Learning Support - Reading 

Reading is an important part of your child's learning journey. The more they read and understand text the easier they will find it. Below are some top tips to help when reading with your child at home. 

Top Tips:

• What is happening? Talk about what is happening in the story. Can they use the pictures to help them add context to the story. 
• Ask questions - asking questions will help your child understand the text in greater detail. View the file at the bottom of the page which will give you some excellent examples of the questions you may ask your child. 
• Discuss alternative words. For example, 'big'. Ask your child to think of another word that mean the same, e.g. 'huge' (they could use a thesaurus to help!). 
• Make predictions. Encourage the growth of their imagination and see if they can find clues in the text to help suggest what may happen next. 
• Discuss where the story is set. Can they draw a picture of it to help them imagine what it may look like. 
• Fact or fiction? Is the book a fiction or non-fiction book? How do they know?
• Ask what have they learnt from reading the book? 

During Reading:

• Encourage your child to use expression when reading, especially for the voices of different characters. 
• Discuss the punctuation on the page, for example, exclamation marks. Ask: what are these for? What should you do when you see an exclamation mark?
• You do not always have to read an entire book every night. Focus on a few pages at a time and talk about the characters, setting and plot in a lot of detail. You might want to take it in turns to read so your child can hear how you read.