As much as we would like to believe that the education system does enough for our children, we must understand the importance of continuing education at home. To that end, parents can help their children to achieve higher marks in school simply by encouraging reading long after the dismissal bell rings. Below you will find some ideas to help your children with their reading all school year long:

Provide fun reading material to them: Often times if our children aren’t avid readers, using something that excites them will prompt them to read. For example, if your children are huge fans of Superman you could get them comic books, or if they have an obsession with insects you could get them a colorful book from the library featuring various bugs.

Show them you like to read: Our kids love to mimic us, so being a good role model for reading can help your children appreciate it too.

Set up a special reading time together: Take your own personal reading a step further by making it an official activity you do as a family. Turn off the television and computers and sit down together reading. If you want to take this activity to the next level, you could set a timer, and when it goes off tell each other about what you have just read.

Encourage your children to play reading games: There are free games online that help with vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, comprehension and more. Simply type “free reading games for children” into your favorite search engine and I’m sure you’ll find one or two that are perfect for you. And, if you want to really help them shine, start with your child’s current grade level and then, if they are getting high scores, try the games for the next grade level up. No one says you have to stick to their grade level after all!

Read with them or have them read along with a tape/video: Libraries still have many children’s books that come with a tape you can play as your children read. In fact, several Youtube videos are online your children can read their book along with the video as well. The search “read along books for children” on Youtube yielded several wonderful results – some of which had captions that don’t even require you have a physical copy of the book to read along with.

Hopefully these tips will help your children fall in love with reading and/or get better at comprehension. However, an important thing to keep in mind is that if your children are genuinely struggling with reading, not just “disliking it”, you might want to have them evaluated for learning disorders. This could be the true cause of their frustration with reading. Dyslexia, lack of fluency, trouble understanding the sounds of words, etc… are just a few of the common problems some children have. Simple tests can help determine the underlying cause of their reading difficulties. If you think your child could have a learning disorder, call Hammond Psychology & Associates at (813) 654-0503 and we can guide you on having your children evaluated.