Did you know that there are some easy ways you can help your child improve reading fluency?
Reading fluency, by the way, is a person’s ability to read quickly, smoothly, and accurately. A fluent reader can recognize words and understand their meaning at virtually the same time.
You can help your child improve his reading fluency with some of the simple activities suggested below. You don’t have to do all of them. Just experiment and pick out the ones that work best for you and your child.
Ways to Help Your Child Improve Reading Fluency
Read aloud to your child.
You can model good reading skills for your child by reading aloud to him with fluency and expression. Do this daily.
Have your child listen to an audiobook while following along in the physical book.
This technique can be handy when you are traveling or simply on the go.
Give your beginning reader simple books with labeled pictures.
This will help your child see the correlation between items and their names. Picture dictionaries and books by Richard Scarry are some examples of books with labeled pictures.
Have your child read aloud to you or a sibling.
When your child reads aloud to you or an older sibling, you and the sibling can assist him with his reading. On the other hand, when your child reads aloud to a younger sibling, he will feel valued and grown-up.
Encourage your child to reread his favorite books.
Books of interest are a motivating factor and repetition helps facilitate learning.
Make a word wall.
Hang up word wall letters on a wall. Under each letter, put words that begin with that letter. Pick words from books your child enjoys reading or a phonics program.
Label items in your house.
Create small labels for things in your home and have your child tape the labels to them.
Do echo reading with your child.
Echo reading is when you read aloud one sentence to your child then have him echo it back.
Do choral reading with your child.
Choral reading is reading aloud a book in unison. This can help your child get confident with reading.
Use the cloze reading method.
The cloze method is where you read aloud a book to your child and occasionally pause in the middle of a sentence to have your child read the next word. For example, if you were reading The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, you could say this: “Left foot, left foot, right foot, _____?” Your child would then fill in the word “right.”
Have your child put together words to make a sentence.
You can write a sentence on paper or card stock and cut apart the words. Then, mix them up and give them to your child to put in order.
Have your child participate in Reader’s Theater.
Reader’s Theater is an enjoyable way for your child to improve reading fluency by reading aloud with a group of two or more people. It can be done as a family or with friends. It has other benefits as well including improving listening and speaking skills and encouraging cooperation among performers. I have a free Reader’s Theater script here.
Above all, do what you can to make learning to read an enjoyable experience for your child rather than a tedious chore. This will do much towards helping your child improve reading fluency.
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