FAQs about supporting literacy

How can I motivate my child to read and inspire a love of reading?

  • Find books about a topic that interests your child.
  • Make sure that the level of difficulty is not too challenging.
  • If the child loves a book by a particular author, find others by the same author.
  • If the child loves a particular genre, find other books of the same.
  • Graphic novels and comics can be a way in to reading more challenging text.
  • Notice each step forward or strategy used and provide plenty of descriptive praise – e.g. I really like the way that you worked out the sounded out that word.

How do I encourage my boy to read?

  • Find books where the main characters are male.
  • Certain books are aimed at boys: Francesca Simon, Horowitz, Muchamore.
  • Do ‘real-life’ reading: recipes, letters, newspapers, notes, internet, e-mails, TV guide.
  • Re-read well-loved books.
  • Set a good example by sharing your reading. Let your children see that you value books and keep them at home.

What are the fun ways of encouraging reading?

  • Play games related to the main character or important words in book.
  • Visit places that are the settings of books for a fun time out.
  • Other activities – e.g. making a cake.
  • Watch the film of the book.
  • Listen to an audio of the book or share an e-book.
  • Read to the child until they are ready or able to have a go.
  • Try different ways of taking turns and try paired reading.

Where can I find resources to help older children to read that won’t make them feel that they are being patronised?

  • Get ‘hi-interest/low-level’ books such as those from ‘Barrington Stoke’ that are for older readers with low reading ages. (Some are for older teenagers so be careful.)
  • Some children prefer non-fiction – get a variety of different types of books.
  • Magazines related to interests: football, music, T.V

How do I get my child reading without them seeing it as a chore?

  • Get your child involved in deciding what, when and where to read.
  • Have a ‘cosy’ reading area/mat/rug/ cushion/sofa.
  • Stop reading at an exciting point in the story – maybe at the end of a chapter or even in the middle of a sentence!

How do I help my young child aged 2-3 years?

  • Sing plenty of nursery rhymes (words and tunes accessible on the internet).
  • Sing songs/play games with alliteration and rhyme. http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/songs
  • Read to the child and allow him/her to look at the words as you read.
  • Use different voices for each character – it helps to bring the story alive.
  • Encourage him/her to talk about the story and tell parts in their own words.
  • Do activities related to the story.
  • Play games such as ‘I spy’.
  • Play games that involve matching.
  • Help your child to read the words around them: on food packets in the supermarket, on buses.

How do I help my child  to understand what they are reading?

  • Before reading the book/page, scan it for difficult words. Read these first and talk about their meaning.
  • Talk about the book: title, pictures, blurb.
  • Encourage prediction: next page, next chapter, at the end.
  • Relate to their previous experiences.
  • Ask them how it would feel to be one of the characters.
  • Recap what’s happened every few pages to make sure your listener/reader know what’s going on (especially important if they’re younger).

How does phonics help children to read?

  • Phonics enables the reader to decode unknown words by knowing what sounds the letters represent and blending them into a recognisable word. Sounds (phonemes) are made up of one /c/ two /sh/, three /igh/or four /eigh/ letters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8

How can I  encourage my child to read ?

  • Read yourself! Set a good example by sharing your reading. Let your children see that you value books and keep them at home.
  • Keep books safe. Make your child their own special place to keep their books. Show them how to turn pages carefully.
  • Point out words all around you. Help your child to read the words around them: on food packets in the supermarket, on buses, in newspapers, in recipes.
  • Visit your library – it’s free to join! All libraries have children’s sections. Many also have regular storytelling sessions.
    Make time to read. Read a bedtime story with your child every night. Encourage them to share reading with grandparents, brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles.
    Keep in touch with school. Make sure your child swaps their home reading books regularly at school and try to make a regular time slot of about 10 minutes to hear them read.
  • If English is not your family’s first language: You can buy dual language books. You can talk about books and stories in any language.

What about tablets and smartphones?

Don’t forget that iPads, iPhones and smartphones have built in assistive features that are easy to activate and allow you to have documents or websites read aloud (text-to-speech).  If you go into “settings” and select “accessibility” there will be options that allow you to have selected text (speech controller) or whole screens (speak screen) read aloud.  You can:

  • choose the type of voice that reads for you – for example the voice option “Alex” will read whole paragraphs at a time with intonation
  • decide the speed or rate of reading
  • change the look of text, for example, the background colour, to make it more user friendly

On Apple devices Safari Reader can also read web pages out loud.  When you open a webpage in Safari, click on the reader (book) icon to get the main content of the webpage only (otherwise it will read everything on the page to you including adverts and other unwanted bits!).  In the tool bar go to “edit” then “speech”, then “start speaking” – there’s no way of pausing once it starts, and you can’t control the speed of reading.

Top tips for reading stories aloud

Here are a few ideas that you could use to liven up story time.

Do the voices Try to make sure each character talks differently – this makes the story come to life for the listeners.  You could try making them talk higher or deeper, faster or slower, or even in different accents. If you have trouble thinking up voices, ask your audience to give you ideas for how a certain character might talk – they  could even read one character’s lines for you…

Get with the programme Make sure you have a regular slot in which to read every day.  This makes sure you don’t forget about it, and stops everyone forgetting the plot!

Go for a journey If you have a regular reading time every day, choose a longer chapter book.  It’ll be more of an experience for you and your listener, and helps build their memory and understanding.

Keep them guessing Ask questions every so often to find out what everyone thinks might happen next. This can help to build the suspense and make it more interesting for your listeners…

Make sure they’re still with you Recap what’s happened every few pages to make sure your listeners know what’s going on (especially important if they’re younger).

Always leave ’em wanting more Quit reading at an exciting point in the story – maybe at the end of a chapter or even in the middle of a sentence! TV dramas use cliffhangers like this to make sure their audience comes back tomorrow to find out what happened – yours will too.