Do you have a reluctant reader on your hands?

Understandably, when a child has struggled with their reading skills they stop wanting to practice this at home. This is very common amongst children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia. However, not reading stores up problems for the child later on in their education because they won’t have had the chance to develop their vocabulary or build on their knowledge. I have had first-hand experience of seeing how this affects their ability to pass GCSE English Language which expects a student to have acquired a good vocabulary and general knowledge.

So what can you do as a parent to help your reluctant reader? First and foremost it is important that reading remains enjoyable, otherwise your child will switch off from this. So how can this be achieved?

-       Ask the child to choose the reading material. At least in this way he or she has some interest in wanting to read it in the first place!

-       If the book has been made into a film, watch this first.

-       K J Topping advocates ‘ paired reading’ . This is where the child chooses what to read and this is discussed with the parent/grandparent/older sibling (whoever is acting as the tutor). The tutor and child read aloud together at the child’s pace. When any error is made, the tutor says the word correctly and may point to the word in the text. The child then repeats this and then they both resume reading the passage. At regular intervals, you should discuss the content with the child to ensure they understand the passage. In this way the act of reading becomes less laborious, the meaning isn’t lost in the decoding ( saying the word) and your reluctant reader should enjoy the book/magazine or article.

It has been shown that children make gains in both reading age and comprehension using these methods. Further details about this programme can be found at: http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paired_Reading_Writing_and_Spelling.html?id=cHAdKK-SzRMC

-       Identify the tricky words in a passage before reading it, read these words for your child so that when he or she comes to the word they will already know what it says.

-       Make good use of audio books and assistive technologies. Amazon have a large selection of audio books. I don’t have any personal experience of reading software but a quick search on google comes up with several results. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience of one of these.

-       Ensure your child knows how the sounds and letters work in word construction ( this is called developing phonological awareness) . This is generally agreed to be the best way to develop independent readers who have a literacy issue such as dyslexia. You can do this at home using one of the many structured programmes available (such as Nessy or Toe by Toe )  or you can engage the services of a specialist tutor. The benefits of doing this will be seen throughout your child’s education – especially at secondary school and above when they need to be able to read specialist vocabulary which is new to them. It is never too late to embark on this – even if your child is already at secondary school. In my experience, all children can learn the alphabetic code but you must go at the right pace for them as an individual.

If you have any questions about this blog please leave a comment on the blog or join my facebook group at facebook.com/groups/silverpeachdyslexia.