Reading is a big part of a child’s overall development. It teaches children about a wide variety of things, including English language skills, vocabulary, the art of phonics, pronunciation and sentence structure. Children are also able to tap into unique stories, relationships and emotive moments in history that can move them and allow them to develop life skills.

To help your child with their reading skills, here are some top tips you can explore with your child from this independent girls school in Hertfordshire.

Work on your child’s letter sounds first

Getting to pronouncing specific letters is the biggest obstacle in terms of showing your child how to spell and read properly will give them a lot more confidence in their abilities. Look at the alphabet first of all, and work on their skills in pronouncing the vowels and consonants separately. Ask your child to pronounce them how they would in ordinary life, for example “duh” instead of “dee” for the letter D. Move this into practice with specific words and phrases to test their knowledge.

Use phonetics

Get your child thinking about the sounds each of these letters and words make. With the English language there are a lot of little things we have to remember, which can make it a trickier language to master at times. It’s important to keep perspective in making a strong relationship between the sounds we make and the pronunciation of the letters and words we regularly use. 

Talk to your child often in casual conversation

Your child will tend to listen to their parents a lot of the time. We need to be using this to our advantage in the form of regular chats with our children to get them thinking and talking aloud. They will naturally learn how to pick up new phrases from you as well, and use these when they’re picking up a book to read. Keep these conversations light, and repeat phrases or words your child should be picking up more often.

Incorporate a variety of reading material

Your child doesn’t have to jump to a massive novel straight away. There are many different ways for a child to absorb knowledge, like picking up a picture book instead, or a comic book, visual novel or something nonfiction instead. Your child is still exploring a lot of different words, stories and practicing their vocabulary with whatever they decide to read which is important to remember.