Sometimes it is not easy to get children to read. Any child who has trouble learning to read will probably find reading challenging, very hard, scary, frustrating, annoying, embarrassing  or boring or all of these. ‘Come and read to me’ or ‘have you  got reading for homework?’… is something many children dread hearing. There are ways around it. Here are some simple tips to help…

1.Get lots of different reading material.  Books, magazines, comics, word cards, sentence cards, annuals, picture books, non-fiction and manuals.

2.Choose an easy book or whatever to read. One they can attempt easily. This builds confidence. Tell them any unnown words to keep fluency or they lose the meaning of the sentence.

3.Choose books that interest them. I taught a boy to read once with motor bike manuals…he read them because he was interested in them…you see it’s obvious when you know.

4.Read anything you see… What does that packet say? What does the poster mean? Who has lost their dog? What time is the train? This way you are not sitting down and making a child read you are engaging them in conversation and showing that reading is just an everyday thing that we all do all the time.

5.Read anywhere in the house. In the bath can make you laugh if the book gets wet. On the squashy sofa, in the dog’s bed, in the garden or the shed. Anywhere out of the ordinary can make all the difference and makes it a bit special…especially somewhere secret or not usually allowed! Reading in the cupboard with the torch is far more interesting than the kitchen table.

6. Read to the child and don’t get them to read. Sit together and point to the words as you go along. Then casually at the end say…here’s a game…find me the word that rhymes with…find me the word that starts with the sound… Ask questions about what they have heard and what they think might happen next. I usually do this if they are tired. If they are, then it all becomes a big battle and taking the pressure off them really works and shows you care and that it really does not matter that they find reading hard.

7. Play a reading game. Snakes and ladders with a few words on some of the squares is a great game. Hunt the words in the garden or the house…these games all involve reading but they are fun and fun helps you learn.

8.Never let them think you are worried. This just worries them more and can make them think they are failing and it all becomes a HUGE drama. They will learn to read eventually and quicker if you are relaxed about it. Never compare them to their friends EVER.  They are special for who they are and we all learn at different rates. Dyslexic children may need a specialist teacher like me or different approaches to help them but they get there in the end. 

Hope these ideas help. Get in touch if I can be of more help…