Enjoy Reading
As parents, we all want the best for our children. We’re probably all aware that it’s important to make sure they are confident, fluent readers who enjoy reading, but often it’s hard to know where to start. Should you read to your baby? What can you do to help get your children familiar with words and reading before school? And how do you help them progress at school when the teaching is different nowadays?
We hope that this guide will help answer some of your questions, as well as give you some advice and inspiration on how to help children enjoy reading. At Pearson, we’re dedicated to helping people progress in their lives through all kinds of learning. That’s why we’re also supporting several other reading initiatives as part of our ‘Enjoy Reading’ campaign. If you’re the parent of a pre-school age child, make sure you check out www.booktime.org.uk the national free books programme. It provides a free book pack for every child aged 4-5 years in England and Wales to share and enjoy with their family and friends, with the aim of encouraging reading for pleasure at home. Similarly, if you’re the parent of a child in year 5 or 6 at primary school, the exciting new national ‘Read for My School’ competition, which will run in 2013, will give your child the opportunity to win free books for their school by taking a reading-for-pleasure challenge. Head to www. readformyschool.co.uk for more details.
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Enjoy Reading
Why is reading so important? Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely
to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.
What difference could I make as a parent? The short answer is: a lot! Parents are by far the most important educators in a child’s life and it’s never too young for a child to start, even if you’re only reading with your child for a few minutes a day. Before they’re born, babies learn to recognise their parents’ voices. Reading to your baby from the time they’re born gives them the comfort of your voice and increases their exposure to language. Building vocabulary and understanding Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out print. Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a rich and wide vocabulary. This helps them build their own vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It’s important for them to understand how stories work as well. Even if your child doesn’t understand every word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard. As children start to learn to read at school, you can play an important role in helping to keep them interested in books, finding out what interests them and helping them to find books that will be engaging and fun for them. Give time to helping them practise reading the books they will bring home from school.
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My child is too young to learn to read yet, but what can I do to set them off in the right direction? Make sure that your child is familiar with language and books so that they can see how enjoyable reading is. Some of the things you can do include: • Reading aloud to your child, talking about the words and pictures, and sharing ideas about the book • Reading yourself: Children who see adults reading, and enjoying reading, are much more likely to want to read themselves • Making sure your child is surrounded by books: You don’t need hundreds of books at home, but make regular trips to the library or bookshop, not just to borrow books but to spend time together browsing and learning to make choices. In this way, reading becomes a habit. Most importantly, talk to your child. Spend time with them, doing simple activities (cooking, making something, building a model). As you talk about what you’re doing, you are helping them to learn new words. Later, when they see words written down, they have already heard them and know what they mean.
“Reading is great for everyone, and loving books is something that can start when you’re very young. We can learn about people and life from stories, poems and non-fiction, and if you read to your children regularly for fun you will definitely be helping them in so many ways.” Tony Bradman
“Reading for pleasure is the single biggest factor in success later in life, outside of an education. Study after study has shown that those children who read for pleasure are the ones who are most likely to fulfil their ambitions. If your child reads, they will succeed – it’s that simple.” Bali Rai
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Reading with your child
Sharing a book can be a bonding experience and for young children, cuddling up with a parent to read a book can be a special time. Reading is important, but don’t feel that you have to take the role of your child’s teacher or put pressure on your child to start to read before they go to school. It’s great to instil a love of books and language from an early age, but most of all, be led by your child and their interests and pace of development. Sharing a book with your child allows you to share adventures and experiences in the safe world of the book. It allows you to ask questions, talk about what has happened and decide what you think together.
Over the next pages, you can pick up some tips on:
• how to read with your child • helping children to enjoy reading
• choosing what to read • understanding phonics
“Books transform children’s lives - they can open windows onto new worlds, widen their horizons or even just make them laugh themselves silly! Reading for pleasure can give children the key they need to unlock their dreams.” Christopher Edge
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How to read with your child For most of us, reading aloud isn’t part of everyday life, so the thought of reading a story to your child may be a bit daunting. But don’t let this put you off – your children will be enjoying themselves too much to criticise your performance!
When should I start reading with my child? It’s great to read to your child from the earliest months. Cuddle close and sing nursery rhymes, read a story with lots of sound effects, or play peek-a-boo along with a book. This shows your baby how important books are to you, that books come with a loving adult and that books are fun and exciting. Top tips for reading with your baby • To a young baby, ‘reading’ means holding them in your arms, exploring a soft book. • Start reading with your baby when they are around three months old. Remember that for babies reading is like play – let them wave the book around. • Once your baby sits up, choose light, sturdy board books with rounded corners, bright pictures and textures to feel. From six months, babies love lift-the-flap books. From nine months, introduce noisy sound books. Be guided by what makes reading fun for you both. • Use the pictures as well as the words. Babies learn by doing: as baby reaches for the pictures, say the words to help build vocabulary. Be relaxed about what books mean to a baby - a five-minute bouncy sing-song game with an open book is still reading!
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How should I read to my child? • As you read to your child, bring the characters to life – talk about the characters, the drawings and the events so that the story starts to come alive. • Don’t be afraid to try different voices or try out your acting skills. While you may not win an Oscar, your child will enjoy your performance and appreciate the story even more. • Remember that your face says it all – so exaggerate your normal expression times three like a children’s TV presenter: children will love it. • Emphasise repeated words and phrases (‘the big bad wolf ’; ‘… blew, and blew, and blew the house down’). In this way, your child starts to learn the language used in books. Encourage your child to say the words with you. • Turn off the television and concentrate on enjoying the book. • Try audio books that children can listen to on the car stereo, on computers or phones – this is a great way to build a child’s understanding of stories and improve their listening. How often should I read to my child, and how long for? • Be guided by how long they will listen. For younger children this may be quite short periods of time, while slightly older children may be readier to listen for longer. • As for how often, there’s no right answer, but many experts suggest a routine helps. For school-age children, a bedtime story can be a nice way for you to spend a small amount of time together and wind down after a busy day. For pre-school children, shorter bursts of reading throughout the day may be a good idea but, again, be guided by how long your child will listen.
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Enjoy Reading Top 10 tips to help children enjoy reading To help make reading enjoyable and fun, we asked experts and authors what they recommend to help get kids reading. 1. Make books part of your family life – Always have books around so that you and your children are ready to read whenever there’s a chance. 2. Join your local library – Get your child a library card. You’ll find the latest videogames, blu-rays and DVDs, plus tons and tons of fantastic books. Allow them to pick their own books, encouraging their own interests. 3. Match their interests – Help them find the right book - it doesn’t matter if it’s fiction, poetry, comic books or non-fiction. 4. All reading is good – Don’t discount non-fiction, comics, graphic novels, magazines and leaflets. Reading is reading and it is all good. 5. Get comfortable! – Snuggle up somewhere warm and cosy with your child, either in bed, on a beanbag or on the sofa, or make sure they have somewhere comfy when reading alone. 6. Ask questions – To keep them interested in the story, ask your child questions as you read such as, ‘What do you think will happen next?’ or ‘Where did we get to last night? Can you remember what had happened already?’ 7. Read whenever you get the chance – Bring along a book or magazine for any time your child has to wait, such as at a doctor’s surgery. 8. Read again and again – Encourage your child to re-read favourite books and poems. Re-reading helps to build up fluency and confidence. 9. Bedtime stories – Regularly read with your child or children at bedtime. It’s a great way to end the day and to spend valuable time with your child. 10. Rhyme and repetition – Books and poems which include rhyme and repetition are great for encouraging your child or children to join in and remember the words.
“Reading is vital for developing the imagination – the ability to stand in other people’s shoes and look through other eyes. With a book you can experience other lives, other worlds, other times. Books are the key to opening up opportunities.” Michaela Morgan
“We need to stop reading being seen as something children just do in school. It needs to be seen as attractive as computers, videogames, films and DVDs and as a fun way to spend free time. Seeing reading as something that happens at home and is shared by everyone in the family is key.” Christopher Edge
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Choosing what to read When it comes to instilling a love of reading, it doesn’t really matter what you read. The important thing is that we all help to inspire our children to feel confident and comfortable reading. Ask yourself what type of reading the book is for. Is it a book they have got from school to help practise reading and build fluency? Is it a book that they find easy to read that helps them build confidence? Is it a book for you to read for pleasure to your child?
What should I read to my child, what should they be reading, and when? With hundreds of books in your local library, school or bookshop, it can be hard to know where to start when choosing a book for your child. Remember that as adults we like to re-read favourite books, relax with a magazine or tackle something challenging. Children are the same, so encourage choices – maybe a familiar book for re-reading as well as something new. Don’t show disapproval if your child returns to favourites. You can find advice on what books children of different ages might enjoy reading on the Puffin website: www.puffin.co.uk If you’re stuck for something to catch your children’s imaginations, it might be worth asking their teacher or a librarian for some advice. For ease, the bookseller Waterstones has pulled together a list of the top 50 books for children of primary school age. They’re all classics, so it’s worth having a look for a bit of inspiration: www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/ AssetsLibrary/SECTORS/PRIMARYASSETSNEW/ReadingforPleasure/Images/ WaterstonesTop50childrensliteraturepicks.pdf
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How can I choose books at the right level for my child? Especially for younger children, be guided by the teacher. Most schools have some kind of system, sometimes colour-coded, by which they grade how difficult a book might be. This is particularly important when children are still learning phonics. As a rule of thumb, you would expect a child to read a book with about 95% accuracy if they want to read it to themselves. Less than that, and it’s likely that they’re missing out, or misreading too many words for them to make sense of the story. Introduce the ‘Rule of five’ to older children. Encourage them to read the first page or two of a new book. They must put up one finger for every word they cannot read. If they get to five fingers, then the book is too hard for them and they should choose another one. Don’t encourage them just to guess at words they can’t read.
When we asked authors what they liked to read to their children, a few old favourites cropped up:
Tony Bradman, author of Dilly the Dinosaur and many other books: “We enjoyed the Dogger and Alfie series by Shirley Hughes, the wonderful illustrations of John Burningham or classic picture books from Janet and Allan Ahlberg such as Each Peach Pear Plum. As my kids got older I particularly liked reading rhythmic, rhyming texts and two of my favourites were Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake, and In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak – great to read aloud!” Christopher Edge, author of the DeadWays series “I read lots of Julia Donaldson’s and Axel Scheffler’s books: The Smartest Giant in Town, Tiddler, Tabby McTat - great to join in with and something in every spread for inquisitive eyes to spot.”
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Understanding phonics My child has just started school
and is learning to read via phonics. What is phonics? With phonics, children are taught to read by learning the phonemes (sounds) that represent letters or groups of graphemes (letters). With this knowledge, children can begin to read words by learning how to blend the sounds together. Unlocking how this alphabetic code works means they can learn to decode any word. For example, when taught the sounds /t/ , /p/ , /a/ , /i/ and /s/ early on, children can read words such as it, is, tap, tip, pat, sip and sat by blending the individual sounds together to make the whole word. These words can also be broken down (segmented) into their phonemes for spelling. For example, the word ‘sat’ has three phonemes, /s/ , /a/ and /t/ which the children learn to write with the three graphemes (letters) ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ that they have been taught. They will also be taught to read words – such as ‘once’, ‘was’ or ‘have’ – which don’t follow the phonic ‘rules’. They’ll build up a stock of these tricky words that they can recognize straight away.
Top tips on phonics
Say the sounds correctly It’s important that the sounds are pronounced correctly, as they would sound in speech. Try not to add ‘uh’ to consonant sounds, such as /t/ and /p/, as this makes it trickier to blend the sounds together into words. Link sounds and letters to make words Children are taught in school to quickly see a link between the phoneme (sounds) and a written representation of that sound (grapheme). At home, encourage your child to do the same when playing with fridge magnets in the kitchen, for example, or ‘writing’ when you are writing. Don’t be scared – make it fun! Phonics can seem daunting for parents who were probably taught to read in a rather different way. However, simple games such as ‘I spy’ are great for helping reading, because the children have to listen to sounds. Say, “I spy, with my little eye, something that begins with (for example) the sound ‘f-f-f ’” Look at the ‘football’ or the ‘fridge’. Make sure you refer to the first sound (not the first letter). Take it in turns, with your child saying, “I spy…” Make it lots of fun. Practise! Encourage your child to use their phonic knowledge when they are practising their reading. Make sure that they look at each letter in turn, all through each word. Encourage them to work out the sounds and then blend them together to make the whole word. Praise them for trying to use all the letters rather than guessing from just the first letter or the picture.
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What if children just don’t enjoy reading?
If you think your child is having problems reading, the first step is always to speak to your child’s teacher and share your concerns. Many children learn at different rates, and you shouldn’t get anxious. Remember that anxious children can’t learn, and that early enjoyment of books and stories lasts for life.
What do I do if my child doesn’t enjoy reading? • Make sure your child isn’t tired, hungry or desperate to watch their favourite TV programme when you read to them. Sit with them for a short time every day and read a book with them on a subject that interests them, whether that’s cars, animals or sports. Don’t expect them to read it for themselves. Just show them how interesting it is to be able to read so that they want to do it for themselves. • For many children, especially boys as they get older, non-fiction books are more interesting than fiction, so it may be as simple as changing the type of books you are reading together. Talk to your teacher or a local children’s librarian to see what books are available that match your child’s interests. • Give plenty of praise. Let your child know how pleased you are when he or she looks at a book. Show interest in what they have chosen. Children really do develop at their own rates when it comes to reading.
My son is switching off reading - what can I do? Research shows that boys are less likely to enjoy reading than girls. More boys than girls struggle with reading and writing at school and boys are more likely to say they don’t spend any time reading outside the classroom. But there are ways you can help: • It’s important to make sure that you’re reading something with your son which interests him. Many boys like non-fiction books, so try asking at your local library for recommendations – it may be that he’ll enjoy reading Horrible Histories or the Guinness Book of Records more than fiction. • Role models are also important. Make sure boys see their dads, uncles or granddads reading, even if it’s a newspaper, so that it seems familiar and they can copy their reading behaviour. • Finally, praise your son when something is read well. Equally, if he reads something incorrectly, don’t make him feel that this is bad - mistakes are just part of the learning process.
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What should I do if my child is not at the reading level they’re expected to be at? • Don’t panic and don’t make your child stressed about reading. It may be the case that your child is young for their year group, or not developmentally ready for reading. Also, most children don’t progress in a straight line as they learn to read: they may have periods of fast progress followed by periods of consolidation. Children who start off behind for any reason tend to take a little while to catch up. • It can be very worrying if you think your child is falling behind. Make an appointment to discuss your concerns with your child’s class teacher.
“Reading should be about having fun and adventure and magic, not just ‘making progress’.” Michaela Morgan
I think my child’s problems are more serious – what should I do? Always speak to your child’s teacher and share your concerns again. Explain exactly what it is that is worrying you. Your child might have hearing problems, for example, that are getting in the way of learning to read and the school can arrange for tests to be done.
Here are links to organisations that deal with some other reading problems:
Dyslexia www.bdadyslexia.org.uk www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/pages/introduction.aspx www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk Stammering www.stammering.org/phonics.html Speech and Language Therapists www.rcslt.org
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Further information
For advice on reading to your child: www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/Primary/GlobalPages/Reading-for-Pleasure/Reading-for-Pleasure.aspx www.wordsforlife.org.uk www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/b00192950/encouraging-reading-for-pleasure (guide for teachers, but contains plenty of relevant advice) Phonics support www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/schools/phonics.aspx Mumsnet & Literacy Trust www.mumsnet.com/learning www.literacytrust.org.uk Where to find your local library – Directgov: www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/YourlocalcouncilandCouncilTax/YourCommunity/DG_4018790 Find a local bookshop: www.booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch www.nationalbooktokens.com/stockists http://localbookshops.tbphost.co.uk/TBP.Web//PurchaseProduct/OrderProduct/CustomerSelectProduct/FindARetailer. aspx?d=localbookshops&s=C&r=10000020&ui=0&bc=0 Find a book online: www.amazon.co.uk www.bookfinder.com www.penguin.co.uk www.puffin.co.uk www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb List of author pages:
Quentin Blake: www.quentinblake.com/en Tony Bradman: www.tonybradman.com Eric Carle: www.eric-carle.com/home.html Roald Dahl: www.roalddahl.com Julia Donaldson: www.juliadonaldson.co.uk Christopher Edge: www.christopheredge.co.uk Michaela Morgan: www.michaelamorgan.com Bali Rai: www.balirai.co.uk Michael Rosen: www.michaelrosen.co.uk
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