Mia
Learning to read is one of the first and most impressing academic milestones your child will attain. Today, educationists encourage parents and guardians to use a variety of learning activities and reading techniques to develop a kindergartner’s reading skills.
Follow these tips to encourage your young learner’s love for reading.
- Build a good reading foundation
The first thing to do is ensure your child has good phonemic awareness. That is, your child must do more than simply recite the letters of the alphabet; they must also learn the sounds that go with each letter, learn to recognize words which begin or end with similar sounds, and also learn how to isolate beginning and ending sounds.
- Play reading games suitable for their level
Kindergartners should partake in simple reading games such as the role dice game. This game requires your child to have good sound identification skills. In the game, participants must roll two dice and form words beginning with the consonant sound on one dice, and ending with the vowel sound on the second dice. Sometimes, the word formed may not be a real word, but the main aim of the game is teaching children how to blend sounds. Keep eye on this parenting portal with teachers-proofed learning games for kids & parents.
If your child enjoys participating in stage plays and dramas, you can also encourage them to act out passages from a book. Acting out a passage requires that they carefully read and understand the words in the book, and they will also focus more on the meaning of these words as they visualize them.
- Show your kids how reading should be done
Children often emulate what their parents do, and when they see you constantly reading a book, they will be more eager to model your reading habits. Every day, parents and teachers who deal with younger children can set aside about 30 minutes to read a book or reading comprehension worksheets. Seeing the adults in their life reading will make children understand that reading is important.
- Ask questions
The best way you can tell if someone has understood something you just told them; or in this case what they have just read, is by asking questions. Kids’ books often come with illustrations and by simply looking at the pictures; your kids might be able to tell what will happen next in the book. While reading, ask them if they can predict what will happen next, and after finishing the story, ask them how the book made them feel or how they felt about certain characters.
- Build Vocabulary
If your child knows more words, reading would be easier and more enjoyable for them. To make sure that children understand the story they are reading, explain the meaning of the words in the passage to them. Knowing the meaning of the words in a book will build children’s confidence in their reading skills.
- Teach comprehension techniques
If your kids struggle with understanding what they are reading, you can teach them comprehension strategies to make it easier on them. Ask them to reread the passage a second time, and look at the pictures to get a better understanding of what is going on in the picture. Next, teach them to try predicting what happens next in the story by thinking about what has already happened so far.
With these simple tips, your child will find that reading is easier for them, and when something is easier, kids are more likely to enjoy it. For more ideas on how to encourage your kindergartner to read, use reading comprehension worksheets to find practice passages ideal for kids.
