As teachers, we can help parents have appropriate reading materials available by regularly sending books home and by providing a bibliography so they can buy or check out books at their local library. We can also help parents understand how they can help their children with their reading. 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.