Topic: Parents and Reading

10-second review: Activities parents can do with their young children at home to support learning to read.

Title: “Strategies for Engaging Parents in Home Support of Reading Acquisition.” Sharon Darling. Reading Teacher (February 2005), 476-479. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary/Quote: “On their report, the National Reading Panel…identified five key areas of reading instruction for children from kindergarten to grade 3: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension. Other studies show that understanding how print is used, as well as having knowledge of letters, affects children’s reading ability in primary grades…. …determined that print concepts, writing and invented spelling…are key predictors for reading at school age.”

Comment: I’m going to break this article into parts to give the author’s suggestions for what parents can do at home to support their child’s learning to read. These activities are really useful. RayS.