Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Learning To Read
Frequent questions
Expert answers
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a language-based disability derived from differences in brain structure and brain function. Although dyslexia presents itself somewhat differently in each person, it has some common characteristics that can be determined through evaluation. You may find the following articles to be helpful:
For further information visit the Reading Rockets website or contact The International Dyslexia Association.
I think my child may have a learning disability but I'm not sure how to describe to the school exactly what I want assessed. What should I do?
If it is hard to verbally state why you have concerns, bring your child's work samples with you to the school to show what is hard to articulate. A full psycho-educational assessment should give you the answers that you seek.
Before going elsewhere, you might want to find out exactly what services the school system could offer you – and when they could provide them. If the timeframe or suggestions for providing needed services is unacceptable to you, there are independent educational testers that you can go to privately. The following articles will give you an idea of what to expect from the testing process:
- Special Education: Evaluation
- Stages of the Assessment Process
- Your Child's Evaluation
- 10 Steps in the Special Education Process
There are several national organizations that can help you through this process and provide referrals to local professionals. You can contact the International Dyslexia Association or the Learning Disabilities Association. In addition, you can look in your local phone book for “educational testing” or “psycho-educational testing” for someone close to you. LD Online has a Yellow Pages service that might be helpful. There are also educational consultants and educational advocates that can help you through the process locally.
Be a good consumer in this process. Ask potential testers, tutors, and consultants about their experiences and specialization before you choose a provider. You want to make sure that the person you choose will be a good match for your child.
Why can't my child re-read a word in a sentence that she just sounded out?
This may happen because she is concentrating so hard on the decoding (sounding out), that she is unable to remember and comprehend the full sentence. This is a good indication that the books she is reading are too challenging for her at this time.
The next time you and your child choose books, you may want to ask her teacher, a librarian, or a reading specialist to help you find "just right" books for your child. These should be books that your child is interested in and that she can read with about 95% accuracy the first time. Ask her to read a page or two aloud while you silently count the errors from the total numbers of words on the pages she reads. This will give you an estimate of her accuracy.
By reading "just right" books, your daughter will practice all aspects of reading, including fluency and comprehension. And comprehension, ultimately, is the goal of reading! As she reads "just right" books, her ability to decode words will become even more automatic. As she gains proficiency, the text will become more meaningful because she will be able to understand and enjoy what she is reading.
Check out Reading Rockets' recommended books by theme for some ideas!
What can I do now to make sure that my two year old will learn how to read?
As a parent, you play a critical role in helping your child develop into a reader! The Reading Rockets website is all about reading. The following articles will give you ideas of ways to promote literacy and to share the joy of reading together:
- Helping Your Child Become a Reader
- Simple Ways to Encourage Learning
- The Early Years Are Learning Years
- Reading With Your Child
- Tips for Sharing Books
- Making Music: Literacy Tips for Parents
Reading books should be a fun and enjoyable activity for both of you. Most importantly, by giving your child positive experiences with books, you are instilling in him a genuine, lifelong passion for reading and learning—a priceless gift!
My daughter just started preschool and I have noticed that sometimes she writes letters backwards. Should I be concerned?
Writing letters backwards is a normal part of developing writing skills in preschool. If you have other reasons to suspect dyslexia (like parents or relatives with dyslexia, or problems identifying sounds or learning to say the alphabet), you should continue to monitor her progress and document your observations in case you see signs of a bigger problem.
Keep practicing with her by doing fun writing activities at home, like writing a shopping list, or writing a letter to a relative. Most of her early mistakes will be part of the process of learning to write, so model the right way, but don't hold her to it too early! She is in an experimentation phase with this skill.
The Reading Rockets website has articles that may be of interest to you as you help your child learn to read, including sections on writing and developmental milestones.
What are some ways to help my daughter learn the names and sounds of letters? She is tired of simply using flashcards.
There are several things you can do to help your child remain interested in learning her letters. Try using a multi-sensory approach. Your child may be a tactile learner instead of an auditory or visual learner, or she may just need a variety of sensory input to learn best. Help her to identify how each sound feels on her mouth. Use a mirror to help. For example your lips come together for /m/.
You may want to try coming up with a rhyme or song about each letter. Use alphabet magnets or alphabet cookie cutters with clay in lieu of flash cards. These activities may be more fun and engaging than flashcards and help your daughter develop her oral communication.
Use pictures. Give your child a picture (e.g. a cat) and have her sound out the name while placing marbles, drawing marks, or tapping her fingers for each of the individual sounds in the word (e.g., /c/.../a/.../t/ is composed of 3 sounds, thus the child would use 3 marbles, marks, or taps.) Stick with short words with a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, like bat, top, pen, dad, etc. You can also clap or tap out the number of syllables in a word.
My second grader is having a hard time focusing on one word at a time when reading. What can I do to help her?
Beginning readers need lots of practice reading – it takes time, practice, time, and more practice! Work with your daughter's teacher to learn exactly at what level she is reading. Then, go to the library and load up on books written at that level AND below. Provide her with time each day to read, reread, and reread again those below reading level books. You'll want to build up her confidence and fluency with those books. Then, support her reading by reading WITH her the books at her instructional level. Prompt her to sound out words that can be sounded out (and just tell her the ones that can't or are too tricky). Praise her efforts and reread each book multiple times over the course of a week or two. Finally, get some terrific children's literature written ABOVE her reading level. Read those books to her to remind her WHY reading is so great. Model lots of good expression and let her hear what good, fluent reading sounds like.
Do everything you can to provide a fun climate for reading. If a book is too hard, put it away. Reinforce her efforts and continue to work closely with your school and teachers. If she continues to struggle, talk with them about additional testing and some one-on-one supervised tutoring.
How can I help my son develop his reading comprehension abilities?
We have a lot of information on our site about teaching comprehension skills and how parents can help at home. The following links can help you get started on helping your son develop his skills.
If you have concerns, you may wish to discuss these with his teacher. The teacher may have strategies that work in the classroom that s/he can pass on to you. Together, you can determine the best course of action for helping your son.
My daughter is reading below grade level. What can I do to help her become a good reader and get to a point where she enjoys reading?
Beginning readers need lots of practice reading – it takes time, practice, time, and more practice! Work with your daughter's teacher to learn exactly at what level she is reading. Then, go to the library and load up on books written at that level and below. Provide her with time each day to read and reread those below reading level books. You'll want to build up her confidence and fluency with those books. Then, support her reading by reading her the books at her instructional level. Prompt her to sound out words that can be sounded out (and just tell her the ones that can't or are too tricky). Praise her efforts and reread each book multiple times over the course of a week or two. Finally, get some terrific children's literature written above her reading level. Model lots of good expression and let her hear what good, fluent reading sounds like. Check Reading Rockets' Books & Authors section for some great titles!
Do everything you can to provide a fun climate for reading. If a book is too hard, put it away. Reinforce her efforts and continue to work closely with your school and teachers. If she continues to struggle, talk with them about additional testing and some one-on-one supervised tutoring.
What types of books should I have available for my young reader? Do you have any specific book recommendations?
To keep your child engaged with reading, you should keep a wide variety of books on hand, and make sure to include books on topics that interest him. In your book collection, keep books that your child currently enjoys so he can read them over and over again (repeat readings are great – they help kids feel comfortable with the story and begin "reading" it along with you!). You should also add new books regularly, and make them a little more advanced than his current collection. He will let you know – probably through a lack of interest – when a book is too difficult. Picture books are good because they allow you to point out words and help him begin to recognize letters and their associated sounds. Pictures also give clues to the story for young children who are just grappling with language–learning, but if he can follow the plot of a book without pictures, that's wonderful! The important thing is to go at his pace, but maintain a rich and varied literary environment.
For more information on reading to young children, check the following section of our site:
We also have a great list of recommended books for kids by theme, award winning books, etc. that you can order directly from amazon.com through our site.
