How do you help your 6 year old thats in 1 grade with her reading?

Pam - posted on 02/05/2009

Try repeating the reader she brings home.  eg  book 1 on monday night read it then bring it home the next night with another reader, she has already read it so read it first, she will gain confidence with reading that one first to have a crack at the next one.  Also lots of easier books for her to gain confidence.

Make it lots of fun.  I would read one page and my son would read the next.  I would make obivious mistakes that I knew he would pick up on, and he loved correcting me. 

Lots of praise and make sure you tell her how well she has read a book, if she focuses on the negatives point out the positives like you read this page really well, you knew this word straight away.

Try not to stress about where she is compared to the other children, all kids are different.

Lynda - posted on 02/05/2009

Hi Billie,

My son is also in Grade 1 and is way behind in his reading. He is lucky enough to be a part of a literarcy program created this year in his school. They provide helpful tools on how a child can learn to recognize letters and sounds and how to figure out a word when it is really tough.

Some helpful things I have been shown and would like to share with you. Read with your child every night and act out the book by using different voices for different characters. Play reading activities that allow her to practice the words - for example: create 10 sentences starting from 5 words and going up to 8 words - then put all those words on paper - have her read them and then cut them out and allow her to create the sentences from the ones you read aloud to her.  For instance - "Here is my green ball" "Is my ball red?" "Is my green ball in the car?" and so on. Practice for 5 minutes every night and you will start to see improvement.

To help her figure out the words, on her own, try using the following solving strategies:

Sound - You can read or write some words by thinking about the sounds (man, dog).

Look -  You can read or write some words by thinking about the way they look (the, pie).

Mean - You can read or write some words by thinking about what they mean (unpack, two, sandwich).

Connect - You can use what you know about a word to figure out a new word (tree, my-try).

Inquire - You can use materials to learn more about words (list, dictionary, chart, and computer).

Hope this provides you with some helpful tools to enable your daughter to feel more confident. I know this is helping my son as he has gone up 4 levels in reading already.

Amy - posted on 02/05/2009

try some phonics books and make sure that your child is confident with each letter of the alphabet and the sounds they make this has helped my daughter (grade 1) and she has improved more in this 2 weeks back at school than all of last year.. good luck.

Sara - posted on 02/05/2009

The other advise is great but I want to add a little. Try the reader rabbit computer games or something similar. My kids love to play on the computer and love to play with the learning games. the games are by grade and age. Jump start is another good one. Good luck.

Decha - posted on 02/03/2009

u have recieved alot of the best advise outhere and it is all so true! I have a 7y/o that is about to be 8 next month and i am goin thru the same thing. Just keep cool and like other moms say ENCOURAGE him as much as possible. Also Praise him whenever he gets it and you will see a world of difference.

Brandi - posted on 02/03/2009

My 7 year old (gr.2) is in the same boat, except she is in french immersion. She feels very insecure as well.All I can suggest is that you keep contact with teachers on a regular basis, so that you know what is going on at all times. Makes life much easier. Practice reading to her, with her, and her to you. (My daughter has to read 2 books a night from school). Above all else, make sure that your child knows that you are proud, no matter what. If she is trying then you will support her, regardless. Let her know that no one is perfect, and we all cant be good at everything. Also make sure that she has no speech impairments, which can cause a lot of problems in reading and pronounciation.

Meghann - posted on 02/03/2009

with my son aden, who is also 6 and in the first grade,  we went to the book store and looked at books that were for his age range and bought one or two that he was really interested in. then after school we would set up a time that was specifically for reading and we would sit together and i would help him read. we would practice sounding out the words together and we would point at the words as we were reading them. we would do this each night until he could sound out the words with out my help. once he got those two books down we did another two books. we would do it a couple of times a day during the summer too. now i can't get him to stop reading!! see if you can find a book from one of her favorite movies like wizard of oz or the little mermaid. if they pick the book then they will be more interested in it.

i hope this helps!!!

MaryJo - posted on 02/03/2009

Our library system has a series of books called We Both Read with a parent page and a child's page. We read those books together and then expanded the idea to other stories. At first, we would alternate sentences, then we moved on to alternating paragraphs, then pages, as my son got older and his reading progressed. Reading aloud with them is very important, because it helps them with pronunciation, vocabulary and being able to read expressively.

Mandy - posted on 01/31/2009

I would first make sure her eyesight is ok. Sometimes if words are a little blurry it will discourage kids from trying to read. Turn your whole house into a reading environment. Use index cards and label EVERYTHING! Doors, cabinets, couch , bed, toys...that way wherever she looks, she sees words. Hopefully she will start to feel comfortable. Label things by what they are using simple words. My daughter started to read much better after we turned our Closed Caption on every TV. She was hearing the words as well as seeing them which really reinforces reading because it stimulates both visual and auditory senses. She will eventually become comfortable with reading but I think stress and pressure might make her not want to do it at all. Good Luck Mom, and don't worry.

Alanda - posted on 01/28/2009

Take her to the library and let her pick out some books that she thinks she might like to read. Also find another adult to read with her, a friend of yours that she is close to or a family member outside the immediate family. My son always read better when he read to his Grams than he did when he was reading to my husband or I. You might also want to visit with her teacher about what she recommends. And keep reassuring her, it may not seem like it helps now but in the future she will look back and remember the encouragement.

Holly - posted on 01/27/2009

Just have fun reading together. My son refused to have much to do with reading until I started taking him to the library every week. He even has his own library card. He gets to pick out books he likes and we read them together. You can get her excited about reading. Junie B. books are real popular with the 1st graders as are the Ramona books. They are fun to read and there is a whole series of them. I encourage him to sound out the words he doesn't know. We also work on the sight words.He has improved a lot this year. You might want to contact her teacher for ideas. There may be a reading intervention program available. My son gets some extra help through such a program. It has made a world of difference.Have her read simple books to her siblings. Every little bit helps. You have to build up her confidence and encourage her like only a mom can.