Here are some suggestions with respect to how parents/guardians can help encourage reading for the struggling adolescent reader. Any thoughts you may have is welcome!!!
Parents/Guardians of reading-challenged adolescents can employ several strategies to encourage the development of their reading. One simple strategy is to observe what interests the child and ensure that there are magazines, books, newspapers or any other written pieces on the topic, around the home so that he/she can read them in his free time. It is important here to not judge the child and make selections that one may think is best for him, but to get literature on topics of interest to him.
Parents can also foster the appropriate environment for reading. One strategy is to create a reading space at home, where there is an abundance of books, free of television and radio, where the child will be able to read. It is important for parents to remember that a computer with internet access provides a world of reading material for the child, so that this can become part of the reading space. Each day reading time should be set aside, even if this means limiting television viewing to make time for reading. Parents can also become role models for the child by themselves reading every day. If they read aloud to the child and tell stories, they will be helping him to develop his reading competence.
Most importantly however, parents need to encourage and praise them for their efforts. Having an adolescent child who is struggling with reading is indeed very worrisome, and parents may become frustrated with the situation and in turn rebuke the child. However, parents must empathise with their children and encourage their efforts by words of praise. Indeed, once given the proper instruction and surrounded by people who support and encourage him, the struggling adolescent reader will certainly improve.
I totally agreed with the suggestion that you have offered with respect to the role of parents in assistning students to develop competencies in reading and writing. However, I would like to suggest that these parents seek to foster greater links with the school. Research has shown that when there is collaboration between the home and the school, instructions that are given to the child in the area of literacy, have been more successfully accomplished. When teachers and parents share the same objective, they can cooperate to solve some of the problems that struggling readers experience and put them on the path to success.
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