How To Become Your
Child’s Reading Coach
Practical Tips for Parents and Families
Parent Education Network
Parent Education Network (PEN)
Parent Education Network is a Parent
Training and Information Center (PTI)
that provides training and assistance
to parents of children with disabilities
and to parents of children with
learning and behavior problems.
Workshop Goals
This workshop will assist you in helping your child at
home by:
• providing you with an understanding of how children
learn to read.
• providing ideas and reading activities that you can do
at home with your child
• providing an understanding of literacy terms.
• providing resource books to read and organizations to
contact for more information.
Learning To Read
Why It’s So Important…
Big Dreams
We want to encourage you to have Big Dreams
for your child!
“Big Dreams - A Family Book About Reading” published by The National Institute for Literacy
Big Dreams
I want my child to read.
I want my child to read.
child
to be to
a reader.
II want
wantmymy
child
be a reader.
I want my child to have big dreams.
I want
my child to have big dreams.
And I want those dreams to come true.
And How
I want
dreams
totocome
can those
I help my
child learn
read? true.
How can I help my child learn to read?
Big Dreams
I show her that
reading matters.
I help her find books she likes.
She sees me read.
We go to the library together.
We write letters to her cousins
and spell out all the words.
We read before bed every
night.
Big Dreams
We spend time
together.
We talk a lot.
I talk to her about what
we’re doing.
I ask about her day.
She asks me about the
world.
I tell her what I know.
Big Dreams
I help him hear
the sounds in
words when we
talk.
I help him hear how baby and
bubble start with the same
sound.
I help him hear that kitten and
mitten rhyme.
We sing songs. We say nursery
rhymes.
He is getting ready to read.
I am helping him.
Big Dreams
I help her learn
the ABCs.
We start with ant and go all the way to
zebra.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.
We look for letters everywhere.
We say their names
and the sounds they make.
We practice writing all the letters.
Big Dreams
I help them know what
words mean.
I teach my children that things have names.
I teach them the colors, the foods we eat.
I teach them the animals and the kinds of weather.
I teach them walk, run, jump, fly.
I teach them is, was, and will be.
Big Dreams
I help him
practice reading.
He reads his favorite book
out loud.
I read it too. We take turns.
He reads it over and over.
I don’t mind.
He reads until the words
sound right.
I say, “Great job reading!”
Big Dreams
Reading can help
our dreams come true.
I show her that reading matters.
We spend time together.
I help him hear the sounds in words when we talk.
I help her learn the ABCs.
I help them know what words mean.
I help him practice reading.
I help him understand what he reads.
“Big Dreams - A Family Book About Reading” published by The National Institute for Literacy
Parents- You can make the difference!
Spending time with your child
talking, reading, and having fun
together helps builds a strong
relationship and also helps
promote a love of learning!
The Five Skills Needed to Read
Reading success begins with mastering
the five essential parts of reading:
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary
Fluency
Comprehension
Spoken Words
1- Phonemic Awareness
As soon as a baby is born they
begin to learn about language by
hearing spoken words.
By the time they are one year old
they will hear thousands of
spoken words.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify,
and understand that words are made up of
separate sounds. Before children are able to
read they need to become aware of how
sounds work.
This process begins when a child is just a baby…
Parent Suggestion
Sing songs and play games with words.
You can start working on phonemic awareness
when your child is a just a baby. Babies and
children love silly songs and nursery rhymes. As
your child gets older, your games can get more
advanced.
Sing the alphabet song and point to the letters as
you sing. Children learn faster by hearing and
seeing them at the same time.
Written Words
2-
Phonics
When a child starts to understand
that written letters represent the
sounds of speech they can begin
to sound out words.
It’s like learning a code.
If it’s fun, they will love it!
Parent Suggestion
Words are everywhere in your environment.
Think of every word that you see as a chance to
help your child become a better reader. Look for
words on signs, maps, billboards, cereal boxes,
money, and birthday cards.
Word Power
3- Vocabulary
Learning new words and what they
mean builds vocabulary. Children
learn most words by hearing them
and then repeating the sounds and
words that they hear.
Vocabulary
You can start building a child’s vocabulary very
early, when you read your child a story and talk
about the new words or point to a picture of a
kangaroo in a book (and say “kangaroo” out
loud).
Parent Suggestion
Building vocabulary is like
playing with Legos. You build your
toy one piece at a time.
Make learning new words a game.
Play “I Spy”. They will love it!
Smooth Reader
4- Fluency
Children need lots of practice to
become fluent readers, just like
learning how to hit a ball. The more
you read, the better you become.
Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read without difficulty. Fluent
readers are able to read aloud effortlessly and with
expression. They recognize lots of words, without
having to sound them out one by one.
Parent Suggestion
Does your child have a favorite book that they like to
read over and over again? Reading those favorite
books over and over again is a great way to help
make your child a fluent reader.
Listen to your child read the same pages repeatedly,
until your child is able to read smoothly without
having to stop to sound out the words.
Understanding What It Means
5-Comprehension
People read for a reason. We want to learn how to
do something, or find out what happened in last
night’s game, or just to get lost in a good story.
Reading has no purpose or meaning if it doesn’t help
us understand something.
Comprehension
Comprehension is understanding what we
read.
Does your child understand
the details, the meaning, and
the ideas behind what he is
reading?
Parent Suggestion
Ask open ended questions; questions that
don’t have a yes or no answer.
It’s a great way to know whether your young
reader really understands what he or she
read. This encourages children to think
about what they have read.
Some Helpful Terms To Know
• alphabetic knowledge—Knowing the names and shapes
of the letters of the alphabet.
• big books—Oversized books that allow for the sharing
of print and illustrations with children.
• blending—Putting together individual sounds to make
spoken words.
• developmental spelling—The use of letter-sound
relationship information to attempt to write words.
• emergent literacy—The view that literacy learning
begins at birth and is encouraged through
participation with adults in meaningful reading and
writing activities.
• environmental print—Print that is a part of everyday life,
such as signs, billboards, labels, and business logos.
• experimental writing—Efforts by young children to
experiment with writing by creating pretend and real
letters and by organizing scribbles and marks on paper.
• invented spelling—See developmental spelling.
• literacy—Includes all the activities involved in speaking,
listening, reading, writing, and appreciating both
spoken and written language.
• phonemes—The smallest parts of spoken language that
combine to form words. For example, the word hit is
made up of three phonemes (/h/ /i/ /t/) and differs by one
phoneme from the words pit, hip and hot.
• phonemic awareness—The ability to notice and work
with the individual sounds in spoken language.
• phonological awareness—The understanding that
spoken language is made up of individual and
separate sounds. In addition to phonemes, phonological
awareness activities can involve work with rhymes,
words, sentences, and syllables.
• pretend reading—Children’s attempts to “read“ a book
before they have learned to read. Usually children
pretend read a familiar book that they have practically
memorized.
• print awareness—Knowing about print and books and
how they are used.
• segmentation—Taking spoken words apart sound by
sound.
• spoken language—The language used in talking and
listening; in contrast to written language, which is the
language used in writing and reading.
• syllable—A word part that contains a vowel or, in
spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent, news-paper, pret-ty)
• vocabulary—The words we must know in order to
communicate effectively.
Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or
recognize in listening.
Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in
print.
“A Child Becomes a Reader, Proven Ideas for Parents from Research--Kindergarten through Grade Three”
Resources For Parents
The Partnership for Reading. www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading
National Parent Information Network (NPIN). www.npin.org
National Institute for Literacy (NIFL). www.nifl.gov
Reading Rockets offers activities and ideas for building your child’s reading skills at home.
www.readingrockets.org/families
PBS Parents can help parents learn how children become readers and writers by helping them
develop by talking, reading, and writing together every day. http://pbskids.org
The American Federation of Teachers web site offers pages for parents on building strong
partnerships with schools. www.aft.org/parents/index.htm
Parents as Teachers National Center suggests ways for parents to interact with their children
to develop early literacy. www.parentsasteachers.org
Resource list provided by the Parent Information and Resource Centers,
U.S. Department of Education.
Power Point Resource List
Big Dreams - A Family Book About Reading (October 2006)
Dad's Playbook: Coaching Kids to Read (September 2006)
Put Reading First
Helping Your Child Learn to Read - A Parent Guide, Preschool Through
Grade 3
A Child Becomes a Reader
Proven Ideas for Parents from Research--Kindergarten through Grade
Three, Third Edition, (2006).
Help Is Available
If your child is showing signs of frustration
trying to learn to read…
Contact:
Parent Education Network
1-800-522-5827
1-717-600-0100
pen@parentednet.org
In Closing
Have fun with
your children
and make
reading part
of your
everyday
activities!
 Spend time talking and
listening to your child
everyday
 Read together daily.
 Visit the library together.
 Make reading a priority.
Thank you for attending!
Please complete the workshop evaluation and hand it
in before you leave.
For additional parent/family resources contact:
Parent Education Network
1-800-522-5827
Parent Education Network
 The development of this presentation was supported by
the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of
Special Education through the OSEP-funded State
Personnel Development Grant (SPDG).
 The contents of this presentation were developed under
a grant from the US Department of Education, CDF
84.323A. However, those contents do not necessarily
represent the policy of the US Department of Education,
and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal
Government. Project Officer, Marsha Goldberg.