Reading well takes practice and patience. Try these tips to help your child become a better reader.

Make reading fun

• Read to your child. They are never too old to enjoy a good story.
• Keep reading as stress free as possible. Giggle, cuddle, and enjoy!
• Model reading habits for your child. Show them you read for fun too.
• Read books with your child that are not too hard, so they stay engaged and feel encouraged.

Encourage choice and interest

• Include all types of reading and storytelling materials: comic books, magazines, online materials, audiobooks, and e-books. If your child watches a movie or show, turn on the subtitles to help them connect spoken words to print.
• Let your child choose books about topics, ideas, or characters they like, such as books based on their favourite movies or shows.
• When reading with your child, let them choose which parts of the book or sentence they want to read and help fill in the gaps.

Talk about what you read

• Talk about the characters, what just happened, and what might happen next.
• Relate the story to something from your child’s life. For example, “The boy in the story just got a new dog. Remember when we got our dog?”
• Talk about words throughout the day and explain new words when you read together. For example, “Tired, exhausted, fatigued, and weary all mean the same thing.”

Show how books and print work

• Show your child the different parts of a book, including the author and the table of contents.
• Talk about how stories have a beginning, middle, and end.
• Point out punctuation marks like periods and commas, as well as uppercase and lowercase letters.

Talk about sounds

• Help your child hear different sounds in words, such as sheep and cheep, bit and bat.
• Slow down and repeat words to make sounds clear.
• Talk about the difference between sounds and letter names. For example, the letter “s” makes the “sss” sound. But “x” makes the “ks” sound, which is 2 sounds in 1 letter.

Look at word chunks and spelling

• Break words into chunks (2 or more letters together) to make reading easier.
• Blend sounds and chunks together. Have your child say the sounds the letters make when writing (such as “sss-ay” instead of “s, a, y”).
• Learn spelling rules and exceptions. Ask your child’s teacher how they teach these rules, and if you can have a copy of the lessons to use at home.

For more ideas

For more ideas and resources to support children’s communication and literacy, visit:

• Talk Box
• Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation
• Reading Rockets

Where to get help

To learn how speech-language pathologists and audiologists can help with speech, language, and hearing concerns, contact your child’s healthcare provider or visit Pediatric Rehabilitation.​​