Try these reading strategies when reading with your child at home!

1.     What can I say besides, “Sound it out?”

When you are listening to your child read, and they get stuck on a word, sounding it out does not always work.  Efficient readers do not sound words out letter by letter.  Instead, they take big words apart and read in CHUNKS.  For example, when working on the word remember, have your child find chunks they know, such as re-mem-ber, and then put them together.

So, the next time you are reading with your child, instead of telling them to, “sound it out,” ask them to, “find parts or chunks they know.”  When theyhave figured the word out, have them reread that sentence to make sure it makes sense, and then keep going!

2.      Is My Child Really Reading?

Sounding out and decoding words is only one piece of the reading puzzle.  In order for your child to really be reading, they must understand what is happening and must be thinking about the meaning of the story.  This is called reading comprehension.