Reading Strategies for Parents
When helping your child read at home, several strategies may be used to aid
in decoding unknown words.
1. Tell the child to look at the picture. You may tell the child the
word is something that can be seen in the picture, if this applies
to the text being read.
2. Tell the child to look for chunks in the word, such as it in sit, or
at in mat, or and and ing in standing.
3. Ask the child to get his/her mouth ready to say the word by shaping
the mouth for the beginning sound.
4. Ask the child if the word looks like another word he/she knows. Does
cook look like look?
5. Ask the child to go on and read to the end of the sentence. Often
by reading the other words in context, the child can figure out the
unknown word.
6. If the child says the wrong word while reading, ask questions like:
Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Does it look right?