Much of the curriculum in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade is focused on decoding, which is the ability to understand the sounds that letters make and blend these sounds together to create words. But in third grade, the curriculum shifts to focus more on reading comprehension.

Reading comprehension is defined as extracting meaning from text. In other words, it’s the ability to understand what you read. Learning how to understand and analyze text is challenging for many children—even those who are strong decoders and fluent readers.

If your third grader is struggling, it’s important to help them overcome this bump in the road so they don’t fall behind. Here’s how to help your third grader with reading comprehension at home:

What Are the Signs Of Poor Reading Comprehension Skills?

The first step in helping your third grader is knowing how to spot the signs of reading comprehension difficulties. After all, it’s hard to help your child improve their reading comprehension skills if you aren’t aware that there’s a problem. Here are some of the signs that could indicate your third grader is struggling with reading comprehension:

• No interest in reading
• Unable to answer questions regarding what they are reading
• Difficulty following a simple set of instructions
• Cannot summarize the main events of a story
• Leaves out important details when discussing what took place in a story
• Retells stories out of sequence, meaning the events are not in chronological order
• Struggles to connect the main ideas of a story
• Poor writing skills

Remember, many children with strong decoding and fluency skills struggle with reading comprehension. Because of this, you should never assume that your child is not experiencing reading comprehension difficulties simply because they are strong readers.

How Can I Improve My Child’s Reading Comprehension?

There are plenty of strategies that you can implement to help your third grader improve their reading comprehension skills at home, including:

• Form A Family Book Club
• Use Graphic Organizers
• Let Your Child Choose
• Tap Into Their Background Knowledge

Form A Family Book Club

Helping your child become a better reader is a team effort, so get everyone in the family to come together for a weekly book club. Choose a different book for your family to read every week. Then, bring the family together to discuss the book as a group.

Use this time to ask your third grader questions, share opinions, and make predictions about what would happen next if the story continued. This exercise will help your child improve their reading comprehension skills by challenging them to think about and analyze the text in a new way.

Use Graphic Organizers

If your child is a visual learner, creating graphic organizers is an effective way to help them improve their reading comprehension skills.

For example, work with your third grader to create a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts the two main characters in a book. You can also create this type of diagram to compare and contrast a book to its movie adaptation.

Flowcharts can be useful, too. For instance, create a flowchart that shows the sequence of events that took place in a story. This will help your child break down a complex story, identify the main events, and put them in chronological order to better understand what happened in the text.

Let Your Child Choose

Some children struggle with reading comprehension simply because they are not interested in what they are reading. To solve this problem, let your child choose their own reading materials. It will be much easier for your child to focus and extract meaning from the text if they are genuinely interested in the topic.

However, make sure the books that your child chooses are on grade level. Trying to understand the text in a book that is too advanced may frustrate your child and hurt their confidence.

Tap Into Their Background Knowledge

Before your child starts a new book, ask them to think about what they are about to read. Encourage them to use their background knowledge on the topic to better understand the text.

For example, say your third is about to read a book about a family that takes a camping trip. Before they begin reading, ask them to talk about what they know about camping. Remind them of the time that your family went camping together and get them to talk about their own experience on this trip.

Tapping into this background knowledge will help them extract more meaning from the text once they begin reading.

What is the Best App to Improve Reading Comprehension?

Let your third grader work on their reading comprehension skills anytime, anywhere with the Readability app. This app’s Interactive Voice-Based Questions & Answers feature is designed to test your child’s comprehension and keep them engaged as they read. It is also designed to read aloud to your child, listen to your child read aloud, and correct their pronunciation errors, which can help them improve their decoding and fluency skills.

Get your third grader the reading comprehension help they need to succeed by downloading the Readability app today.

Teaching reading is not an easy task and often one reading strategy might not work for some students.

However, elementary school teachers have to undertake this big task for dozens of students. It is inevitable that some children might fall behind with reading.

When your child needs help learning to read, it is important to make them feel empowered and motivated to improve. Your child might already be frustrated with reading and needs every bit of encouragement they can get.

Luckily, there are tons of activities, strategies, and tools you can use at home to make reading and learning fun. 

Why is learning to read important? 

Reading is an essential skill that your child will improve and continue to learn in school. Learning to read is so important because it is a skill that your child will use beyond school.

But as mentioned, learning to read can be frustrating for a struggling reader. Your child might ask you why learning to read is so important in the first place.

While we all know reading is important, it can be difficult to even explain why. There are tons of reasons why learning to read is important, but here are five main reasons to tell your child:

1. Reading helps to develop other language skills – learning to read can help your child enhance their writing, speaking, and listening skills. Reading introduces them to new vocabulary and grammar that they can use in the other language skills.
2. Reading is a primary way to learn – In the beginning, your child is learning to read. Eventually, they will make the switch to reading to learn. Reading is the main way they will learn new information and concepts.
3. Reading can bring you new adventures – Reading can help your child develop their creativity and even learn about new cultures and countries without even leaving their home.
4. Reading enhances your social skills – With reading, your child can build common connections with other people. Reading gives the background knowledge and curiosity to meet new people and broaden their horizons.
5. Reading is used everywhere – Your child will continue to use their reading skills well beyond school. They will use it when they are grocery shopping, at their jobs, ordering at a restaurant, and just in their everyday lives.

Why is my child struggling with reading?

With reading being such an important life skill, not just academic skill, helping your child learn to read is especially important if they are struggling.

Before even figuring out how to help your child, you should try to figure out why your child is struggling with reading in the first place. Here are some common reasons why children struggle with learning to read:

• The reading material is too difficult for your child. Some kids just do not learn as quickly as others, so the reading material your child is reading might just be too advanced.
• The reading material is too easy. On the other hand, some kids actually are more advanced readers and end up getting bored with the reading material they are being provided.
• Your child might have an undetected learning or reading disability. If you suspect your child might have dyslexia or a learning disability, you should discuss it with your child’s teacher to see if they should be assessed and tested. 
• Your child’s phonological and phonemic awareness still needs to be improved and developed. The groundwork for reading starts with your child being able to associate specific sounds to letters. If they have not had enough practice or familiarity with this, they will likely struggle with decoding words and reading all together.

How can I help my child learn to read?

Helping your child learn to read is just a matter of incorporating reading practice into their everyday routines. Here are some tools and activities than help your child learn to read:

• Use reading apps – There are tons of reading apps available, and there are even some that target specific reading skills.

However, a good reading app like Readability helps to improve several reading skills at once.

In fact, Readability can help improve reading skills and other language skills like speaking and listening. The app allows for your child to listen to the app as it reads to them, giving them a model for good reading.

Yet, the app also allows for your child to read the story aloud and the app will catch any pronunciation errors and provide them instant feedback. This can especially help with enhancing your child’s reading fluency.

1. Make reading goals – Reading goals can help your child feel more motivated and actually see the progress they are making. You can set one big goal for them such as finishing a book all by themselves, or you can set smaller weekly goals like learning a new vocabulary word and using it.
2. Get in the kitchen– Cookbooks are a great source for reading practice because they use simple grammar structures and create a task-based activity that integrates reading skills. You and your child can pick a recipe to make together. When you cook together, have them be the person to read the instructions on the recipe.
3. Create a reading nook – Sometimes a big reason your child is not feeling motivated to read is because they are too easily distracted from the things around them. Creating a special reading nook for them can give them a special quiet area for them to concentrate on reading.
4. Read a book series as a family – Kids learn best when the rest of the family is involved in the learning process with them. Your family can choose a book series that is appropriate for all reading levels to read as a family. You can have book discussions over dinner and it is a great way to create stronger family bonds.
5. Make your own story books – If your child cannot seem to find a book that interests them, encourage them to create their own stories and books instead. This can help them improve their reading and writing skills as well as gives them a creative outlet.

Learning to read is so important for your child to be successful academically. But, it is also an important skill that needs to be practiced often.

Reading can help to open up doors in the future for your child. It is not just struggling readers that should be getting reading practice either.

All new readers can benefit from getting practice whenever and wherever they are. Readability is a great way to have access to reading practice 24/7. The app can help struggling readers to read more fluently and gives them a model of good reading skills whenever they need it.

Second grade is a critical time where learning is accelerated. Your child is learning more complex and advanced skills and concepts.

In all subjects, they are learning more and faster than ever before. This can be both an exciting and challenging time for your child.

Although they are still learning how to read longer and more advanced texts, this is the grade that your child will begin using reading as a tool for learning new information.

For many parents with children who are struggling to keep up, they might be looking into and searching for “how to help my second grader with reading”. Helping your child improve their reading skills can help them improve their learning in other subjects as well.

There are many different activities and strategies parents can use at home to help their child improve their reading. However, before working with them at home, it is a good idea to know what level your child should be aiming for and what specifically they should be learning in second grade.

What should my child know in second grade?

In second grade, your child is advancing their reading skills quickly.

They should by now have some familiarity with phonological and phonemic awareness, the relationship between sounds and letters, and they should have a relatively advanced vocabulary knowledge.

By this time, your child likely has the basics of reading mastered and is now working on improving and building advanced reading skills such as:

• Read more complex and multi- syllable structured words.
• Understands the meaning and usage of common prefixes and suffixes.
• Has a sight word vocabulary bank of over 150 words.
• Reads a variety of genres and can distinguish between them such as fiction, nonfiction, and poetry
• Understands the structure of a story and the purpose of story organization. 
• Has advanced reading comprehension skills and can identify the main ideas of a text and can answer the “5 Ws” and “How” of a story. 
• Able to discuss the differences between characters and the events of a story as well as make connections within a text. 
• Can compare and contrast the differences between stories 
• Reads more fluently with an grade level appropriate pace, correct accuracy, and expression.
• Identifies their own reading errors and re-reads when they need to.

Many second graders are able to meet these reading objectives and goals, but there are also a number of students who struggle and end up behind many of their peers.

Luckily, with early intervention and additional practice at home, struggling readers in the second grade can easily and quickly catch up.

How can I help my second grader with reading?

If your second grader is struggling with reading, they can benefit from some extra practice at home. But, many parents might find it difficult to convince their children to do even more homework.

Instead of making reading feel like just more school work, you can make the learning experience much more fun and casual at home.

Here are some activities to make reading fun and engaging:

• Create their own stories – Writing is another primary language skill that your child is likely practicing and improving in second grade.

Using writing helps your child improve their reading skills as well because they are reciprocal processes. You can have them write their own stories and create their own homemade books then have them read them to you.

• Learn about the author – Children enjoy reading when they become engaged and want to learn more.

With your child, pick one author from one of their favorite books and do some research about them. Many children’s books authors also do book tours or reading session. This can help your child become invested in reading.

• Go on a reading field trip – A reading field trip can be a trip to the library to pick up some books or to meet with a librarian. It can also be going to a local museum and reading about the exhibits beforehand. Either way the focus is to practice reading in a practical way.
• Cook together – Another practical way to practice reading is to use a cookbook or recipe. Recipes often make for great reading materials for children because they use simple language and create a task-focused activity. Find one recipe to cook together and have your child read the instructions aloud as you follow along.
• Pick a favorite word – Building vocabulary is essential for building reading skills. Each day pick a favorite word with your child and see how many times you can use that word throughout the day.
• Use reading apps – Children need stimulation and engagement to become interested in reading. Reading apps are a great tool to use for creating a fun and interactive learning environment.

One great reading app to use is Readability which helps your child get the reading intervention they need anytime and anywhere they need it.

Readability has the ability to read stories to your child as they follow along on the screen or it can even listen to your child read aloud then gives them error correction for pronunciation and feedback.

Second graders are learning so much in such a short period of time. It is almost inevitable that your child might struggle with one or more skills along the way. However, with early intervention and using the right strategies and tools such as reading apps like Readability, your child can gain steady improvement in their reading skills. Improvement in their reading skills will help them to learn better and actually enjoy learning in school.

First graders are typically reading simple books that allow them to further their phonetic understanding and work on basic comprehension skills. During this year, students also will be asked to identify a list of sight words—these are words young students should recognize on sight.

Some first graders may breeze through reading lessons and read independently, but others may have difficulties. Here’s how to help with reading 1st grade lessons when a child seems to struggle.

Sight Word Practice

For children who have trouble identifying their list of sight words, practice could be the key in helping them gain mastery. Use flash cards or sight word games to make these lessons a bit more fun.

Parents also can make a checklist of sight words and encourage their young reader to go on a sight word scavenger hunt. These games encourage children to find sight words at home or while on errands with parents or caregivers. Children can look for sight words on food labels, store signs, posters, etc.

What are the common sight words that first graders should easily identify? The list may vary, but common words include:

• About
• If
• Each
• Nice
• Than
• Walk
• Your
• Yours
• Should
• Going
• Learn

Encourage Daily Reading

At this age, most kids are still sounding out words to make sense of new blends. Some words may be easy for children to master at first glance, but others may be trickier. Parents should encourage children to read daily. However, parents also can read to a child.

When reading stories to children, parents should encourage children to help them to sound out words. Also talk about the story as you read together. Ask questions about the character and the plot. This allows children to think about what is being read.

Some parents may worry if a child skips a night of reading. The 20-minute reading mandate may cause anxiety about accurately logging all those minutes daily. However, parents should try not to be too rigid about the clock. That is, if a child reads for 40 minutes one day and skips another day during the week, the minutes balance out. Weekend reading also can count toward the goal.

Use Reading Worksheets

If a child is having issues sounding out words or recognizing blends, parents can use reading worksheets at home for enrichment. Many teachers will gladly send extra work home upon request. Teachers also can guide parents to websites that offer enrichment worksheets. Parents can visit Education.com for a variety of free reading worksheets to use at home.

Cook Together

Reading and following recipes can help children with their reading. For first-graders, encourage them to read the ingredient list (as it’s fairly simple). Kids also can help parents gather these ingredients at home or find them while shopping.

Recipes include simple instructions, which may be easier for younger children to read. Parents also can choose kid-friendly recipes that are written in an even more simplistic style. Recipes don’t have to be complicated; even the recipe on the back of a gelatin box can be an easy way for children to practice reading skills.

When cooking with kids in the kitchen, always be mindful of safety. Give children roles that are in line with their age and maturity. A first-grader can gather up the veggies or drop cut up produce into a bowl.

Interview Your Child about the Book

The site Great Schools encourages parents to embrace their inner celebrity interviewer. Once your child has finished a book, it’s time to ask the deep questions. Don’t just bombard kids with a list of probing questions, though! Parents should make it fun. Pretend you’re on a talk show, and your child is the guest.

Parent hosts can be silly or outlandish. The key is to get kids talking about the book. Get creative with those questions and find out what kids remember.

Create Book Artwork

Mix art and literacy by encouraging children to draw a picture or create a poster about their book. Parents can ask kids to draw a favorite scene from their book or maybe create a portrait of the character. For portraits, ask kids about the character. What’s the character’s personality? What did they do in the book? Was the character nice?

For scenic drawings, parents can ask children to explain the action that’s taking place. Why was it important to the story? What happened after this event?

Use a Reading App

Kids who are struggling to decipher words or understand the meaning of the story also may benefit from using a reading instruction app like Readability. A built-in AI tutor recognizes a child’s unique voice and provides assistance when a child struggles with pronunciation. The tutor also asks questions about the story to test a child’s understanding of what they have read.

Stories on Readability are leveled to match a child’s unique reading ability, and this ensures that the text is never too easy or too difficult. Parents can follow their child’s progress via the Parent Dashboard, which also displays the child’s engagement time on the app.

Ready to try Readability? Sign up for a free seven-day trial to test out all the features today!

We’re months into this “quarantine” and many schools, childcare facilities, and tutoring programs have been shut down until further notice. Distance learning has largely taken the place of traditional education, and children of all ages have been thrown into a digital classroom.

Those who are spending more time than usual with a kindergartener might be wondering how to keep their reading plan going strong. Fortunately, mobile reading tools have come a long way in the journey toward virtually interconnected lesson plans and independent learning.

If you’ve been asking “how to help my kindergartner read at home,” take a look at some easy ways to keep your child engaged and on track.

Can Most Kindergartners Read?

One tricky dilemma that distance learning has created is the uncertainty of critical learning milestones. For parents who are having to also juggle the role of teacher, ensuring that their children are reaching important educational standards is often top priority.

Children learn how to read at various intervals, but the most common age range is 5 to 7 years old.

While kindergartners who don’t know how to read aren’t necessarily delayed or at risk of falling behind, many parents and teachers strive to send their child to first grade with basic reading skills under their belt.

Using technology is one way to ensure that your kindergartener is “on track” with learning how to read. Responsive testing while using a program that is able to follow your child’s individual reading speed and cadence can provide you with key data about their progress.

How Can I Help My 5-Year-Old Learn to Read?

If “how to help my kindergartener read at home” has been going through your mind lately, you’re certainly not alone. Millions of parents around the world have been faced with that same question amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning how to read at home can be broken down into a few key areas:

• Sight word recognition
• Fluency
• Reading comprehension

Applying the right tools and tactics in these key areas is the easiest and most effective way to help your kindergartener read at home.

Sight Word Recognition

Sight words, or high-frequency words, are building blocks that help your child recognize important patterns while they’re learning language fluency.

Rather than sounding out each syllable individually, children can use sight words to become familiar with common terms and, eventually, phrases. Rote memorization and repetition play a major role in reinforcing sight word recognition in kindergarten-aged readers.

Building a wider vocabulary is the best way to help your child learn how to read using high-frequency words. Using a reading app that features vocabulary-based learning is an easy way to incorporate this method into your child’s daily lessons.

Fluency

When children are learning how to read, it’s not uncommon for them to make frequent pauses or repeat difficult passages. Fluency is the child’s ability to read quickly and with a smooth cadence.

Repetition and critical thinking are helpful tools for building reading fluency. Popular exercises and drills for improving fluency include:

• Reading aloud
• Timing short passages
• Echo reading 
• Paired reading
• Visual aids and games

Reading with fluency helps children absorb more information in less time, which is a critical step toward building reading comprehension.

Reading Comprehension

Understanding the words that are being processed in real time is the foundation of reading comprehension for young learners.

Once children are able to grasp basic reading concepts, they can start to consume more difficult subject matter. Establishing strong reading comprehension skills from the beginning will also help your children stay engaged, and can facilitate a deeper interest in reading as a whole.

Boosting reading comprehension can be as simple as repeating key concepts with your child, and taking time to ask and answer questions before, during, and after reading time.

Using Technology to Help My Kindergartener Read

Technology is more integrated into our daily lives than ever before, and the same is true for children who are learning how to read in 2020. Using a mobile device is a helpful way to learn how to help your kindergartener read at home.

Mobile reading apps use artificial intelligence, voice-activated machine learning, and dynamic progress reporting to ensure that your child is learning at the best pace for their unique needs. Digital reading tools can respond to your kindergartner’s speed and fluency level to create an applicable virtual lesson.

Children can also learn to associate study time with entertainment, which has been proven to boost learner engagement and interest.

Utilizing a reading app is just one simple way to learn how to help kindergartners read at home. Consider the benefits of a comprehension mobile app or digital reading program to improve your child’s reading skills, confidence, and interest.

First grade is one of the most important years of your child’s early academic career. Kindergarten revolves around fun and games, but in first grade, children will spend most of their time on developing crucial academic skills, including reading.

Reading is one of the main areas of focus in first grade. But unfortunately, many children struggle to learn to read in first grade.

Failing to build a strong reading foundation in first grade could negatively impact the rest of your child’s elementary school years. If your child is struggling to read, it’s important to provide them with additional instruction outside of the classroom. Here’s how to help your first grader read at home:

What Should A First Grader Be Able to Read?

Every parent should know what their child should be able to read in the first grade. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to spot the signs that your child is falling behind in reading.

Every child learns at a different pace. But in general, your child should have mastered these reading skills by the time they finish first grade:

• Understand the basic features of a sentence, such as the capitalization of the first letter and the punctuation mark at the end.
• Fluently read one-syllable words.
• Know how adding an ‘e’ to the end of a word can change the sound and meaning of the word.
• Sound out complex, multi-syllable words by breaking them down into smaller parts.
• Recognize the difference between fiction and non-fiction text.
• Read grade level text aloud at the appropriate speed and with proper expression.

If your child is not on track to master these skills by the end of first grade, they may need additional reading help to keep up with their classmates.

How Many Sight Words Should A First Grader Know?

“Sight words” are words that appear frequently in children’s text. Some examples of sight words include “the,” “he,” “she,” “they,” “said,” “what,” “who,” and “where.”

Having a broad sight word vocabulary is an important part of becoming a better reader in the first grade. The more sight words your child knows, the easier it will be for them to fluently read text.

Kids in first grade should know at least 150 sight words. If your child does not know this many sight words, this is an area you should focus on when helping them become better readers.

How Can I Help My First Grader Read Better?

Struggling readers need all the help that they can get in order to succeed. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways for parents to help their first graders improve their reading skills at home. Start with these strategies:

• Try the “modeling” strategy. Modeling involves reading a passage aloud to your child at a normal pace and with the appropriate expression. Then, instruct your child to read the same passage aloud to you with the same pace and expression.
• Encourage your child to reread their favorite books. Rereading books will help your child improve their fluency skills and become a more confident reader.
• Read together as a family. Take turns reading a book aloud as a family. Then, ask every member of the family to discuss what they liked and didn’t like. Ask each other questions about the text, too. Having this type of discussion will help your child improve their reading comprehension skills.
• Play silly word games to help your first grader broaden their sight word vocabulary.
• Help them identify context clues within the passage and in illustrations that they can use to figure out something they don’t understand in the text.
• Correct their pronunciation mistakes. Ask them to read aloud to you and listen for any pronunciation errors. If you hear one, be sure to stop and correct them right away. If you wait too long to correct their errors, they won’t be able to learn from their mistakes.
• Set daily reading goals. Practice makes perfect when it comes to reading, which is why you should encourage your child to read at least 20 minutes per day. If your child reaches this goal every day for a week, reward them with a trip to the ice cream store or small prize.

Implementing one or more of these strategies at home will help your first grader become a better reader in no time!

What is the Best Way to Teach Your First Grader to Read?

There are countless tools and resources out there that parents can use to teach their children how to read, but none that can compare to the Readability app. This app uses advanced speech recognition and artificial intelligence technology to read aloud, listen to your child read aloud, and correct their pronunciation errors in real time. Using the Readability app is just like working with a digital reading tutor.

Your first grader can use Readability to improve their decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension skills. Download the app on your smartphone or tablet to start your free 7-day trial today.