Quick Tips to Help a Child Read

Here are a few ideas taken from Dyslexia Tool Kit for Tutors and Parents: What to do when phonics isn’t enough, by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed. and Dr. Alta E. Graham.

• Most important tip of all: Read happy! If reading involves anxiety, anger, tears, avoidance, or frustration, then stop. This will only pair pain with reading; not what you need to do! Forcing a child to read aloud before the child is confident of success can be extremely counterproductive.

• From Tool #1, Sensory Integration: Before reading, juggle a stuffed animal or cross march, touching hands to opposite knees. Crossing the body midline fires up neural pathways between brain hemispheres, making it easier to recall previously learned material.

• From Tool #2, Cognitive Skills Games: Increase processing speed by playing SET or Qwirkle which use color in the right hemisphere of the brain and logic in the left hemisphere, further strengthening connections between the two sides of the brain. This is beneficial for any learner, but is especially powerful for students with dyslexia.

• From Tool #3, Tracking: Rather than forcing the child to read aloud, which can be painful for all involved, have the child read along silently while an adult or an audio book reads aloud. Apps such as Farfaria are great for this. By having the child look at the words while they are read aloud, the child will begin to painlessly pair the image of the word with the meaning — thus building sight word vocabulary and reading comprehension. Dyslexic students do this far better than the rest of us. Yes! Silent reading can be taught first, and oral reading can follow if needed. The book provides specific instructions in how to teach tracking, and you can read these on the Amazon website because we made as much of the book as we could available in the preview!

These tips will get you started on a successful road to teaching your dyslexic child to read. Many people have successfully taught their children with only these 4 tips! But there are many more techniques, all easy, that you can try. It’s all in Dyslexia Tool Kit for Tutors and Parents. It might just save you years of grief and piles of money 🙂 Plus, you and your child could be reading great books and having fun instead of dreading reading time.