Advice to Parents

Pre-school | School | If your child has a problem | Four simple rules

Pre-school

If there is any history of reading problems on either side of your family, be on the look out for them in your child. The sooner they are tackled, the better. If your child has a speech or language problem, it is important to get help from a speech and language therapist before they start school. Two useful organisations which can help are AFASIC, I CAN and Talking Point.

Nevertheless, before children start school, it is important to take a relaxed attitude towards reading. Most of them will learn to read without difficulty. All the emphasis before school should be on spoken rather than written language. Try to include sound games such as I-spy and rhyming games. This will help them improve their ability to detect the smallest sounds in words which will be so important later on when they start learning to read.

The latest research also suggests that it is useful to introduce pre-school children to letter shapes. British children who know the names of letters before entering reception tend to perform better than those who do not. An easy way of doing this is to buy magnetic letters and put them on the fridge door. You should also, of course, read as much as you can to your children.

School

At school, if your child does develop a problem, it is important to remember that a lot of children have similar issues. It also has nothing to do with intelligence. Fortunately if children are properly taught, in almost all cases their reading problems can be resolved. It is now believed that given such teaching, only 1-2 per cent of children will end up with a reading problem needing long-term support.

If your child has a problem

The first thing to do is talk to his or her teacher and perhaps even the schools' special needs advisor. All parents now have the right to demand that schools provide the extra help, in small groups or even in some cases, one to one tuition.

What can you do if your school is not providing this? Make as much fuss as possible! However remember that while individual schools can buy in excellent reading tuition for children with serious problems, such as Reading Recovery, it can be expensive and may present schools with funding problems. The most efficient schemes, as practised in Cumbria and North Yorkshire for example, require back up from the Local Education Authority, so do not hesitate to pursue your local authority as well.

Unfortunately it will take time for many schools to introduce the really effective help now possible for children with serious reading problems. In the meantime many parents will still need all the help they can get from organisations like the Dyslexia Institute and the British Dyslexia Association.

Four simple rules to help your child

It is also essential that you help your children. Fortunately it is not difficult. If you follow four simple rules you have every chance of providing real help for your children.

Rule 1
It is important that you never put your child under stress.
The message must be that reading is fun and easy. Never hesitate to let children re-read books they have already mastered. In fact you should encourage this. It will build your child's confidence.

Rule 2
Go back to the level of reading books your child can read easily.
He or she should never be given books that are too hard. Do not hesitate to abandon the books they bring home from school if they are too challenging. A good rule of thumb is that if a child is unable to read more than about one word in twenty, the book is too difficult.

Fortunately there are some very good lists of children's books which have been carefully graded into progressive levels of difficulty. You can find such lists on the websites of the Dyslexia Institute or the Cumbrian Education Authority. If you find the books you order are too difficult put them to one side and buy new ones. The money spent will not be wasted. The more difficult books will be useful later on.

Rule 3
Remember that the key problem experienced by children who have difficulty in learning to read is in detecting the smallest sounds in words. They have difficulty in linking sounds to letters and because of this they have difficulty linking letters and sounds to make words.
When listening to your child read, keep an eye on the occasional words they find hard to read and try to identify a particular sound or letter giving them trouble and then target it in every way you can.

For example if the letter or sound 'i' is giving difficulty in the middle of words, try making the shape of an 'i' on your child's back or hand while making its sound. Make the shape on a misted mirror or window. Try drawing 'i' with different pens and colours while making its sound. The more ways you use to make the link between the letter and its sound, the better.

Then move on, perhaps by using the magnetic letters on the fridge. You can progress to getting your child to play the game of seeing how many three letter words they can build, with your help, with 'i' in the middle.

An example of a two letter combination that some children may find difficult is 'oa' as in 'boat' 'road' 'load' etc. Remember though, to target only one or at most, two letter or sound combinations at a time.

Rule 4
Helping children with their reading is not simply about teaching them to read, but to get them reading.
So do not just listen to your child read, but read books to them that they enjoy. Stop occasionally to point out a word, particularly if it illustrates the current letter or sound combination you are targeting.

One last bit of advice. Some children with reading problems have other problems too, such as difficulties with attention or physical coordination. The evidence suggests these are not the cause of the reading problem but co-exist with it. A good general guide to these problems can be found in the book 'Children in Difficulty – A Guide to Understanding and Helping' by Julian Elliott and Maurice Place.

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