branch out on his own.

• He can retell a familiar story in his own words
• He can predict what might happen next in an unfamiliar story
• He uses illustrations to tell you what is happening
• He notices differences between similar pictures and shapes and can pick out identical ones.
• If you point out a distinctive word (such as a character’s name) on one page, he can find the same word on another page
• He can read his own name and other familiar words
• He knows letter sounds and names and has good phonic awareness

Once he's reading...

Respect your child’s choice of books. Try not to say ‘Not that book again … ‘and be ready to discuss his book with him.

• Don’t react quickly to mistakes. Give him a chance to correct himself before offering to help.
• Always praise his reading efforts.
• Understand when your child prefers simpler, younger books. We oftern read to relax, and it’s important that not all reading material is ‘challenging’.
• Carry on reading to your child, even once he’s started reading books for himself.

A world of words

Encouraging your child’s reading is the most important thing you ca do for an early reader. He may be feeling pressure that his reading doesn’t compare to his classmates’ or siblings’. Giving him plenty of praise for his efforts is a great help. You may feel concerned about his reading level, but rather than making him feel anxious by doing a set ‘reading practice’ for a specific length of time each day, just encourage his awareness of words in the everyday world. Get him to read any letters that come home with him from school while getting his tea ready, rather than keeping them to read yourself, later; cereal packets with their ‘free offers’ are great source of reading material, as are shop signs, supermarket shelf tickets –the world of words is endless.