The best way to boost a child's reading skills is to read, read and read some more! Reading
practice means children will encounter more words, practice pronunciation and develop their
fluency. This does wonders for a child's reading ability. However, getting a child to read in the
first place can be a difficult task.
Use Visual Aids
Many educators find that using visual tools like graphic organizers to help students break down
the text they are reading helps make it more digestible and easily understood.
Reading strategies can help students access information that is not explicitly
stated. They help readers infer meaning, make conclusions, and generalize
information. Reading strategies are beneficial for texts that have complex
ideas and vocabulary.Jan 1, 2024
Collaborative and cooperative teaching can be a great way to get students to interact with their
peers and their instructors. Cooperative lesson plans include projects that involve group work,
partner learning, or teacher-student work.
By reading to children, you provide them with a deep understanding
about their world and fill their brains with background knowledge. They
then use this acquired background knowledge to make sense of what
they see, hear, and read, which aids their cognitive development.
Developing empathy.Ma
Why is Reading so Important for
Children?
Ellie Collier
May 24, 2019
4 min read
Reading allows us to be transported from our own world to another. Between the
pages of a book, we can become immersed in the lives of fictional characters
and learn about a culture entirely different from our own. We can also learn new
words and phrases, experience a range of emotions, and acquire skills and
knowledge.
Because of the learning potential, the effects of reading on child development are
vast and multiple studies have highlighted its benefits. As such, teachers and
parents are in a great position to ensure reading is a key part of children’s daily
routine. We’ll give you some more information as to why this is so important and
provide some tips that you can use both in and out of the classroom.
What Are the Benefits of Reading for Children?
The importance of reading for children cannot be underestimated. Reading for
pleasure can benefit a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their
wellbeing, and their mental health.
What are the Effects of Reading on Child Development?
Numerous pieces of research conducted and commissioned by BookTrust have
discovered the profound benefits of reading for a child’s development. One
study details the effects of reading on later literacy skills, facilitating social
interaction between adults and children, and encouraging children to engage with
the world around them. It also states how reading can be a ‘stable source of
information’ throughout a child’s life. This stability allows them to access text in
a constant fashion and can be especially beneficial for children growing up in
challenging circumstances.
Interested In Child Wellbeing?
We offer a comprehensive range of Safeguarding Courses from Challenging
Behaviour Training to Designated Safeguarding Lead. All of our courses are
fully online, available on all devices, and able to start immediately after
purchasing.
There are multiple other benefits that reading can have on a child’s development,
including:
Assisted cognitive development. Cognitive development refers to how we
perceive and think about our world in reference to our intelligence, reasoning,
language development, and information processing. By reading to children, you
provide them with a deep understanding about their world and fill their brains with
background knowledge. They then use this acquired background knowledge to
make sense of what they see, hear, and read, which aids their cognitive
development.
Developing empathy. When we read a book, we put ourselves in the story in
front of us. This allows us to develop empathy as we experience the lives of other
characters and can identify with how they are feeling. Children can then use this
understanding to empathise in the real world with other people. Additionally,
children will gain a greater understanding of emotions, which can help them
understand their own emotions and those of others. This helps dramatically with
their social development.
Gaining deeper understanding. A book can take us anywhere: to another city,
to a different country, or even to an alternative world. By reading a book, a child
learns about people, places, and events that they couldn’t learn otherwise. This
gives children a deeper understanding of the world around them and cultures that
are different from their own.
Building stronger relationships. If a parent reads with a child on a regular
basis, then they will undoubtedly develop a stronger relationship with them.
Reading provides parents with an opportunity to have a regular and shared event
that both parent and child can look forward to. Furthermore, it provides children
with feelings of attention, love, and reassurance which is key for nurturing and
wellbeing.
What is the Importance of Stories in Child Education?
Reading with children can help to create a love of reading for life. Multiple studies
have found a correlation between reading for pleasure and higher academic
achievement in every subject, not just English.
The benefits of reading with children on their education is wide-ranging:
Improved literary skills. Reading with aloud with young children, even if they
can’t fully understand what you are saying, gives them the skills they need for
when they begin to read by themselves. It shows children that reading is
something achieved by focusing from left to right and that turning pages is
essential for continuing. Reading to children in even the earliest months of their
lives can help with language acquisition and stimulating the part of the brain that
processes language.
More extensive vocabulary. Hearing words spoken aloud can expose children
to a range of new vocabulary and phrases that they may not have heard
otherwise. By reading to a child daily, they’ll learn new words every single day.
Greater concentration. Regular and consistent reading can help to improve a
child’s concentration abilities. Furthermore, it will help a child learn to sit still and
listen for long periods of time, which will benefit them in their schooling.
Higher levels of creativity and imagination. Reading a book relies on us using
our imagination for picturing characters, visualising their settings and
environment, and guessing what’s coming next. We must use our imagination if
we are to learn about other people, places, events, and times. In turn, this
developed imagination leads to greater creativity as children use the ideas in
their heads to inform their work.
Finally, the more that a child is read to, and the more that they read themselves,
the better they will become at it. Practice really does make perfect and, the more
a child reads, the better their overall academic achievement and social skills, like
empathy, will be.
The Top Ten Benefits of Reading for Children
Based on what we’ve discussed above, here are the top 10 benefits of reading
for children:
1. Their vocabulary is larger and more extensive.
2. They perform better academically.
3. Their imagination can run wild.
4. Their creativity skills develop.
5. They develop empathy.
6. They gain a deeper understanding of their world.
7. Their concentration levels improve.
8. The parent and child bond improves.
9. Their cognitive development is supported.
10. Their social skills and interaction improve.
How to Read with Your Child
Reading aloud is an enjoyable activity that both parents and children alike can
enjoy. Additionally, it is an activity that teachers find fulfilling and that they should
encourage regularly, both at school and at home.
How Parents Can Read with Their Child
If you read with your child at home, then you are supplementing what they learn
in the classroom as well as giving them additional one-on-one support that the
classroom cannot give. To have successful and effective reading sessions,
consider the following:
Start young. Even during infancy, a child can look at pictures and listen to your
voice. Read aloud to your child and point to the pictures on the page, saying the
name of the objects that appear. This provides your child with two sources of
information: an understanding of real-world objects and an understanding of the
importance of language. Even when your child can read by themselves, you
should still read aloud together for practice.
Make it part of your routine. Try your best to read to your child every day and
keep it consistent. Incorporate this into your, and your child’s, daily routine until it
becomes as much of a habit as them brushing their teeth. However, try not to be
discouraged if you miss a day – just pick your routine back up as normal when
you have time.
Encourage variation. Try to vary the books that you read to your child as much
as possible. This will open their eyes to a range of different worlds, cultures, and
characters, and allow their imagination to be stretched and thrive.
Have patience. Sometimes we can forget what it’s like to be that age and what
we were like. As an adult we take reading for granted, but it’s easier to be patient
with a child when we remember how much they don’t know yet. For example,
how is a child going to know to read from left to right until you point at the words
as you go? How are they to know that each scrawl on the page represents a
word? Take your time and be patient if they don’t understand.
Continue the discussion. After you’ve finished reading a story to your child,
consider trying to keep it going. Age depending, you could ask them questions
about what they’ve just read. For example, “Did you enjoy that story?”, “Who was
your favourite character?” or “Why do you think the prince was happy at the
end?”. However, don’t feel that this is necessary for every single story you read.
If your child enjoys the book, it will develop a love of reading anyway, even
without the conversation.
How Teachers Can Encourage Reading
If you’re a teacher, reading to your class will probably be second nature.
However, there may be certain children in your class who only get the chance to
read in school and not at home. This could be for a variety of reasons, however,
try and communicate to parents the importance of reading with their child. To do
so, you could:
Circulate a newsletter. You could create a fortnightly/monthly newsletter that
details what your class has read in that fortnight or month and why. Then, say
how parents can continue with the chosen reading topic at home. For example, if
you have been studying science fiction in your class that fortnight then you could
include some suggestions for other science fiction books that parents can read at
home.
Start a book club. If you have the time, you could start a book club with your
class or across the school. As part of this, you could suggest a book per week, or
month, that children have to read at home. Then, check their understanding of,
and engagement with, that book by holding regular meetings.
Get the children involved. Make it known to your pupils that reading is valuable
and fun. Ask your class to make posters that encourage others to read or create
a display where each student can write what their favourite book is and why.
Doing so will help to foster a love of reading in them that makes them want to
read at home.
Lead by example. Let your students know that you read and you enjoy it. Talk to
them about a book you’ve recently read or your all-time favourite book. You could
also read a book yourself when your students are having silent reading time. This
will help to motivate your students to read themselves. Finally, communicate this
to parents and ask them to do something similar at home.
Reading is a powerful, fulfilling, and rewarding activity. Not only does a book act
as a comfort and a friend, it also acts as a teacher and can teach children all
about themselves, their world, and the cultures within it. Reading with children
has numerous benefits and is something all parents and teachers should
encourage.
What to Read Next:








What is Effective Questioning and Why Should I Use it in my
Classroom?
Promoting Social Development in Children Through Structured Group
Play
Education Training Courses
Creative Writing Quiz
Reading and Mental Health: What are the Benefits?
The Importance of Phonemic Awareness: Teaching Strategies
The Importance of Routine for Children: Free Weekly Planner
Why is Child Development So Important in Early Years?
How to Teach Phonics to
Beginning Readers
PPhonics is the best, most efficient way to teach children how to read. Yes, plenty of
words break the “rules” and don’t sound exactly the way they look, but phonics is still
the strongest way to give children a strong foundational understanding of how to
translate the lines and squiggles on the page into the sounds that make up language.
And as a teacher, you can make your students’ experiences as beginning readers fun
and exciting.
Learning phonics is the big first step toward the joys of reading. So how can you teach
phonics in a way that’s just as interesting as the books your students will eventually
enjoy?
We have a few ideas. But let’s step back for a moment and make sure we’re on the
same page about phonics itself.
What Phonics Is and How It Works
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, phonics is “a method of teaching
people to read by correlating sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic
writing system.”
In other words, when students learn phonics, they learn the sounds associated with
lines and squiggles we call letters — and they learn how those letters work together to
create even more sounds, all of which together shape the words we use to
communicate.
Phonics is a straightforward, methodical way of teaching decoding, the first skill
that, with comprehension, goes into effective reading. Without solid decoding skills,
students can’t make good progress on reading comprehension because they haven’t
accurately read the words on the page. Unlike other methods of teaching reading, like
the outdated “whole language” approach, phonics doesn’t rely on context clues (which
assume possession of a level of decoding and comprehension skills). Rather, phonics
treats letters as an actual code for the sounds we often speak.
Due to the English language’s many influences, there are many words that don’t exactly
follow the phonics rules. Good phonics lessons, then, will also cover a handful of sight
words (like the), along with common exceptions to various rules and the variations in
sounds that letter combinations like /ea/ can make (bread/meat/pearl).
Before students can start matching sounds to letters, however, they must be aware of
the sounds themselves.
Start with Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize distinct sounds in spoken language.
This comes with good listening skills and translates into reading by helping students
match sounds to letters and combinations of sounds to words.
While phonemic awareness begins at home (parents play a crucial role in developing
this skill), educators can help strengthen students’ phonemic awareness through
lessons and activities that emphasize sounds. Reading books that rhyme at storytime,
practicing animal sounds, or playing games with more advanced students that task
them with rhyming or recalling words with similar sounds.
What word rhymes with dress?
What animals start with a /p/ sound?
Integrating questions and activities like this throughout the school day can help students
naturally pick up and distinguish more sounds. Once students have started learning
their letters, you can take these activities a step further:
If mess and dress rhyme, what letters might they both have? What
about puppy and polar bear and penguin?
How to Teach Phonics
The best way to teach phonics is in a systematic way that starts simple and adds
complexity over time, as students pick up skills. Don’t dwell too long on any one step —
mastering one level of phonics should immediately lead to the next level so students
can progress in their reading ability before getting bored.
1. Start with simple hard consonants and short vowel sounds.
You’ll gradually work through the whole alphabet, but start with a group of letters
(often, S, A, T, P, I, N) that can be combined to make a variety of words. This way, as
students learn the individual letters and sounds, they can see how those letters work
together to create words.
2. Introduce blending with simple 3-letter words.
Nap, sit, pat. Once your students have learned a few letters, have them practice
“sounding out” simple 3-letter words. These should be words that use the simple hard
consonant and short vowel sounds that your students already know.
3. Introduce more complex consonant combinations and bump up to 4letter words.
Your phonics curriculum will outline exactly which combinations to start with, but once
your students have mastered most of the letters’ sounds, you’ll need to introduce them
to letter combinations that change the shape of the sound. For example: st, gr, lm, ng,
sh. Some of these are more straightforward than others, so start with what can more
easily be sounded out — and be sure to show these combinations in real words your
students can read!
4. Teach vowel combinations — ea, oo, ai — and put them into action.
Vowel combinations can be more complicated and irregular than consonant
combinations, so seeing them in real words is even more important. Exercises that have
students identify words with similar vowel sounds can be helpful for ingraining this
knowledge (ex: bear, hair, learn, pear).
As readers advance, encourage them to write as well as read! Once they know their
letters and sounds, they can practice writing their ideas. Even if their spelling isn’t
correct, this helps them practice applying their knowledge of letter sounds.
Make Learning Phonics Fun!
Reading is fun — and learning to read should be too! There are a whole host of ways
you can make learning phonics more fun and interactive. Here are a few of our ideas:
1. Magnetic letters and/or letter blocks.
During playtime or certain breaks throughout the day, have magnetic letters or letter
blocks out and encourage your students to take turns spelling out different words they
know — or even words they’re making up! Nonsense words can be a fun way to
practice letter sounds, and who knows? Your students may even find out that they
already know how to spell a fun word.
2. Play games like “I Spy” and “Animal Names”.
You can use “I Spy” books or just play the game in your classroom with prompts like “I
spy something starting with the /f/ sound.” You can use either sounds or letters for this
game, depending on whether you want to focus on phonemic awareness or the lettersound relationship. For Animal Names, everyone picks an animal that starts with the
same letter as their first name (Henry hippo, Amber alligator, Marty mouse); you can
also play with other categories like sports or fruits and vegetables.
3. Label the classroom.
You can label the classroom — or you can hand your students sticky notes and ask
them to label different objects in the classroom (desks, whiteboard, trash can, etc.). If
you do the labeling, the labels can help observant students learn more words and
spellings as they come to school each day. If your students do the labeling, they get to
practice their spelling and phonetic word creation skills.
Phonics is your students’ first foray into reading for themselves — and how you teach
phonics can make the learning process fun and interesting. Hopefully, we’ve sparked
your imagination. Now, let’s pass that inspiration to students!
How to Teach Phonics with SparkReading
Get structured practice and support for phonics instruction with SparkReading’s phonics
practice and assessments. Brought to you by Edulastic, SparkReading’s phonics helps
new readers learn sounds, spelling, and build their fundamental mastery of English
language basics.
Learn More
osted by Edulastic
Explicit teaching is a system of step-by- step instructional approaches
in which teachers examine the individual elements they are planning
to teach and continually check for student understanding