Sight Words: Help Your Child Be a Fluent Reader

You can help your child be a fluent reader. When children first start reading, they have to learn to recognize the shapes of the letters, the combination of letters that make up a word and the way to pronounce the word.

Some words like ‘table’ are easy to learn and remember because they refer to an object. Other words, like ‘the’ or ‘and’ are harder to remember because they are abstract in nature. These words occur very frequently and are necessary to master for your child to be a fluent reader. Learn what the common, high frequency words are by clicking here. High frequency words are also called ‘sight words’ because children have to learn to read them by sight as opposed to learning to sound out the words.

Here are some easy ways to help your child be a fluent reader.

• Teach high frequency sight words

Help your child to be a fluent reader by teaching high frequency words. Highlight these words wherever you find them. Learning just 100 high frequency words will enable your child to read fifty per cent of virtually any text, whether a children’s book or a newspaper report. When you combine immediate recognition of the high frequency sight words with a good knowledge of basic phonics, that’s when your child can be a fluent reader.

• Teach through games

One of the best ways to help your child is through interesting games that the whole family can play. Rainbow Board Games are a collection of 57 colorful, printable board games that give your child practice in identifying initial sounds and letters, reading high frequency words, rhyming and more. It also includes game board templates so that you can make your own board games.

• Read to your child daily

Reading to your child daily is an enjoyable way to help your child. It is also a superb way to develop a close bond with your child. You can also use classic stories to impart knowledge and values to your child. Better yet, make up your own family stories to inspire your child. Here are some stories your child might like.

• Write fun, personal notes to your child

All children love surprises. Leave notes under their pillow, in the lunchbox and in other unexpected places. You can also make your own family coupons like ‘One extra hour of playtime’ to give as rewards which your child can redeem.

• Play card games

Make colorful anagram cards to play with your child. This game will help your child realize that the order of the letters in a word is important. For example, cat and act are made up of the same letters but in a different order. You can assign points to each card and give simple rewards when your child hits a certain number of points. Or you can use pre-made printable cards from Rainbow Card Games.

These are just some ways to help your child be a fluent reader. I’m sure with these ideas to get you started, you’ll soon come up with lots more ideas.

Tags: Board game, Card game, Frequency, game, High frequency, Learning to read