Tips on Encouraging Literacy with Your Children

It has been shown that young children with strong literacy skills perform well across all subject areas. And it is for a good reason. Every subject requires reading. Even with mathematics, a student must carefully read the directions or sometimes read the story problems before providing an answer. 

 

A strong reader usually will have above-average grades in school, so wanting to develop literacy skills in students should be a goal for all parents and educators. 

 

Here are just a few tips to encourage and develop literacy skills for children of all ages. 

 

Promote Reading Based on the Student’s Interest

Some children seem to want to avoid reading. But they would love to read more if we could provide them with the material they may be interested in. If they enjoy learning about baseball, offer them books about that topic. If they love to solve mysteries, give them books about this topic. They will read more if we can ensure they have books that coincide with their interests. 

 

Read Together

Young children enjoy reading aloud with adults in the classroom or at home. If they think it is a team effort, they will not feel overwhelmed and won’t want to let you down. To keep their attention better, work out a deal where you read one page out loud, and then they read the next. Plus, the adult will model the proper way to read with expression and at a reasonable reading rate by taking turns. 

 

Set Goals

Create a contract with your children where they promise to read a certain number of books every week or every month. Once they realize what is expected of them, they will work hard to achieve this goal. Furthermore, perhaps you can reward them when they reach their destination with a trip to the bookstore, where they can pick out a couple of new books to add to their collection. 

 

Don’t Forget the Writing Aspect

Literacy is not just reading. Literacy deals with writing as well. There are plenty of ways to inspire children to want to write more. 

 

They could create a daily journal, and you could give them 15 minutes to write down their thoughts daily. This doesn’t need to be graded, so they may be more interested in writing without judgment. Once again, you just have to find the right topic for the students to write about, and they will enjoy the process much more. 

 

With Google Docs being entirely free, students could also write on topics covered in the classroom and have instant access to their documents on almost any device. They could even create presentations through Google Slides, which requires writing skills, as it seems students enjoy putting together slide shows with images and graphics. 

 

Benefits of Literacy

With improved literacy skills, children can raise themselves out of many predicaments, including poverty and other hardships, by doing well in school. Once they realize better grades will eventually provide them with a better life, they will continue to achieve their goals through reading and writing. It will open up a brand new world for them. 

 

If you know of children who want to improve their literacy skills but are struggling, a good tutor can make all the difference. Luckily, iAchieve has several professional tutors to choose from that can tutor your child remotely or in person. They can provide research-based strategies that are proven to strengthen a child’s literacy abilities. We can inspire and improve your child’s literacy skills together. 

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