Ways to Help Your Child at Home
Phonemic Awareness
Draw your child's attention to the component sounds of his/her language with songs, poems and shared readings of stories.
Read and reread stories that play with language (books with rhymes).
Play oral word games that require mental manipulation of letter sounds - delete the /c/ from cat, add /g/ to ate, substitute /m/ for /t/ in Tommy.
Create word families. Choose a word which lends itself to a rhyming pattern. Say a list of rhyming words - hill, pill, still, mill.
Phonics-Sounds/Symbol Correspondence
Place magnetic letters on the refrigerator for your child to practice letter names and sounds, form words and/or create messages.
Draw your child's attention to letters and words in his/her environment (signs, cereal boxes, toy boxes, menus, etc.).
Trace letters in or on multisensory surfaces - like cloth, sand or shaving cream. Practice sounds in conjunction with letter formation.
Construct letters using various materials, such as macaroni, clay or pipe cleaners.
Connecting Phonics to Literature
Using your child's literature selection...
Look for words that have a specific phonetic sound, (words beginning with the consonant sound /b/ or a vowel combination sound /ai/. Have your child generate additional words with the same phonetic sound.
Look for words with similar suffixes, prefixes and syllable patterns.
Include rhymes, chants, tongue twisters and songs in your child's reading selections.
Read to your child regularly. This enriches his/her mind with the sounds of the English language.
Phonetic Strategies During Reading
Give your child sufficient time to decode unfamiliar words. Guide them to look at initial and final consonant sounds. Provide suggestions for decoding the vowel sounds (try the short sound, try the long sound).
Allow time for your child to self-correct, go back and reread mispronounced words.
Break an unfamiliar word into syllables so that your child can focus on one syllable at a time. Reread the word blending the syllables together.
Expect your child to use phonics strategies at the appropriate level of ability.
Note that there are phonetically irregular words that do not follow conventional pronunciations. Therefore, these words must be practiced, memorized and/or recognized with respect to the context of the sentence.
Fluency Strategies
Encourage your child to track the words with their finger as you read aloud, then have your child read the same sentence, passage, etc.
Allow your child to read their favorite poems and books over and over again. They should practice getting smoother and reading with expression.
Read aloud together and have your child match his voice to yours.
Practice reading lists of words, phrases or short passages several times.
Practice reading with expression (watch the punctuation).
Let your child hear you reading aloud.
Allow your child to record him/herself reading and then listen to how it sounds.
Vocabulary Strategies
Have your child keep a list of new or interesting words.
Play verbal games with one another.
Engage your child in conversation. Encourage complete sentence responses.
Help build word knowledge by classifying and grouping objects or pictures while naming them.
Read everyday
Comprehension Strategies
Help your child use outlines, maps, notes and graphic organizers as they read.
Make flash cards of key terms children want to remember.
Children should read stories and selections in short sections and make sure they know what happened before they continue reading.
Make mental pictures as you read.
Talk with your child about what they have read. Ask probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life.
Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers.
Discuss unknown words.
Ask your child what they learned from reading informational text.