The first five years of a child's life are a time of physical, emotional, and cognitive growth. The amount of support children receive during these early years can be strongly connected to the level of success they achieve later in life. Children whose families involve them in activities that allow them to wonder and experiment often take pleasure…

Part of a series designed to provide practical ideas parents can use to help children become readers, this booklet focuses on how to encourage high school students to read. The booklet describes the social needs of teenagers, general guidelines for developing purposeful reading, and specific strategies to develop purposes for reading. Under each…

"Sounding out" is a cultural model capturing an image of reading that parents and children share, is found to enhance reading ability. The role played by "Sounding out" in parent's experiences with reading is described and how they apply their understanding of sounding out words to instructional interactions with their own children is described.

Research indicates that both home literacy activities and direct instruction of reading skills promote reading development. The current study investigates how parent-led direct teaching activities impact emergent literacy. Preschool children (n = 47) were administered subtests from the Test of Early Reading Ability-3 and the Kaufman Survey of…

This phonics outline is designed as a guide for parents, as a manual for teachers, and as a handbook for those who wish to improve their reading pronunciation skills. The purposes of the handbook are: (1) to show parents what a person needs to know to become a good reader; (2) to provide a convenient source of words that follow rules of phonics;…

This reproducible for teachers to send home to parents explains why parents should read aloud to their older children: to increase understanding and enjoyment, to give real-life context to stories, to check for mistakes as the child reads aloud, and to share the sheer joy of reading. It is important to choose high-quality literature when starting.…

By blending reading aloud, in particular "performance reading," with follow-up discussion, related activities, and plenty of wordplay, parents can prepare their children to think, communicate, and succeed in the adult world. Performance reading helps parents learn to read wordless books to relate to infants/toddlers; explore sounds of words to…

This book presents practical ideas, procedures, and activities which can help parents improve children's reading. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Reading and Your Child"; (2) "Living with and Helping Your Child"; (3) "Getting Ready to Teach Your Child"; (4) "The Teaching Session"; (5)…

Intended to encourage parents to help their children acquire early reading skills at home, this paper provides a rationale and recommendations for early reading instruction. Following an introduction, the sections of the paper discuss (1) the historical background of beginning reading, (2) the benefits of early reading, (3) early reading case…

This booklet for parents, in both English and Spanish, offers suggestions for helping their young children develop and improve their reading skills. The booklet first presents tips for helping infants or preschoolers be ready to read and ready to learn. Suggestions include talking to the infant or toddler, reading aloud starting at 6 months,…

A mother of an adolescent daughter with blindness and learning disabilities focuses on how she helped her daughter improve reading and writing skills by finding a meaningful purpose for those skills in daily life. This article discusses early signs of learning problems, the learning environment, talking books, books in braille, technology,…

The basic skills activities in this booklet are intended for use by adult basic education (ABE) students who are parents or who otherwise interact with children. The lessons are constructed to be used first by ABE teachers or counselors with a parent and then by the parent and child at home. The lessons introduce concepts that children can learn…

This set of instructional materials consists of a 12-page leader's guide and 75 activity sheets to be used in adult literacy programs by parents who want to help their children learn. The leader's guide explains the purpose of the materials and offers suggestions for use of the materials one on one, in a class group, and outside the class or…

Compiled by members of the Reading Committee of the North Middlesex Regional School District (Massachusetts), this illustrated guide provides tips, suggestions, and activities that parents can follow at home to help their children read. The Clues about Reading Enrichment (CARE) guide notes that regularly reading aloud to and with children is an…

This book discusses the development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and the educational and practical issues that face them and their families. Chapters discuss: (1) the effect of a child with deafness on a family, and family adjustment to early childhood hearing loss; (2) the population of people who are deaf, the causes of early…