Tips for getting child to read

Tabbytabitha

Anoneemoose wrote: »

Yes, but both his dad and I have Kindles, which is the not same as having shelves full of books.

I wonder if comics might help, if you can still get them, that is!

Has he got his own Kindle, just for his own books?

Anoneemoose

Tabbytabitha wrote: »

Has he got his own Kindle, just for his own books?

No. We didn’t want to get one if it wasn’t going to be used. And even though his dad and I have one, I think there’s nothing better than cracking open a ‘new’ book!!

iammumtoone

Playing scrabble / word searches / reading non-fiction will not directly help with his reading comprehension. It may help in perhaps encouraging him to read more.


Comprehension is nothing to do with reading, a child can be a brilliant reader and be able to read all the words but not understand what they have read. He needs to read and then be able to answer questions of what he has read, these are not direct questions they are questions where he will have had to 'read between the lines' of the text and understand the hidden context.


Can you ask the teacher for examples of the comprehension questions, my son would bring them home for home work. I was lucky his comprehension is well above his age but opposite to your son his spelling is well below national average. I remember being shocked at how hard the questions were I struggled with some of them! Once you have seen the thing they are after you will have a better idea how to help him, I suggest you read him some text out of a book and ask him some compression questions on it, then talk about how and why you both came to the answer.

iammumtoone

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/reading-and-comprehension-exercises-age-9-11-6451284

Anoneemoose

iammumtoone wrote: »

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/reading-and-comprehension-exercises-age-9-11-6451284

Wow, thank you! Will definitely have a go at this.

rach_k

Regarding the reading record, I would write in any time he reads a few pages rather than waiting for him to finish a book. Mine love to see what they've read and they seem proud when they complete a page so it might give him a little boost of confidence to see what he has done, rather than seeing nothing written down because he hasn't finished a whole book. If school have said you should only write completed books, ask if you can do differently, or make your own from an exercise book and send that into school each day along with the official one.

Anoneemoose

rach_k wrote: »

Regarding the reading record, I would write in any time he reads a few pages rather than waiting for him to finish a book. Mine love to see what they've read and they seem proud when they complete a page so it might give him a little boost of confidence to see what he has done, rather than seeing nothing written down because he hasn't finished a whole book. If school have said you should only write completed books, ask if you can do differently, or make your own from an exercise book and send that into school each day along with the official one.

That’s a really good idea, thank you.

They have only just gone from writing in it every time they read something to only filling it in when a whole book is completed. He did actually do better that way. He would pick a book up and read a couple of pages here and there. Like after breakfast before getting his coat on. He doesn’t seem to want to do that now. Maybe he’s ‘overwhelmed’ by the thought of only writing down after a full book.

sooty&sweep

Hi
Have you tried audio books ?
My two both enjoy listening to them.
I realise that they don't improve reading as such but they do expose them to the English language and therefore improve vocabulary.
I think they also help with comprehension because the way they're read also puts feeling and expression into the words.
We often listen on long car journeys.
David Walliams is very good.
Jen

clairec79

My son prefers reading manga style books (ie comic style) to usual books

maman

I completely agree with pmlindyloo. You really need to have a discussion with his teacher about what the specifics are that he needs help with.


I do understand what people are saying about reading comics or scifi or history but I suspect that it's more inference that he's having problems with than literal comprehension. So it's more than just understanding the words on the page but rather what the author was trying to create/imply.


Teaching/Practising this with a child isn't easy. It's about asking the right questions. You really need some advice/resources from his school and then I'd suggest you meet with the teacher and your son together so he knows it's not just you being awkward but something he promises to do for a short time most days. Now's a good time to start with the school year ahead.