Developing Reading Skills in young kids

Developing reading skills at a very young age can be fruitful and should be cultivated by both the teacher and parent community. Young kids generally memorize things with poems, songs, and rhymes and listening attentively to story narrators who can emote, make impactful gestures, and enact dramatization. Below are some tips to identify what are their reading needs and how can the habit of regular reading be nurtured-

1. As a parent and a teacher, we must know where the interest of our kids lies. It can be space, dolls, robots, games, superheroes, etc. Try giving them the book they are inquisitive about.

 2.Talk to the school and inquire about the reading programs they run.

3. Arrange for a small library visit for your young ones. Through this, they can learn self-management skills because they are generally active, and it would take some time for them to adjust to the library environment.

4. Give them exciting rewards and coupons like – pillow fort, dessert party, remote control for one night, power snacks, a movie night, breakfast in bed, and make it thrilling and exciting for them.

5. Invite guest lecturers and arrange for them very adventurous theme-based reading sessions. Talk to the librarian of the school and arrange multilingual books too.

6.Bed-time story sessions – Make it a schedule for everybody in the family. It strengthens the family bond and will teach healthy relationships, discipline, and routines to your kids too. 

7.Use a variety of strategies like read-aloud sessions where they can read the story to a family member of their choice, have them summarize it and record the video and share it with their other friends.

8. Re-reading for fun which improves reading comprehension can also be done. Other literary texts apart from books can also be used like audiobooks, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, etc.

9. Giving them choice and ownership to select their books to read. This will develop their consciousness and responsibility towards developing a passion for reading.

10. Last but not least, have them illustrate a lot after reading. Kids love hands-on activities where they can create fictional characters using clay, pencil colors, and play puppetry shows too.