Supporting Your Independent Reader
At this stage, your child is likely to be:
- Reading independently.
- Enjoying various authors and genres.
- Choosing books based on personal preferences
To support them:
- Show interest: Talk to your child about the books they choose.
- Use the library: Visit regularly to explore new books together.
- Discuss reading: Ask questions about what they’re reading to engage them.
- Read together: Sit beside your child and read; this demonstrates that you value reading and helps foster a reading culture at home.
- Relax and enjoy: Make reading a shared, enjoyable activity
Book Talk
- Ask about their enjoyment: Inquire why they are enjoying the book?
- Encourage sharing: Prompt them to express their thoughts and opinions on the story.
- Discuss the content: Ask them to describe what the book is about.
- Share your perspective: Offer your own thoughts and ask questions to foster discussion.
- Make predictions: Encourage them to guess what might happen next in the story.
- Practice summarising: Have them retell or summarise what they’ve read so far.
Reluctant Readers
- Read to your child so they can enjoy listening
- Try shared reading – read the book together and read alternative pages: ‘Your turn, my turn’
- Re-read books that interest your child to help them gain confidence
- Help your child to find books that interest them
- This could be books with characters that your child can relate to or fact books about a subject that they enjoy
Read Anything!
Books are great – but leaflets, comics, magazines, recipes, shop signs, road signs, instructions and web pages are all important too. Following a recipe to make some cupcakes is valuable reading. Your child should be on the lookout for reading, wherever it is. You can even put the subtitles on TV programmes! Follow your child’s interests to promote reading.