Page 145 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

How could a child with reading and writing difficulties be helped?

Practice makes perfect! The reading material should allow for the feeling of success, that
is be feasible in terms of sound composition, form and length of words and sentences (for a

poor reader up to 4 words in a sentence), yet as meaningful and interesting as possible. To
make reading easier, graphic benchmarks and visualisation can be used (pictures, diagrams,

schemes). In case of greater difficulties all tuition needs adapted, including simplified texts
and reading together and reading aloud.

Consistent cooperation between home and school is important as is appropriate recognition of
a child’s successes. The teacher needs to create a trusting relationship so that parents can

provide the necessary support at home too. For a child it is important to retain self-confidence
to make further advances.

Counselling parents

Specialists advise starting to work with reading literally from birth and there are plenty of
parents who look at books with babies, read and tell. Letters are learned in the surrounding

environment in a natural way (blocks, books, labels, headlines) and the child usually begins to

read before starting school (at the age of 7 years in Estonia). They have an interest in reading
which is essential for adopting a reading skill. It only becomes complicated when the child for

some reason does not read well and does not want to read and here is where parents might
make mistakes which certainly do not foster an interest in reading. Some parents start dutifully

training the child but they are motivated by a fear that the child might face problems at school.
Reading needs practice but in the course of training the child reads out of fear or expects an

award and they only comply with the adult’s orders. The child who reads reluctantly probably

will lose interest in reading, the reading skill suffers and the child is not likely to read on their
own. The opposite is also true – a child who has safely and in the company of their parents

enjoyed the magic of books, is likely to continue reading and is able to enjoy it.