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"A good education for every child does not mean the same education for every child. " Please use what works for you and your child and ignore the rest. Every child is different. If this information does not seem to be a good fit for your particular child, then keep looking and experimenting until you find what works. This Web Page by Pauline Harding for Art Nurk, hardingpj@yahoo.com Contents may be copied for personal use if credit is given. Please ask for permission before any other use. Do not copy this information onto your own web site without permission..

If You Encounter Problems Teaching Your Child To Read If you encounter problems, first review the basics. · Are you reading regularly to your child? Are you reading books at the child’s level, below their level, and above their level? · Are you playing games with words (like rhyming games)? · When does your child sit down with a book? If your child is feeling the need to veg out, do they turn immediately to the TV? Do you need to create time/space for reading? Do you need to offer to read rather than wait to be asked? · Do you read “old favorites” over and over? Good! Do you also introduce new interesting books regularly? · How realistic are your expectations? Children vary widely. Mem Fox says “Anxiety should set in only when a child of 8 can’t read.” Others would encourage intervention for those children who exhibit specific problems at an earlier age, especially for those children with signs of a specific problem, like dyslexia. Use your instincts. Assess where the child is on the continuum of learning to read. Just saying “he can’t read” isn’t as useful as a careful assessment of which skills are present and which are not. Do you need more practice of a particular skill? Differentiate between kids who just don’t have the desire to read yet, vs. kids who want to read but are having difficulty. Don’t assume all children learn to read the same way – they don’t! You will need to find the way that works for the child, not force the child into the mold of a particular method. While there are various kinds of possible reading problems (dyslexia, etc), you have a better chance of catching them early if you are reading together, just as alert, involved parenting in general helps to clue you in to other kinds of problems. Trust your instincts.