Shared reading of a story is a positive activity for parents to do with their child. The parent reads one paragraph or page and the child reads the next paragraph or page. Shared reading is particularly helpful for children who may be overwhelmed with reading an entire story by themselves. Parents can learn to respect their children as readers. It's important for parents to know the significance of not interrupting a child to constantly make corrections, realizing that each time there is an interruption, comprehension suffers.
Parents often wonder what to do if their child is struggling with a word.
When children go on, they often discover that the context helps them figure out the unknown words. By reading on, children learn they don't have to quit reading when they encounter unfamiliar words. Other ways to help children with unfamiliar words include telling them to reread to see if they can figure out what the word is, to think about what would make sense in the story, or to think of a word they know that resembles the word. If not knowing a word interferes with understanding the story, then parents may want to simply supply the word. Sharing with parents is something that many teachers do on a regular basis.