How Parents Can Teach

What a child would say...

Parent Tips

"Read to me everyday and have books within in my reach."

• Provide child safe books beside the toys so that they can explore and look.

• Some examples are: soft books (fabric), board books, paper, old envelopes or greeting cards, blank books for your child to make their own story and safe writing tools.

• Color,draw and record with your child.

"I like to TALK about the book."

• Talk, talk, talk “...because words are essential in building the thought connections in the brain, the more language a child experiences—through books and through conversation with others, not passively from television—the more advantage socially, emotionally and in every way…” (Fox, 2001).

"Teach me to read words that make sense to me, like my name, mom, and dad."

• Put a picture of your child on the fridge and write their name underneath with magnetic letters. Do the same for mom and dad (only have that 1 person in the picture).

• Make a scrapbook with photos or magazine pictures and label the pictures (i.e. picture of a bed with the word bed printed underneath).

• Read a recipe and cook together!

• Play a game that encourages reading

• Make a matching game with cards that have letters and other cards that have pictures that start with that letter (i.e. picture of Dad on one card and the letter 'D' on another card).

"I learn that reading is thought written down. I learn that people write for a reason and that people can read what they write."

• Model reading and writing

• Read to them, write with them.

• Let them see you read the newspaper, magazine, books, etc.

• Let them see you write lists, notes, letters, directions, etc.

• Let them see you model that reading and writing are problem solving tasks…it’s not always easy.

"Learning to write also helps me to learn to read. Through writing, I learn the difference between a letter and a word."

• Give me lots of opportunities to practice reading and writing

• Keep child safe writing tools easily accessible (eg. magnadoodle)

"Sometimes I like to read a book over and over and OVER again."

• Be patient

• This helps your child to recognize and to figure out words

"I want to color and write my name."

• Encouraging proper pencil grasp while your child is still at pre-school age is very important. Research shows that it is very difficult to change improper grasps once children are 6 years old. Start early!
  
  Tripod Grasp: Grasp the pencil between the tips of the thumb and pointer finger and support it against the side of the middle finger. With this grasp, the hand gets less tired and movements are more precise.