Unlock the Joy of Reading, One Strategy at a Time

Struggling readers often face unique obstacles that hinder their ability to enjoy reading.

Fortunately, there are effective techniques that can help parents support their children’s literary development.

I have written an article about how to help your child fall in love with reading.

I encourage you to use the information in this as well.

This article will give you 8 ways to introduce reading into the home in fun ways.

Theories on How To Teach Reading

I am going to take a moment to recognize there are many different thoughts on how to actually teach children to read.
I got this list and the definitions from AI, however, I have some thoughts about each of them.

Phonics-Based Approach:

Phonics instruction focuses on teaching children the relationships between letters and their corresponding sounds (phonemes).
It emphasizes letter-sound associations, decoding skills, and word recognition through systematic instruction of phonics rules.
This method helps students learn to sound out words, recognize patterns, and improve reading accuracy.
This is the method that I feel students need a foundation in to be truly successful readers.

Whole Language Approach:

The whole language approach emphasizes the overall meaning of text, context clues, and language experiences to teach reading.
It involves immersing children in authentic literature, encouraging reading for meaning, and developing comprehension skills through exposure to a wide range of texts.
Whole language instruction focuses on the holistic view of reading as a natural process and values language-rich environments.
In the mid to late 1990’s, the “Reading Wars” became a prominent debate in educational institutions. People were torn between a Phonics based or a Whole Language approach.

Balanced Literacy Approach:

The balanced literacy approach combines elements of both phonics instruction and whole language principles.
It integrates explicit phonics instruction with authentic reading experiences, vocabulary development, comprehension strategies, and opportunities for writing.
Balanced literacy aims to provide a comprehensive approach to reading instruction that addresses various aspects of literacy development.
And out of the wars came a voice of reason, according to Kara, where we went with the “hybrid” option and took what was good and worked from each program and combined the two.

I recently visited my sister and brother in law.
He shared with me a podcast all about how we are failing to teach our children to read in America and why.
This was fascinating and encouraging to me to know that I am totally on the right track!
The one way that I was not accurate is with the Balanced Literacy Approach.
According to the podcast, it is more of Whole Language than equal parts phonics and whole language.
Listen to this amazing podcast here.

Sight Words Method:

The sight words method involves teaching students to recognize common high-frequency words by sight rather than decoding them phonetically.
This method focuses on memorizing and quickly identifying frequently used words, which can enhance reading fluency and comprehension, especially for irregularly spelled words.
I have not been in the schools in many, many years.
However, when both my boys were in kindergarten, this was the approach to teaching reading in the very beginning.
The children were given “Sam” books.
The books had two and three letter words in it.
There was a lion and I think a mouse.
The boys had to read their “book” every night and they got a new book each day.
Eventually they learned the words used over and over again.

Interactive Read-Aloud:

Interactive read-alouds involve teachers or caregivers reading aloud to children while engaging them in discussions, asking questions, and making connections to the text. This approach promotes active listening, comprehension, vocabulary development, and critical thinking skills by providing a rich literary experience.
This is by far, the most engaging way to encourage children to like to read.
I would incorporate this with any method used to teach children to read.

Phonemic Awareness Training:

Phonemic awareness training focuses on developing children’s ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken language.
This pre-reading skill helps children understand the building blocks of words and enhances their phonics and decoding abilities.
This is phonics without writing it down.
I think this is very helpful and would also incorporate this.
There are many verbal games that can be played with a child that can make this fun.

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Phonic Skills Necessary for Long Term Reading Success

Regardless of which way you choose to teach your child, I truly believe that for a child to be successful long term with reading more difficult texts, like their science and social studies or non fiction texts, they need to have these skills.

1. An early reader needs to be able to identify letters and the sounds they make.

This fundamental skill involves recognizing individual letters of the alphabet and understanding the corresponding sounds they represent.
It is crucial for early literacy development as it forms the basis for reading and writing. Proficiency in letter identification provides the foundation for decoding words and comprehending written language.
You can use various activities, such as letter recognition games, flashcards, and interactive exercises, to help your child master this skill.

2. A child needs to know what sounds letters make when they are put together in different combinations.

Building upon letter-sound recognition, this skill focuses on understanding how letters combine to form different sounds and words.
It encompasses phonics, which involves associating specific sounds with individual or groups of letters (phonemes).
By learning these letter combinations and their corresponding sounds (phonics rules), children can effectively decode and pronounce words they encounter while reading.
Activities like phonics games, word blending exercises, and phonemic awareness tasks assist children in mastering these skills.

3. Finally, your child must be able to decode text in order to be able to read effectively.

Decoding refers to the ability to translate written words into spoken language by applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships.
Effective decoding skills enable children to read fluently and comprehend written text.
By breaking down words into phonemes and blending these sounds together, readers can accurately pronounce unfamiliar words and understand the meaning of the text.
Strategies like chunking words, using context clues, and practicing reading aloud help children enhance their decoding abilities and become proficient readers.

Super duper hint!

I can see your child now, as you sit down to do “phonics.”
It is usually not an exciting or hands on activity.

You can make learning these skills much more exciting and subliminally teach all three by using an audiobook.

You need to get an audiobook that is at or slightly above your child’s reading level.
You also need to get one that your child is interested in.
Go to your library, they are free and your librarian has a wealth of knowledge to help you!

Then you must also check out the actual book.
While your child listens to the book, have them follow along in the written text.

This way they can “see” the words as they are spoken.

Reading aloud to your child is one of the best activities you can do to not only encourage reluctant readers, but to also bolster a child’s literacy development.

According to research, reading aloud improves a child’s phonological awareness, broadens their vocabulary, and helps with complex syntax structures.

If I were to advise on one strategy to start with, regardless of what your child struggles with, I would say, start with a routine of reading aloud.

A Quick Rundown on Engagement in Reading

There are many ways to make your child more comfortable with reading.
I cover these at length in “8 Ways to Help Your Child Fall in Love with Reading.”
Briefly, here are four:

1. Read with your child: Turn read aloud time into “read together time.”
   Once your child is capable of reading, alternate with your child reading the text.
   You read one paragraph, page, or chapter, they read the next.
   This is my favorite strategy for struggling readers as they are not intimidated by the text and can enjoy the story.
2. Choice: Whether your child is reading with you or to themselves, allow them to choose a book that interests them.
   Currently, you are going for the win of your child wanting to read and reading well.
   This is not the time to choose genre and “growth” in their reading experiences.
3. Create a comfortable reading environment: Children love forts! Create a special place, a type of fort, that is comfortable and free from distractions that is specifically designed for reading.
4. Give your child a way to keep track of their progress:  A book tracker is almost like a reward system.
   Your child can see all that they have accomplished.
   It shows the books they have read, the author, the date it was completed, and it can have a star type ranking system so your child can be the critic.
   What child does not love to share their opinion?!

Pre-Reading Activities

I love Shakespeare.
Admittedly, these plays can be difficult to understand, reading them can be even more challenging.

When you introduce a book to your child who struggles with reading, imagine an adult sitting down to a Shakespearean play.
The language is kind of familiar, however, the order of the words is sometimes difficult to follow and some of the actual words are not ones you are familiar with.
It is so difficult to actually read the work, that understanding it, and getting the humor or story is beyond your ability of just reading the actual sentences.

How can you make this easier?

1. Learn the characters in advance.
   Look at the cover of the book and talk about who is on it, what the title may mean, are there any characters present?
   Leaf through the pages and find any characters that appear.
   Learn their names.
   Based on the images, can your child see if there are any relationships between the characters?
   Can they guess what the many problem may be?
   
   Now that your child has some clues to what the story may be about, they will be less frustrated with reading, because they will not “lose” the story as they decode the sounds.
   
   
2. Graphic organizer.
   Reading is very linear.
   What if your child sees the world as people and ideas relate to each other?
   What if your child sees circles and not lines?
   There are several graphic organizers that you can use that may help your child “see” the story.
   A Venn Diagram is a classic one to use, but there are many.
   
   If you want to look at several different kinds-go to Canva (I know I refer a lot to Canva, but is a fabulous source for moms).
   
   There you can type in: graphic organizers and it will pull up several!
   
   
3. Vocabulary.
   Look through the book before your child.
   Find words that you feel may “stump” your child.
   Go over those words before you ever sit down to read.
   You can try them in conversation and then you can show what they look like in written form.
   
   
4. Story hunt.  I often recommend using these as rewards after reading a book.
   I know that if I had promised my boys a story hunt after each book they read, I would have had a full time job creating these, as the boys would have read a ton!
   A story hunt, in a nutshell, is a scavenger hunt that is all about a book.
   You can use it, however, to introduce a book.
   It would be used the same way you use the graphic organizer or learning the characters in advance.
   Your child would simply be finding objects related to the book and learning about the story as they go from clue to clue.

With the right strategies, struggling readers can unlock the joy of reading.
By nurturing their ability to decode, hear, and read aloud, you as a parent can help your child experience the transformative power of books.
Keep in mind that every child learns at their own pace, and your support can make all the difference in fostering a love of reading that will last a lifetime.

“If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories.”
– Michael Ende, The Never Ending Story