Reading is the foundation of a life filled with learning and understanding of the world. What a gift it must be then, to instill love for reading in your child. If you are able to do so, you guarantee your child's success and ensure their ability to learn, grow, and adapt to the ever-changing society in which we live. If the proper reading skills are not developed by your child, he or she will struggle with all of the subjects in school.
Parenting is not an easy job, and it is especially hard when you see your child struggling to master something as complex as reading and phonics. As an adult with years of reading experience, it can be hard to visualize why your child is having problems picking up something that came so naturally to you and to others. This can leave you feeling inadequate and frustrated, both of which can have a negative impact on your efforts to improve your child's reading skills.
So, be calm; be patient, and follow these parenting tips for improving reading skills:
1. Read with your child often no matter what his or her age. Bedtime stories are not just for babies and preschoolers. Schedule some sort of age-appropriate reading activity that the whole family can enjoy each and every day. Some ideas include reading the newspaper, sharing poetry, creating plays from story books, and having a family reading hour. Remember what families did before radio and television? They read together, and you can too.
2. Ask your son questions about what was read to see if he understands the text. Can your child relate the story to something or someone that he knows?
3. At different points in story books, ask your daughter to predict what is going to happen. Do not tell her what you think is going to happen. Be sure to ask questions at the end about the outcome and what she thought about it.
4. Educational toys and computer programs that reinforce reading skills can be a great idea. Be sure that these encourage your child to read, though, and that they do not become a chore. Your child will not stick with anything that is not enjoyable. Strive to keep reading an enjoyable part of your child's education.
5. Instill a love of reading by setting a good example. Turn off the TV and pick up a book yourself. If you make reading a regular part of your life, your child will want to follow suit. Go to the library together, and make reading a leisure activity.
6. Look for opportunities to read where your child least expects it. This can be especially good for children who refuse to cooperate with tutoring or other efforts to improve their reading skills. Ask your child to help you follow a recipe for making their favorite cookies or have him read you the lyrics of his favorite song. Be creative; the goal is to get your child reading.
Remember, creativity is the key to teaching your child to read, and then helping your child improve her reading skills. Don't just bark commands at her or make her practice reading drills. Instill a love of reading in her and she will continue to learn and grow even when you are not watching.
Your long term career development will be the sum of your reading over the next five years, and the five years after that. Who knows after ten years someone may develop an implanted chip that will substitute for reading. But for now, reading is the name of the game. After five years don't be the person who is known as the one who ate 2114 Krispy Kreme donuts and read two books, and one had a lot of pictures. You don't have to be a long time reader to only add to your reading inventory. Some of us read fast and have the capacity to remember everything. Most of us read slower and it may take a couple of times for us to get all the required information. If you have a treasured motivational book you may read it two, four or more times, getting more valuable information from it each time. The path to take is to read, and you'll get the required information. To improve you understanding and greatly increase your overall enjoyment in reading you should determine why you're reading the particular book or article or magazine. By determining the reason before you start your comprehension and pleasure will increase, and ultimately your overall career development will accelerate. Be honest, you absolutely do not have to read everything. Not everything you come across contains information you need. In fact a lot of it is junk. Throw it out or hit the delete key. Use the time you just saved to read the things important to your career and your reading plan. This may sound contradictory but you don't need to read all of what you do read. You don't need to read every article in that magazine or every chapter in that book. Select the articles in the magazine or the chapter in the book that are important, and ignore the rest. When you do find the book that has something of interest in every chapter, take notes, and after you read it put it aside to reread. One trick to prioritize your reading is to scan the table of contents, the index, and the headlines. You'll pick up two important ideas: (1) do you have an interest in the contents? and; (2) what desirable information will you get from reading the book, magazine or article? If it fits into your reading plan go for it. Your reading environment should be comfortable, you'll read faster and comprehend more. Of course, there are times, like carrying reading material in your car to read when waiting is the exception to the rule. Once you start reading read it straight through, with books being the exception. With books try and read in chapter bites. If you have questions, take notes and go back and get the answers or do further research. You're reading with a purpose, it's all part of your career development and the reading plan you designed. Set monthly book reading goals. Keep a notebook or journal; write down new ideas for books to read. Take advantage of your commuting time to listen to books in your car's CD player. So overall you'll be reading with a purpose so keep your focus. Remember, the more you read, the quicker your speed and comprehension. In five years, you'll look back and see you've read 120 or more books. Your career will be on track and you'll be able to point to the many valuable ideas and contributions they have made to your career. John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Go to Career Network Plus and find great resources, valuable articles and a free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our all to assist you in planning and managing your career.
Both Bonnie Foshee & Mary Bush are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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