Help Your Child Excel at Reading: An Essential Guide for Parents

By Katherine Bates

Parents want to know more about how to help their children succeed. Help Your Child Excel at Reading is full of information to help parents knowledgeably guide their children as they learn how to read and write so their children can achieve their full potential while feeling great and believing in themselves. Helpful for parents with children from 4 to 14 years and written by a teacher especially for parents empowers parents, it gives accurate information about the latest methods for teaching literacy links reading and writing strategies encourages the transfer of skills to new topics and developmental levels. Explaining how to help children achieve real reading success making reading something instinctive, as well as something they learn to love doing, the book discusses a consistent theme of developing all aspects of the child the emotional, social, and educational. It emphasizes the importance of the partnership between home and school, and discusses the different approaches to help children connect sounds, sound patterns in the written form and to use a variety of strategies to obtain meaning from reading, and to write meaningfully. Studies have proved the significance of early informal reading and writing before children begin school and the critical values of them understanding phonemic awareness early in the educational experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781921295713

Book preview

A Rockpool Book

Published by Rockpool Publishing

24 Constitution Road, Dulwich Hill NSW 2203, Australia

http://www.rockpoolpublishing.com.au

First published in 2008

Copyright © Katherine Bates, 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry

Bates, Katherine.

How to help your child excel at reading / Katherine Bates.

Sydney, N.S.W. : Rockpool Publishing, 2008.

9781921295713 (epub)

Reading–Parent participation.

Child development.

Literacy programs.

649.58

Cover by Seymour Designs

Visit us at: www.rockpoolpublishing.com.au

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

Part I Supporting Your Children’s Emotional Needs

1. Your Children’s Emotional Needs

2. Developing Self-confidence and Self-esteem

3. Conquering Fear: Avoiding Avoidance

Part II Supporting Your Children’s Social Needs

4. Learning About the World

Part III Supporting Your Children’s Educational Needs

5. Your Children’s Educational Needs

6. Reading Basics

7. Reading at Home

8. When Something Doesn’t Seem Right

9. Writing Basics

10. Transitions to Secondary School

11. Improving Writing

12. Computers at Home and in the Classroom

Epilogue

Resources

Back Cover Material

Katherine Bates has a Masters of Education (Literacy and Language) at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. She has been teaching since 1984 in pre-schools, primary and secondary schools as a classroom and literacy support teacher. She currently works as a Senior Education Officer developing national literacy and numeracy resources.

Katherine is passionate about teaching and developing all aspects of children as they learn—the emotional, social and educational. She believes there is a close connection between children’s success in learning to read and how they see themselves in the world.

Preface

When you hold your newborn in your arms for the first time, your mind is filled with many visions for the future and your heart swirls with emotions. Many of you will begin to draw on all the information you have been reading and listening to when preparing for this new phase in your lives. For others, you may remember the experiences of your previous children to prepare for the joys and the challenges of parenthood.

It doesn’t seem too long before you let go of your children’s hand at the school gate and new teachers enter their lives to assist them through the next phase of learning. You may feel as if the closeness of the toddler years are over. But in fact the early discoveries and experiences you shared with your children have built up love, trust, bonding, skills and confidence—the building blocks for their next phase of growing.

At times this can lead you to uncertain places. Soon your children are bringing reading books and sound sheets home from school—new books and a repertoire of educational language that can be foreign to your own experiences of school.

Even the way children write the letters of the alphabet seems to have changed. Your children may say, ‘You don’t say it the same way as the teacher.’ You can find that the methods you were taught are at odds with the current curriculum, leaving you unsure how to support your children’s formal learning experiences.

For some, your children’s experiences at school bring back unhappy memories, for others positive ones. Whatever kinds of experiences you had at school, I believe that you want the best for your children and your expectation is that your children will build up wonderful school memories of their own.

Reading opens windows of learning and opportunities that become a part of children’s lives everyday. Learning to read and write is about much more than mastering particular skills—it is about balancing the emotional, social and educational needs of your children so that they acquire the will, enthusiasm and self-confidence for a lifetime of learning.

Experiences of Learning

Early experiences of learning can shape children’s feelings and the way they learn to respond to situations. So the way you encourage learning for your children is a crucial part of growing up. When they are toddlers, you probably encourage your children to take risks, support their efforts—and praise their attempts as well as their successes. Once they enter formal schooling, the ‘pressure’ to learn and the expectations of success are more apparent, and you may forget to give them the support they need. But continuing to support them is essential, right through their school years. Learning takes place within diverse groups of people, friendships and teachers. The older they get, the more expansive is their learning—and the more affected it is by external factors and influences.

Even though school syllabuses recognise—and attempt to cater for—the individual needs of all, children are expected to acquire more independence and responsibility for their own learning as they mature and progress through primary school and into the high school years. Part of this involves understanding how they learn best—and an understanding of their own learning styles is of greater importance as they enter into higher studies and have to cope with different approaches to teaching and learning. This is a natural progression, but there are some great strategies that you can use to help your children make the most of these learning processes and experiences.

Learning is dependent on both external and internal factors and it is more effective when children feel supported. It is your role, as parents, to support them in an environment that recognises this philosophy.

Many factors contribute to the success of learning new skills. Educationalists have identified four stages of what they call the ‘conscious competence’ model of learning—and these are useful in understanding the processes that are involved in learning new skills and knowledge. Again, your children’s initial experiences can have a profound effect on how they approach new skills, persevere with tasks, accept their levels of skill and pursue excellence. It is as much about what they are learning as how they experience that learning—and therefore the relationship you set up as your children experience new skills and try to acquire and master them is essential.

On my seventeenth birthday, my father gave me my first (and only) driving lesson. I could barely see over the bonnet of the six-cylinder Falcon 500 as I sat there listening intently to my father’s instructions. My smile was a mask for my anxiousness, disguising that I understood nothing that he was telling me.

After a good twenty-minute talk on automatic transmissions, blinker technology, alternating currents and a quick quiz on the mechanics of drive shafts, my first driving experience began. I was in overload and my adrenalin was fuelled. The build-up had been so intense. I was determined to make this experience a success—one that my father would be proud of.

Looking back, I can see that this probably wasn’t the best way to introduce a new skill. Considering driving is something that needs to be practised many times before being mastered, there were plenty of opportunities for ‘small learning steps’.

As I accelerated down the road, I could hear my father’s voice: ‘It’s best to get the hard part over and done with.’ he said. ‘Let’s turn right.’ So after 10 metres of driving straight, the car began to change course and we veered into the middle of the road. My hands were saturated in sweat and I lost control of the wheel. My father seemed unable to grasp my nervousness. For him, driving was easy and he couldn’t work out what all the sweating was about.

When Children have Difficulties

With any new learning situation there will be some anticipation and uncertainty, which fade away once you have achieved some small successes. However, what you need to keep in mind is that what can be simple for those teaching can be a very daunting experience for those learning something new.

Often fear of an event is worse than the actual participation: once your children begin to take part in an activity their anxiety subsides. This is particularly true if they are engaged in learning something that is at an appropriate level, which they begin to achieve and find interesting.

But consider the experiences of children who have difficulties learning—especially learning to read—and who find it hard to link sounds and letters and to work out the meaning of new words. They can’t just ignore reading, as they might do with other activities that don’t interest them—not only because it is an essential skill but that reading, writing, listening, talking and understanding language is so much a part of daily life at school. Words are in the labels around the classroom and the school, on instructions in all areas of their work, and even on their lunch orders and personal belongings. All these notices and instructions in the school environment are based on the general expectation that children will approach learning to read fearlessly, positively, enthusiastically and successfully. They reinforce how important reading is in their lives and how essential it is in communicating wants and needs.

As well as acquiring the skills of literacy, when learning to read children are learning about things such as confidence, courage, perseverance and determination. Repeated experiences of failure or difficulties—sometimes many times a day—can really shake them. This can lead to a lack of confidence, fear and a sense of hopelessness. While some children can get on a bike or click on skis and master the skill in a few attempts, the reality is that many children take longer to learn new skills.

They may not pick up skills quickly and effortlessly or they can experience frustration because they have to practise repeatedly without success. This can often be difficult in a mixed classroom and, in any case, more of the same may not really help them to learn effectively. Often children who are less capable at reading yet talented in other areas are left to ‘develop in their own time’. Reading is seen as a secondary and less valued skill—even though they need it to assist them in all areas of their schooling.

Different learning ‘paces’

Some children learn easily, those who find it excruciatingly difficult and others who have natural abilities in specific subjects. As parents, you need to understand ‘how, when and what to do’ to help them—and these are the issues explored in this book.

If you can tap into the way your children learn best—recognise their learning styles—you can really encourage and help them with their reading. Barraging them with ways of learning that are ineffective for them and pushing them to work at levels that are too difficult for them can be overwhelming and create conflict at home. Fights over homework during the rush to get dinner and cope with the business of life are not what you anticipated when you first held your newborn children in your arms.

Children who find learning to read difficult will often progress at a slower rate than their peers. Not only may they feel they are lagging behind their classmates but they also have to work much harder to get results. This is where your help is so invaluable. At home, you can provide a nurturing, relaxed environment where your children can take small achievable steps to learn—in tandem with the education provided at school. To be really effective, you need to build your skills so that the partnership between you and your children is a positive, effective one.

Back to my driving lesson. After I had driven around the block with apparent success, I felt calmer. My father’s instruction broke my sense of security. ‘OK, park here.’ I turned the steering wheel hard towards the parking space, driving nose-in, straight up over the gutter and narrowly missing an elderly pedestrian. My father’s voice seemed to boil. ‘Brake!’ My foot pressed down, revving the accelerator, and then slamming on the brake, launching us to a halt. My confidence disappeared entirely. I quietly turned off the engine as my father walked to the front door. My four siblings hanging over the front fence watched me follow him inside. I don’t doubt my father’s loving intention to help me learn, but in reality it created high anxiety for both of us. I was overloaded with new—and irrelevant—information and was being tested before I’d even managed to take a few small successful steps. This all added to my anxiety. My first experience of driving left me really anxious about it, and it wasn’t until I was twenty-four that I began again—secretly taking lessons with a complete stranger so no one I knew could see me practise. This time I engaged in learning on my terms and in my own time.

Learning to read and write can be very similar. It may not be the initial struggles that can cause resistance from the learner—but the longer children experience failure, the less likely that they will enjoy learning the skill or want to be involved in anything that requires using the skill. Unhappy early experiences can create such anxiety that it may take a long time to overcome and, indeed, may have direct effects on their ability to learn, store and retrieve any type of information. This is why the experiences you create, foster and respond to make an enormous difference to the emotional, social and educational outcomes for your children.

Children who begin school with little prior experience of reading, or who miss many days once they begin school when specific new skills are introduced, often just need a little extra instruction at home or support from their classroom teacher or the learning assistance team at school for their difficulties to be sorted out in a relatively short time. But some children find learning to read difficult and they may require specialised support for a longer time. Understanding the nature of your children’s difficulties is important—only then can you help them effectively.

At school, those children who find activities easy most often complete their lessons first, have time to rest and socialise with their peers in-between lessons.

But those who are having difficulty reading will often take longer to finish their schoolwork and homework. They will need to make a greater effort to complete activities and have less time to rest and socialise. Their difficulties may also lead to incomplete work or little time to relax and play with their classmates.

This is why you need to be aware of the levels of energy and effort that are needed to complete tasks and not ask your children to work for long periods to complete tasks at home without appropriate breaks and support—especially if they have had to work at an intense level at school during the day. They may require some ‘down time’ after school to relax and ready themselves for their homework tasks.

Your Role

As parents, you need to be proactive in how you approach your children’s difficulties—be open to finding the best ways to help them and learning about how reading is taught in schools today. This may mean you need to find them additional support or specialist intervention, which could include visits to paediatricians, speech therapists, occupational therapists, optometrists or behavioural therapists. Children may also require specialist tuition within the school or from a private practitioner.

This may all seem daunting, but there are a number of good support networks available to help you to explore the causes of your children’s difficulties and find any therapy or assistance they may need.

Whether your children have acquired skills easily, early or with difficulty, the pressure to master skills way beyond their abilities or to achieve perfection can create anxiety and poor self-esteem. In order to release their frustrations or avoid situations that cause them distress, children can withdraw or refuse to work. They may begin behaving in ways to avoid reading, and may express their feelings in anger, fear or anxiety. Children often act in ways they don’t understand and they cannot always identify what is making them feel the way they do.

Instilling in your children a love of reading is important from their earliest attempts to read, right through their school years.

Being able to read by themselves is another stage of learning. Beginning readers who experience initial success tend to read not only to gain information but also for enjoyment.

But children who have less initial success as they first learn to read, are more likely to find the activity less rewarding and therefore