Read to Succeed: Children and teens

Reading skill is essential to learning all other subjects taught in school. 
The better the reading skills children have and the earlier they have them determines how rapidly and how well they will achieve in school. There is no reason why a child with average intelligence cannot achieve this goal with early and appropriate reading instruction.

Parents are the first and best teacher

The first teacher any child has is his or her parent. Children develop language skills by listening to and mimicking their parents. When children are born they have the capability of producing any sound made in any language spoken in the world. During the early years, they hear the sounds and make the sounds that make-up the language spoken in their culture. The more time parents spend talking with their child the richer the language development of that child. They gradually learn how to speak and listen with fluency and understanding.

The process of reading and writing is simply “talking on paper.” The only difference is that written symbols are used rather than sounds. The child must learn the sounds letters and combination of letters make and how they string together to form words. That is what is called decoding. Once a child learns to decode they can understand communication through written language based on the skills developed through their development of oral language.

Reading to younger children

Just as parents should spend time each day talking to and with their young child, they should also spend some time each day reading to their young child. This spurs interest in books and as children become toddlers and preschoolers who want to imitate their parents doing all kinds of things, reading will become one of them. Parents need to read in a manner that generates enthusiasm and curiosity

Reading with older children

Once your child can read, reading time shifts to listening to the child read and taking turns reading with them. Parents should continue to talk with the child about what is being read.

Once children are readers, get a library card or join a book club to increase the reading material available. 


Source:http://childdevelopmentinfo.com