There are two key things to remember when helping your child with schoolwork. Firstly, for your child to be successful at school, they need to have good reading skills, which means they require as much exposure to printed words as possible and the second thing to remember is that you are the parent and not the teacher and if you cross this line your child will start to resent you. Now, this does not mean that you don’t have to do anything; it means that you need to help your child develop the necessary skills in the most creative and fun way you can think of (keep reading if you aren’t feeling so creative!).

Throughout childhood children play and this is not so they can have fun in their lives (although it certainly fulfils this function) but it is because that is how children learn. A day of play is as beneficial for a child’s development as a day at work for you (ok, they don’t get paid for it but still!!). So what I’m getting at is you should play games with your children to assist them with the relevant skills they need in order to succeed at school.

The following games, aimed to help a child develop reading skills can also be used for children demonstrating reading difficulties or disabilities. The intention is to have fun and be as imaginative as possible, many of these games can be adapted for your specific child and their specific difficulties and can also be made increasingly more difficult as your child progresses through the grades.

Pre-reading skills:

1. I spy: play I-spy to introduce phonics, ensuring that you use the letter sound and not the name, for example, ‘ah’ (a), ‘buh’ (b), ‘cuh’ (c), rather than ‘Ay’ (A) ‘Bee’(B), ‘See’(C). The game goes like this: “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ‘d’” and your child must name the things she can see that begin with the ‘d’ sound
2. Rhyming games: “find something in the lounge that rhymes with fish”. Children love to play this game from the age of 4 or so
3. Alphabet cards: buy or create a set of alphabet cards that have the alphabet written as the letter names on one side (A B C) and the letter sounds on the other (a b c) – it may be useful to have a picture that goes with the relevant sounds and use them to play card games, such as Snap. As your child becomes more proficient, have two sets and play pairs with them where you encourage them to match the lower case letters (the sounds a, b, c, etc.) to the upper case or letter name (A, B, C, etc.)
4. Scramble up letters of the alphabet and as your child recites the alphabet in the correct order, look for the correct letter and put them in order. Alternatively, have the letters in order and call on letters for your child to identify. Take letters out and see if he can determine which ones are missing
5. Select a letter per day and have your child try to identify that letter throughout the day – on product packaging, in books, magazines, sign posts, shop names, etc. Initially you could give them the letter written of a piece of paper
6. Give your child a letter, such as ‘h’ and page through a magazine encouraging them to identify as many pictures as they can that begin with that letter, such as horse, house, hotel, hamburger, etc. Make sure the picture chosen matches the correct sound of the letter initially, so don’t choose ‘angel’ for the letter ‘a’ for instance.
7. The alphabet game. This can be started as early as age 3 with just reciting the alphabet going back and forth between parent and child (in the car is always a good opportunity for this). As your child masters the alphabet then the game can be played with words going back and forth, such as, apple, bread, cat, dog, etc. Further still, you can restrict the words to one category, such as foods, animals, boys’ names, etc. or you can select single syllable words, followed by double syllables.
8. Let your child create her own book with one alphabet letter on each page and she must cut pictures from a magazine or draw pictures that represent that letter
9. Ask him to identify what sound a particular picture begins with (he must not name the picture) and then he must name as many other words beginning with the same sound, for example, a picture of a mouse, he identifies ‘m’ and then lists man, monkey, moose and magazine, for example
10. Story sequencing: The object of this game is for players to rearrange cut up comic strip pictures in the correct order, as this will strengthen their sequencing ability (necessary for reading) and their comprehension skills. There are also games on the market that you can buy to do this with as well, but comics tend to be more fun. As your children get older, choose strips with (more) words or give them three strips of the same character all mixed together that they need to organise into three stories. Can they use the existing pictures in a different order to create a new story? Let your younger children tell their own story of the pictures.
11. Phonemic awareness is important and you can play games with your child that involve breaking up and altering words, for example:
1. Say coolbox, now say it without saying ‘cool’ (or ‘box’) or butterfly without the fly
2. Say cucumber without the ‘cum’ (therefore they must say cu-ber)
3. Say night without the ‘n’ sound (ight)
4. What sound can you hear in ‘date’ that it not in ‘ate’? (d)
5. If you added ‘m’ to the beginning of ‘eat what would you have? (meat)
6. If you added ‘k’ to the end of ‘stay’ what would you have? (stake)
12. Create one-syllable words (initially) with letters and encourage your child to sound them out, such as jun, vut, des, etc. progressing to two and more syllables as their skill develops. You could also help your child create definitions for the made up words, just to add an element of amusement          to the game but also to develop their comprehension and reasoning skills

Early reading – sight words and basic spelling words:

• Word Bingo: create a grid on a page and laminate it. Write your child’s sight words or spelling words on the grid with a white board marker and play bingo. She would need to read the word as you call it out and cover it up until all words are covered and she shouts Bingo!
• Passwords: for words that your child is struggling with, place them on the doors of the house and he has to read it aloud in order to gain access to the room
• Word association: Give your child one word and they have to think of as many words as they can that are linked to the word – you can play this with a number of people with everyone taking it in turns. This works nicely in the car as well. Alternatively, you can give a category and people need to list words from that category or ask that words be given beginning or ending with a specific letter that fit in the category, such as foods that begin with ‘b’.
• Snap: write out two sets of the words and you read aloud yours as you put it on the table, face up, and she has to read hers aloud and if they match, then the first to say ‘snap’ wins the pair. As she develops this skill then the reading of the words can be silent
• Fishing: using a rod with string and a small magnet on the end, create a fishing rod. Write out the words onto card and attach one paper clip to each word, your child must ‘fish’ for the words, reading them as he catches them. If he reads it correctly he can keep the word, otherwise he has to throw it back
• Create a series of cards with sound blends on them, such as br, st, cl, sl, gr, etc. and when your child selects a card she has to say a word that either beginning with, ends with or simply contains that letter combination.
• Play dominoes with sight words
• Use the letters on number plates to create words
• Using a snakes and ladders board, cover the numbers with sight words written onto cards and when you land on a square you have to read the word
• Help your child to create or write their own story on the computer and illustrate it either by hand or with clip art pictures
• Write out the instructions to make something that your child is interested in, a recipe, bubble bath, etc. and she must follow the written directions. If the instructions are for something she has made before then she will be able to rely on her existing knowledge to identify unfamiliar words
• Create mnemonics and rhymes to help your child remember the spelling of irregular words, such as ‘friend’ – I fried my friend and that’s the end.
• From the beginning of the year, create a list of all your child’s sight words and write them on small pieces of paper, placing them all in a jar or tin. Everyday your child can shake the jar and pick out 10 (or more) words to read.
• Play Scrabble to assist with spelling or simple use the tiles to identify the alphabet, or to practice spelling difficult words with three dimensional tiles, giving an additional dimension to learning.
• Use word searches, either commercially bought or created at home to help your child identify words he is finding difficult
• When your child learns a new syllable or sound blend, encourage them to rewrite the words using a different colour for each sound to create visual interest as they read

Author:
Melanie Hartgill
Educational Psychologist
Pr. no. 0860000115134
Click here to email Melanie
082 678 4300

Specialising in: Assessments (educational, psychological, school readiness, emotional and career), Learning Disabilities, Parenting Issues and Training and Child Development
Visit Melanie's Q&A page

Posted: 23 April 2008

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