Reading IQ Scores: How to Improve Your Child's Reading Ability

How to Help Your Child Develop as a Reader

Word Analysis

In early elementary school, students learn to connect written letters to the sounds the letters make. In addition, students are able to identify individual sounds within a word. Every word can be broken down into syllables. 'Happy,' for instance, has two syllables: /hap/ /py/. Your child can sound this word out by tackling one syllable at a time. This technique becomes even more helpful in later grades, when your child encounters multisyllabic words, like establishment or fluctuation.

Sight words are words that are frequently used in texts and can be recognized instantly by sight, such as 'they,' 'the' or 'is.' Students benefit from learning these words because it cuts down on the number of words they need to sound out. One of the best ways to become familiar with these words is through memorization. As your child reads aloud, listen for sight words that he gets stuck on. Write these words on flash cards and review them every night until your child is able to pronounce them correctly and recognize them instantly.

Fluency

Imagine reading a text full of long, hard-to-read words, and then being asked what the story was about. When students can read fluently, they are able to concentrate less on sounding out words and more on the content.

Reading fluently means reading with expression and accuracy. To practice, read a poem aloud to your child. Then, have your child read the same poem, pausing at commas and periods and using appropriate expression at exclamation and question marks. Poems are a good way to practice because they're short and they have a predictable pattern that children can easily copy.

Comprehension

Help your child become an active and engaged reader by asking her to reflect on what she's already read. Begin with simple questions, like 'Who's the main character?' Then, challenge your child to think more deeply about the story with questions like, 'Why did the main character make that decision?' or 'What would have happened if the main character didn't make that decision?' To increase your child's motivation to read, try incorporating her interests. For instance, you might ask her to create a comic strip summarizing what happened in the story.