Teaching Reading and Writing to Your Child - The Benefits to Parents

2009-11-27T02:51:00.000-08:00

Reading and writing with your children can help you to build better relationships with them. Reading involves interacting with your child and allows you to set a time aside that you specifically spend with your child. As you create a relaxed and fun atmosphere reading together, your relationship can become stronger. The more opportunities you get to be with your child alone, the easier it can get for both of you to share, and parents find that other issues affecting their children can be expressed, and once out in the open, are easier to discuss.
Stories in books can be used to explain difficult situations and discuss confusing topics with your children. Whether you're at home, on the bus, in the shops or at the doctor’s surgery or even hospital, there are countless opportunities to help your child to learn. Teaching your children to read and write gives you the chance to talk with them and read together, plus there are fun ways to develop their writing skills too.
Reading together will also help you as a parent to correct your children outside of a disciplining situation which takes the pressure away for both parties. As a parent, you can use examples in the books you are using to teach your child to read and write to help them see things differently.
As a Parent you will have improved confidence in your ability to provide support for your children. Parents and especially first time parents are buffeted from all directions with information on what they should and should not do. Often parents feel inadequate, and at a loss as to how best to care for and support their children. The simple act of reading and being able to achieve positive results with your child can be a big boost for your confidence and can be a building block for continued support and involvement in the growth and development of your child.
Teaching your child to read and write can provide opportunities to take part in organised activities based in schools or other venues, and form new friendships with other parents through school activities, a neutral place where you can take part in enjoyable, focused activities. This can be particularly useful if you don't live with your child or your everyday life does not provide opportunities to meet and mix with different people.
Parents with low literacy levels themselves can use this opportunity to learn and develop their own skills. Being able to read and write with your children can provide the motivation and support to join a more formal education class, and create opportunities for voluntary or paid work in schools or the wider community.
So what can you as a parent do to help your child read and write better?
As a Parent you need to talk and listen to your children in order to make a good start in teaching them how to read and write. This will give your children an opportunity to hear how language is put together into sentences and prepare them to become readers and writers.
You need to set aside even just 10 minutes a day to read stories with your child as this helps build important skills as well as capturing your child's interest in books. Books are a rich source of information for your child because they provide certain words which may not be used frequently in everyday conversations.
From their earliest days babies enjoy listening to stories and looking at books.
In order to make teaching your child to read and write as easy and enjoyable as possible, choose books that you both enjoy and then spend time reading together and telling stories. You could talk about the pictures and characters in the books and make up your own. You could discuss how your children’s heroes might use books and reading to achieve the things they do.
Teaching your children to read and write does not have to always be formal. You can talk to your children about the world around them and read as you walk down the street and round the shops, pointing out signs and words and talking about them.
Involve your children in your reading interests, and buy them books as presents. Joining a library and taking them there is another good way of introducing new books.

Teaching Your Children To Read and Write Better – 5 Reasons Why Parents Must Start Early

2009-11-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

Parents who take the time to teach their children to read and write better will see the following results in the development of their children

Your children will have an increased enjoyment of reading, which will in turn give them better literacy skills

In order for your child to build their language and understanding, they will need to be exposed to new words. Reading books will give your child an opportunity to find new words. This will also increase a child's curiosity, which will in turn build on their existing skills as they look for more and more new words.

Children who are familiar with books and stories before they start school are better prepared to cope with the demands of formal literacy teaching.

Better exam results

Children who have problems reading begin to show signs from second and third grade. By starting to teach your children to read and write early, they are less likely to have these problems.

Children who start to read before the first grade keep up their lead in reading and understanding over children who have not been taught how to read and write form an earlier age.

Children who read early are also more likely to do better in other subjects as well.

Better school attendance and behaviour

When a child struggles to read and write their enjoyment of this activity decreases. This can lead to children disliking school, and as a result become disruptive as an outlet to their frustration.

By reading and writing with your child, you give them an early start. Teachers can teach your child only a percentage of what they need to learn and you will be letting your child down if you do not spend time with them teaching them how to read and write from an early age.

It has been shown that starting early will not hurt your child. Most children can begin from age four. In fact, the opposite is true and studies conducted on these have concluded that teaching your child to read and write early gives them a significant advantage in school.

Higher quality of later relationships

Reading together is fun and helps build relationships. As you interact with your child during your teaching sessions, they learn how to listen and develop a sense for other points of view. This becomes invaluable as they go out to school and meet other children as it helps them interact better. This skill tends to last as they grow older and build other relationships.

Better mental health and increased self-esteem

The impact of teaching your child to read and write lasts a lifetime. Children who read are more confident and have greater job opportunities.

Children whose parents have taken the time to teach them how to read and write have increased chances of being more confident. They are more likely to volunteer to read out during class and participate more as they are familiar with the words. This in turn makes them better readers and writers and reinforces their abilities. The opposite is also true. Teaching your child to read and write is therefore the most important thing you can do to help your child succeed.

Research evidence has shown that your involvement in your child's reading and learning is more important than anything else in helping them to fulfil their potential

Teaching children how to read and write

Teaching Reading and Writing to Your Child - The Benefits to Parents

Teaching Your Children To Read and Write Better – 5 Reasons Why Parents Must Start Early