Literacy and reading skills are vital to student’s development and success, starting at a very young age. The American Pediatrics Association reports that reading when young – even having babies and young children being read to by parents – increases academic success down the road.

Having excellent reading comprehension skills is also crucial throughout life. As all jobs become more technical and computerized, people need to read and understand directions on how to use various software programs, manuals, reports and more.

Reading to young children helps them to develop future academic skills and confidence .

Reading also helps develop better concentration. It makes readers focus and think about subjects that might not be familiar to them, such as 9-11, the beauty of far away places or even travel to Mars! Concentrating on one thing, as opposed to multi-tasking, gives children better focus overall.

Readers also have a larger vocabulary, and the words they learn will become part of their speech. (Also, they’re likely to look up the meaning of words they don’t know.)

Here’s some advice from https://www.mathgenie.com/blog on how parents and caretakers can help their children become reading superstars:

Establish a Daily Reading Practice: All children should spend at least half an hour daily reading with a loved one. Not only does this foster a positive relationship with reading, but it also allows you to model the cognitive steps required to comprehend what is read.

1. Check for Understanding: Whether you are reading, or your child is reading, ask key comprehension questions, periodically, while reading. Doing this not only helps you see if they are understanding what is being read, but it also teaches them what questions they should be asking themselves as they read.

Before Starting
-Look at the Cover and Title! What do you think this book will be about?
-Do you know anything about this topic?
-What types of characters do you think will be in the story?

During
Stop periodically (every paragraph or page) and ask:
-"Who?"
-"What just happened?"
-"Where?"

At key points, you can also ask "How did it happen?" and "Why did it happen?"

As you progress through the story, make sure that your child is holding on to the story by asking "What has happened so far?"

Teach them to predict / imagine / hypothesize by asking "How do you think the character will handle the situation?"

Also, clear their doubts and give them a voice in your daily reading practice by asking “Is there anything you are wondering right now?”

After:
Check to see if your child understood the text by asking
-“What was the main message in the story/text?”
-“Tell me the story in your own words”
“What were the most important events in the story?”

2. Make connections. As you and your children read aloud, share experiences you have had that relate to the story and have them share theirs. Not only does this build an interest in reading, but it grounds them in the idea that there is something common and shared in the act of reading, and it invests them in the story.

3. Create a visual. Sometimes children have a hard time visualizing what they just read. Help your children visualize by describing the scene, characters, and plot. You can even ask them what they are visualizing and have them draw in pencil, pen, markers, or colored pencils. They will be involved and creating their own story, which will help them get a clearer understanding of what is happening.

4. Make inferences and predictions. Making inferences and predictions goes hand-and-hand with asking questions. Inferring is the ability to take clues and given knowledge from a text and conclude what will happen next. To help them infer, ask them to predict what might happen next in the story
“What does the author want you to think about?”
“Why do you think the character did ______?”
“What do you think will happen next?”
“If the story had a sequel, what do you think it would be about?”

5. Clear up any confusion. It is important to go back and re-read as soon as your child seems confused! Make sure you are tracking your child's comprehension progress. The moment they can't answer one of your questions, whether it's at the first sentence or in the middle, or maybe even at the end, back up and re-read!

If you have any questions about your child’s reading or comprehensive progress, contact me at nancy.kachursky@rteseduc.org or 240-405-7568.