Children want to be readers. Even today, with so much fun, children can love the comfort and safety of a good book, but for this to be so, there must, of course, be prior stimulation and motivation from teachers, parents and mothers.
The keys to getting children to learn to read and working (once achieved) on improving and enhancing reading ability requires, among other things, a good selection of children’s books or frequent reading aloud practice , but there is much more. That is why in this article we want to offer two of the best children’s reading strategies with which to develop the confidence in books necessary to create young and good readers.
Let’s put them into practice!
Strategies for Children to Be Good Readers
- Create a purpose for reading
We all like to have a purpose for which to do things, and this makes sense for both children and adults. Regarding the habit of reading in children of course this is also valid, and there are a wide variety of resources to show children a purpose for which to read, for example, through games. Word games and riddles are some of the favorites of the little ones, in part because of the mystery involved in finding the answers, so… teach children to create and solve riddles ! It also teaches to pause for the listener to think about the answer and create an interesting moment of waiting and uncertainty.
Create riddles for different times of the year and with different everyday themes also inspired by children’s literature. Create guessing games for special times, such as Halloween or Christmas, or propose additional activities around the riddles such as cutting out previously created riddles from a sheet of paper and cardboard to place in a random reading bag. These types of strategies attract attention and facilitate reading comprehension in a fun and enjoyable way , which is necessary for any reader to take full advantage of the benefits of reading.
Children can also create puzzles with pictures and motifs to color and, once they have been cleared by the whole class, they can take them home as souvenirs and to play with their families with the idea of passing tests and challenges.
- Reread, reread … and reread
Rereading is one of the traditionally most used strategies to develop reading skills. And what does it consist of? Well, for a reader to re-read a part of a text or book that he has previously read. A reader can reread the same piece many times without problems, because rereading helps increase reading confidence and familiarize the reader with the text. Many parents do not understand the importance of this strategy and feel that the child may be memorizing the text and, although it has some truth, it is no less so the fact that to learn certain things well you have to repeat many times, as with the driving lessons.
By rereading we have more possibilities to improve, to feel more comfortable with what we are reading and learning, and we manage to advance. Nobody asks why a soccer or basketball team practices the same plays over and over again, because we all know that it is to improve the team, and that is the same as reading for a child. Familiarity builds trust, and trust enables the reader to move a little further next time , and in doing so children also learn to feel confident about themselves. A system, that of rereading, that works especially well with poetry.
Reading is hard work and life offers so many other ways to be entertained… that early reading often seems more like work than play, so it is very important to adopt positive dynamics around reading in order for children to can approach it little by little with interest and voluntarily. Otherwise, children may never get to that “delicious” place in our minds and souls where reading a good book can be more fun than almost anything else.
And you, have you used any of these strategies to help your children or your students with reading? How do you think the children in your house or class would benefit from these practices?
