Reading requires practice and it is often tricky to find the time in our very busy lives! It is also helpful to find reading content that engages your child. This is where turning on the subtitles comes into its own! It provides children with ever changing, exciting subject matter that they want to look at. There is an ever growing body of research that tells us that same language subtitling improves reading behaviour.
Subtitles cause automatic reading behaviour among children and adults.
Subtitles cause automatic reading behaviour among children and adults.
A key finding of eye-tracking research on subtitling, which studies the automatic reading behaviour of children and adults, is that viewers who have some decoding ability – even partial letter-to-sound correspondence – just cannot ignore the subtitles and will exhibit automatic reading responses.
What better reason to turn on the subtitles today!
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If your early reader is struggling
Please come and talk to us and we can make suggestions that are suitable for your child, but in the meantime, here are some tips…
1. Help them to apply their phonic strategies by asking them to “Look at the letters, make the sounds, blend the sounds together.”
2. If it seems that they don’t make connections with what they read, re-do the book introduction (one will have been done in school) by going through the pages, talking about the pictures, characters and events. Point out any words that repeat and work them out together. As you read, talk about the story.
3. If your child isn’t using the correct sound, help them to get ready by saying, “Get your mouth ready for the first letter”. This re-focuses them on the phonics.
4. When your child says a word that makes sense in the story but isn’t using the correct sounds, help them to get back to the phonics by asking “does that word have the right sounds? Look at the sounds.”
Please rest assured, we are more than happy to help you with this, so please come and talk to us any time.
Helping your child to become a reader
1. Encourage your child to read
Reading helps your child’s wellbeing, develops imagination and has educational benefits too. Just a few minutes a day can have a big impact on children of all ages.
2. Read aloud regularly
Try to read to your child every day. It’s a special time to snuggle up and enjoy a story. Stories matter and children love re-reading them and poring over the pictures. Try adding funny voices to bring characters to life.
3. Encourage reading choice
Give children lots of opportunities to read different things in their own time – it doesn’t just have to be books. There’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, magazines, recipes and much more. Try leaving interesting reading material in different places around the home and see who picks it up.
4. Read together
Choose a favourite time to read together as a family and enjoy it. This might be everyone reading the same book together, reading different things at the same time, or getting your children to read to each other. This time spent reading together can be relaxing for all.
5. Create a comfortable environment
Make a calm, comfortable place for your family to relax and read independently – or together.
6. Talk about books
This is a great way to make connections, develop understanding and make reading even more enjoyable. Start by discussing the front cover and talking about what it reveals and suggests the book could be about. Then talk about what you’ve been reading and share ideas. You could discuss something that happened that surprised you, or something new that you found out. You could talk about how the book makes you feel and whether it reminds you of anything.
7. Bring reading to life
You could try cooking a recipe you’ve read together. Would you recommend it to a friend? Alternatively, play a game where you pretend to be the characters in a book, or discuss an interesting article you’ve read.
8. Make reading active
Play games that involve making connections between pictures, objects and words, such as reading about an object and finding similar things in your home. You could organise treasure hunts related to what you’re reading. Try creating your child’s very own book by using photos from your day and adding captions.