Parents hold a great responsibility for nurturing and bringing up a child who is well educated and trained along with all the behavioural and cognitive skills. Children spend most of the time at home and in their early years,it is the parent’s responsibility to instil a few qualities and seed skills in them. Whatever the kids learn until the age of five, it becomes part of their personality throughout their life. Therefore, the first five years are very crucial in the proper upbringing of a child.
Apart from working on raising your child in the best manner, it is important to watch your actions and build good habits to be seen as the best example in front of your children. Remember, every child looks up to their elders around them throughout their childhood. Giving love and care to the children makes them stronger and an avid learner. The best time to give them care and respect is when you are working or doing something together.
Raising smart and literate kids might not require getting expensive tutors or getting them enrolled in the summer camps. But to excel in any subject or field, it is important to build an extensive reading skill in your child. However, the crucial part is how to teach your child to read? Once your child develops the interest to read, you can easily help them to improve their reading capabilities. Following are top ways to improve the reading skills of a child:
1. Set Up a Cumulative Reading Time
People are managing to cope up with their busy life. However, setting up a regular reading time with your child and listening to your child read every day is one of the best ways to enhance their reading skills. It can support them with their education in the long run and make them become strong readers.
Setting up a routine-based time as a regular activity can help in building an avid reader at your home. The best thing you can do with your child if they are a reluctant reader is to take turns while reading pages or sentences. Keep in mind that practice makes perfect, so set up some reading time regularly.
2. Make Reading Fun
You are in it to make it a fun experience rather than having the child drift away and lose his/her interest. Your child’s reading skills might not develop or improve if it is presented to be a chore.
You need to be creative in making it a fun experience.
For example, if you are reading a book about plants, you can sit with them in a garden or an open area to read. Similarly, while there is a mystery book that your child would love to read, you might settle down in an enclosed area holding a flashlight to make it an experience as a spy rather than just portraying to read the text with your child.
3. Using Different Ways to Read (Outside The Books)
Not every child can be encouraged to read books all the time. However, there are plenty of other ways to ensure that they build a flare to read. There are several techniques that you may use to encourage the child to read. Here are a few of them:
- If your child gets a new toy, ask them to read the instruction booklet themselves and follow it.
- Encourage children to read road signs, grocery store timings, billboards, weather reports or even menu cards at the restaurant.
Incorporating various ideas into the development of your child’s reading skills shows them how reading is integral to everyone’s daily life. This way, they will continue to work on improving their skills in reading.
4. Stay Involved with Your Child’s Reading Activity
It is advisable to keep track of your child’s performance at school, in particular with their reading skills. Sometimes, teachers may not know when your child lags in reading. Parents must work together with the teachers because children usually mask their difficulties, especially when they are in a group setting.
Besides, children are too shy and embarrassed to ask for help in school. Therefore, parents must analyze children regularly by listening to how they read at home. It is better to stay alert before any reading issue pops up.
You can also arrange a meeting with their teacher if you notice some reading difficulty in your child. Parents and teachers can work together to identify the learning deficiencies, along with how this can be improved. According to a report, ‘Parents should be the second teacher, and Teachers should be the second parent!’
FINAL WORDS
You must have heard that reading and writing go hand in hand. It takes great skills to raise kids who are good writers, and reading should be an integral part of our life. Reading skills are built gradually, and it is a matter of practice and time. Be patient, and evaluate your child’s interest to help him/her reach maximum potential in reading.
Do get the library membership for your child. It opens up a whole new world for them. Never give up on your child and remember that reading is an important entity of your child’s learning and development process. Reading helps build literacy language and spelling skills, which can help them greatly in future. Do not be afraid to ask for help.
