Caregivers: 3 Ways to Support Literacy at Home
OnYourMark Education
A virtual tutoring intervention that gives children a critical boost in their learning-to-read journeys.
If you’re able to attend back-to-school night to meet your child’s teacher, let’s call that what it is… a minor miracle.?
From scheduling activities to selecting foods, sorting out friend groups to calming nerves about the playground, it takes more than a few miracles each day to help your kids grow and thrive in schools. For the youngest learners, though, perhaps one of the greatest joys to witness is when kids start learning to read. Early learning educators will tell you that teaching kids to read is, often, the very best part of being a teacher.?
That’s why it’s so important that caregivers join with their teachers in supporting literacy at home. Learning to read doesn’t just happen on its own, and it doesn’t happen solely because of the teacher. It takes a team approach.?
Teachers, Students, and You
The three of you—your student, their teacher, and you, the caregiver—make up the winning team working towards the same goal: your child’s success. And to meet that goal, everyone has a job to do.
Parents and guardians are the first and best advocates for their child’s success. No matter where your child is on their literacy journey, you can advocate for them by supporting reading content at home. It starts with simply modeling reading on your own and continues by actively, intentionally reading with them and to them. This is not only a fun way to connect with your kids, it’s literally building the foundation for lifelong literacy and learning.?
Let’s talk about the science behind that foundation and then get into the specifics of how you can make miracles happen.?
Understanding the Science of Reading
Before going too much further, let’s define that term from Back-to-School Night: Science of Reading. It's important to understand what the Science of Reading is and what it isn't. Let’s start with the isn’t stuff.
What the Science of Reading ISN’T…
The Science of Reading is not :
…and What it IS…
The Science of Reading is a body of research dating back more than 50 years. The result of this research is a huge mass of evidence proving how children best learn to read and why some students struggle with reading. It also informs our assessment of reading skills and how we can help learners “course-correct” to set them up for literacy success.
It includes five components, or “pillars”:
Kids progress through the pillars of literacy as they learn to become skilled readers.?
Why You’re Hearing About the Science of Reading Now
While the Science of Reading isn’t new, we've seen it resurface over the past 5 years. Here's why:
Next, people began to dig deeper into the strategies used in early childhood literacy programs and teacher preparation undergraduate and graduate programs.
What people began to realize—and what has now become a large (and in some places controversial)—issue in the country is that while research clearly points to the key skills children need to be successful readers, various challenges have made it difficult for schools to consistently prioritize and implement these skills. Additionally, many educators have not received adequate training or resources to effectively teach them.
According to the National Reading Panel report, published in 2001, children need instruction in the following areas to be proficient and successful readers by the end of 3rd grade: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Sound familiar??
Now that you know some background, keep reading for some practical, at-home ways you can support your child in learning to read.?
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Building Literacy Skills at Home
Caregivers are super busy juggling the demands of... well, everything. It’s hard to find the time to work on academic skills when you just want to spend time with your children. Supporting academics is even more daunting when you feel ill-equipped in those skills yourself. That’s why the most effective at-home supports fit into your daily routine, are fun and playful, and take just a few minutes.
Daily Reading Routines: Reading Aloud and Independent Reading
Science tells us that reading aloud with children provides them with countless benefits as they grow. We know that reading aloud not only supports children academically but also with their social-emotional development. Spending just 10-15 minutes a day reading with your child(ren) strengthens your caregiver-child bond. And, it helps them understand so many things about reading! When you read aloud to a child, they can see and hear what reading looks and sounds like. For example:?
The way you begin their literacy journey influences the way your child feels about reading later. The more interested they are in books and stories, the more they will want to learn to read for themselves.
Fun Activities to Enhance Reading Skills: Phonics, Vocabulary, and Comprehension Games
Keep reading for a few activities you can do with your child from a young age. Some of these are activities you can do just with spoken language to help develop phonemic awareness skills and others are things you can do while reading.?
For the full list of activities, get our free downloadable resource here!?
Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Activities: Start as Young As 2 or 3!
Want the full list of activities? Get the free downloadable resource here! https://45594336.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/45594336/Marketing_Resource%20Downloads/Caregiver%20Guide%20-%205%20Activities%20to%20Support%20Literacy%20At%20Home.pdf }}
Supporting Struggling Readers
We believe that with evidence-based, direct instruction most children can learn to read. That said, some will have a harder time and need extra support. It’s critical to recognize these signs early on and get our children the support they need as soon as we can.
Identifying Signs of Struggling Readers
There are a few ways to be able to tell early on whether your child might struggle to learn to read.?
One thing you can do is play memory or identification games with them. If they know the alphabet already, have your child point to letters and tell you the letter's name, or have them point to a letter that you name. This can give you an idea of how they are growing in skills.?
A more formal assessment, called a Rapid Automatized Naming assessment , is another option. This is sometimes done with letter naming, but it can be done in the very early stages with familiar images and shapes to get an idea of how children are developing.?
If you have concerns about the way your young child is developing literacy skills, talking to your pediatrician is a great first step to getting more information about what you can do to help.?
Additionally, the Ages and Stages Free Questionnaire is another resource available to help you see where your child is within a range based on their skills.
Conclusion
As caregivers, you will always be the people who know your child best. That makes you their best advocate! It also means that you can help foster their love for reading in a way that’s fun and meaningful. These short, simple activities will bring you and your child closer and encourage their love of reading.?
If you'd like more information about the benefits of reading and how to help support your children, here are a few helpful resources:
And, if you’d like to learn more about how OnYourMark Education supports literacy learning, click here .