Reading to your child is one of the most important things you can do to help foster a life-long love of reading. Studies show that reading to your child is an essential component in providing a future academic advantage. These reading tips will encourage children of all ages to love reading and become life-long readers!

How do reading skills develop?

Research has identified five skills that are essential for learning to read:
  1. Phonemic Awareness: Being able to notice, understand, and work with the sounds in words.
  2. Phonics: A method of teaching reading, based on sounding out letters to read words.
  3. Fluency: Being able to read accurately and quickly.
  4. Vocabulary: Knowing what words mean when we hear and read them.
  5. Text Comprehension: Truly understanding what is read.

As a parent or caregiver you play a critical role in helping children not only learn to read, but develop a life-long love of reading. You can make reading a part of your child’s life by clicking on the links above and following the tips that are just right for your child’s age.

Reading to your baby not only fosters a bond between you and your child, but it creates loving associations with reading and stimulates your baby’s creativity, increases her attention span, memory, and listening skills.

Tips for picking books:

• Choose sturdy, wipeable books. Your baby is probably teething and drooling quite a bit.
• Introduce books with flaps. These kinds of books are like a game of peek-a-boo.
• Let your child choose her favorite books. This will encourage your child to take an active part in the reading process and will make certain the subject matter and stories will always be of interest to her.

Tips for reading to your baby:

• Ham it up! Make funny voices and sound effects.
• Hold your baby on your lap with a book.
• Begin prompting with questions and providing answers.
• Begin to turn the page and let your baby continue to press it to the left.
• Let your baby explore the book physically, in his hands and even in his mouth. Vinyl bath books are great for this age.
• Talk about the book and provide context and background knowledge.
• Begin to make connections among books, pointing out similarities.

Tips for reading time:

• Set aside ‘special time’ for reading with your child: This will encourage your child to develop a reading routine that will make reading part of his/her daily life. Read to your child everyday, if you can!
• Let your child dictate the amount of time spent reading: This will assure you that reading never becomes tedious for your child and continues to be fun and exciting. As the activity becomes part of your child’s daily life, the length of time your child can listen and read will become longer and longer.
• Let your child read the books over and over if they choose to do so. This encourages long-term memory and vocabulary retention and will make your child an expert on the topic!

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Reading to your toddler helps to stimulate language development and exposes your toddler to new words that help build a large vocabulary and increases his attention span, memory, and listening skills.

Tips for picking books:

• Let your child choose the books to read. This will encourage your child to take an active part in the reading process and will make certain the subject matter and stories will always be of interest to your child. Allow your toddler to help make choices at a library or bookstore, making her feel like a partner in the reading experience.
• Choose books that feature topics related to your child’s current stage of development as well as his current interests. Fairly short books often work best for this physically active stage.
• Choose books with wordplay, such as rhyme and playful sounds, to show your child inventive ways of using language.

Tips for reading to your toddler:

• Ham it up! Make funny voices and sound effects. Children love the theatrical aspects of reading ‘in character’.
• Let your child set the lead and turn the pages when he is ready. Your toddler is at an age where control is very important!
• Ask simple questions about the illustrations, giving your toddler time to answer. If she doesn’t, answer the question yourself. Saying “Where are they going?” and “What is she holding?” elicit more language development than simple yes-or-no questions.
• Use a variety of words to praise your child. Instead of saying “good job,” say “excellent,” “stupendous,” “wonderful,” or “amazing.” This builds her vocabulary and gets her attention.
• Enjoy the times when your toddler wants to ‘read’ to you. He may be mimicking the inflections in your voice, and though it may sound like babble, listening with your full attention can build the confidence he needs to learn to read later.
• Pause to let your child chime in with newly acquired language skills.
• Begin to make connections among books, pointing out similarities.

Tips for reading time:

• Let your child dictate the amount of time spent reading. This will assure you that reading never becomes tedious for your child and continues to be fun and exciting. As the activity becomes part of your child’s daily life, the length of time your child can listen and read will become longer and longer.
• Let your child read the books over and over if they choose to do so. This encourages long-term memory vocabulary retention and will make your child an expert on the topic!
• Create a ‘Reading Space’ in your home. A comfortable chair, a library of fun and interesting books, a fuzzy rug, anything that makes your child feel comfortable and ready to learn. Your child will know that entering this ‘Reading Space’ signals a learning mind set.
• Make books a part of your daily routine. Your child will come to expect and look forward to this time. Start with a book or two before naptime and bedtime and add books as your toddler’s attention span increases.
• Bring books along for challenging situations, such as waiting rooms and restaurants. Let reading be a source of comfort and a welcome distraction from the waiting.
• Provide paper and crayons and let your child scribble and draw. Afterwards, encourage discussion about the picture. Using writing tools is an important first step in literacy.

Children hear and use the sounds of language before they even notice the printed words on a page. Reading books out loud to your child stimulates his imagination and expands his understanding of the world. It helps him develop the language and listening skills he will need to succeed once he enters Kindergarten. When regular reading becomes a part of your child’s life, learning to read when he enters kindergarten will feel natural and easy to him. Here are a few tips to prepare your child for the coming school years.

Tips for picking books:

• Let your child choose the books to read. This will encourage your child to take an active part in the reading process and will make certain the subject matter and stories will always be of interest to your child. Any reading is good reading -- age-appropriate comic books included!
• Choose books with a more complex storyline, but also continue to read books that your child enjoys and is familiar with.

Tips for reading to your preschooler:

• Indulge your child and read the same book multiple times. Hearing a book repeated helps your child become more familiar with the language and the story. This encourages long-term memory vocabulary retention and will make your child an expert on the topic!
• As you read, pause in places to allow your child to complete a rhyme or repeat a phrase or sentence.
• Point to words as you read them and encourage your child to repeat them after you.
• Ask simple questions about the story, giving your child time to answer, “Where are they going?” and “How do you think she feels?”
• Talk about the book and provide context and background knowledge.
• As your child begins to recognize some of the letters, challenge him to find a particular letter on a page.
• Encourage your child to “read” with you from memory. This helps her model reading behavior.
• Amp up your vocabulary. At this stage children love to mimic what they hear around them, this includes more advanced vocabulary. “That is magnificent!”.

Tips for reading time:

• Set aside ‘special time’ for reading with your child: This will encourage your child to develop a reading routine that will make reading part of his/her daily life. Read to your child everyday, if you can!
• Make books a part of your daily routine. Your child will come to expect and look forward to this time. Start with a book or two at bedtime and add books as your child’s attention span increases.
• Create a ‘Reading Space’ in your home. A comfortable chair, a library of fun and interesting books, a fuzzy rug, anything that makes your child feel comfortable and ready to learn. Your child will know that entering this ‘Reading Space’ signals a learning mind set.

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The Kindergarten years are very important developmental years for your child. Your child can now listen to instructions, recognize various letters and sounds of the alphabet, hold scissors and pencils. She is now ready to learn to read on her own. This is a critical time for instilling in your child the right attitude and skills needed to be a successful independent reader for life.

Reading Tips:

• Indulge your child and read the same book multiple times. Hearing a book repeated helps your child become more familiar with the language and the story.
• As you read, pause in places to allow your child to complete a rhyme or repeat a phrase or sentence.
• Point to words as you read them and encourage your child to repeat them after you.
• As your child begins to recognize some of the letters, challenge him to find a particular letter on a page.
• Encourage your child to “read” with you from memory. This helps her model reading behavior.
• Set aside ‘special time’ for reading with your child. This will encourage your child to develop a reading routine that will make reading part of his/her daily life. Read with your child everyday, if you can!
• Sound out the letters of the alphabet. Begin to teach your child that every letter in the alphabet makes its own individual sound. “This is the Letter A, this letter says aaaahhhh.”
• Ask your child to read back words you have just read. Although she will do it by memory, this helps your child model correct reading behavior.
• Point out words everywhere. Reading doesn’t always have to be from books. There is an opportunity to encourage reading by pointing out the printed words that surround us. Road signs, advertising, billboards, menus, posters, they all present excellent opportunities to explore reading.
• Discuss words. Your child’s vocabulary will increase exponentially if constantly introduced to new words, ‘This dinosaur was a CARNIVORE, this means he only ate meat!’
• Play word-related games. Spelling games, board games, even educational video games can encourage your child to associate ‘reading’ with ‘fun’.
• Take your child to the library! It is never too early to encourage your child’s love of books. Here he will see other children who are interested in books and love reading.

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Children can enter first grade at various reading levels. Some children may have not learned to read in kindergarten and some can already read independently. By the end of first grade children will be reading various materials, from simple ABC books, to rhymes, grade-level books and even more advanced fairytales and non-fiction books.

Reading Tips:

• As your child learns to read, rely more and more on her to read you words, sentences and even entire stories.
• Find opportunities to let your child read outside of the home. Your child can read shopping lists, road signs, directions, billboards -- you name it, she can read it!
• Encourage language and vocabulary development in your child, “Laura, you are an ENCHANTING child, do you know what ENCHANTING means?”
• Let your child read his school journal, homework, etc. to you. Remember to sound interested in what he is reading: “That is fascinating!” “I didn’t know that.”
• Point out words everywhere. Reading doesn’t always have to be from books. There is an opportunity to encourage reading by pointing out the printed words that surround us. Road signs, advertising, billboards, menus, posters, they all present excellent opportunities to explore reading.
• Discuss words. Your child’s vocabulary will increase exponentially if constantly introduced to new words, ‘This dinosaur was a CARNIVORE, this means he only ate meat!’
• Play word-related games. Spelling games, board games, even educational video games can encourage your child to associate ‘reading’ with ‘fun’.
• Encourage your child to say spelling words and listen to the sounds in the words. Ask, “What letters make the sounds you are hearing?”
• Help your child develop good spelling habits by pointing out rules that are easy to remember. Use mnemonic devices like “i” before “e” except after “c” for even quicker learning.
• Point out words that rhyme and are spelled similarly. Catch and match both rhyme and have the same word ending.
• Help your child learn to identify key components of a sentence. Nouns and verbs are good places to start.
• Start a ‘Storybook’ or ‘Journal’. This is a good time to let your child start writing her own sentences about things that interest her, what she learned in school, who her friends are, etc. Your child will be well on her way to becoming a world-class reader!

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Reading Tips

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