What Can I Do To Help My Child Who Is a Beginning Reader?
by: Sherri Chema, Reading Teacher

As the reading teacher here at Hunt Valley Elementary, I am often asked, What can I do to help my child who is a beginning reader?

Firstly, it is important that parents routinely set aside a time period of ten to fifteen minutes each night for reading. This precious time which is dedicated to reading sends a powerful message to your child that you personally value reading.

Secondly, in the beginning stages of the reading process it is very important that the adult reader guides his/her child to point to each word as that particular word is spoken. This is known as one-to-one match with voice and print. This pointing helps the child to begin to recognize, through repetition, high frequency words such as I, am, the, a, it, is, to, etc. It is important that the beginning reader is pointing to the exact word which is being said. Also, it is important for the young reader to realize that any word with multi syllables only gets one point.

Thirdly, it is important that the young reader looks at the picture clues when trying to figure out a new word. Pictures help the young reader to make sense of the words which he/she is reading.

Fourthly, it is valuable for parents to realize that all readers rely on on the three cueing systems. These three cueing systems are meaning (What would make sense?), syntax (What would sound right in terms of language patterns and sentence structure?), and visual (phonics) (Does that word look right according to the letter/sound order in the word?)

Finally, good readers need to become familiar with a variety of strategies to try when he/she is attempting to figure out a new word. The beginning reader needs to know that there are several options to try when attempting a new word. Parents can model how they figure out new words. The following chart should be helpful to both parents and children when trying to figure out an unknown word:

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