3 Tips For Building Reading Endurance In Young Kids

Posted on December 24, 2009
Filed Under Learning Strategies, Reading, Schedule, Uncategorized |

My kids are five and seven years old, and both enrolled in French Immersion elementary. The curriculum does not introduce any English at all until grade three, which means that as a parent I have to be proactive about teaching them English reading to ensure that they don’t fall behind.

My daughter (seven, in grade two), is my low maintenance one - she can read endlessly. She can be yawning and struggling to keep her eyes open, but she still devours text like it’s candy and begs to read more (her English reading is at a grade four level, so it’s been easy for me to support her in language immersion).

My son, on the other hand, has required more intervention on my part. He is five, and is reading short stories with three and four letter words and simple sentences. He is more typically enabled in that when it comes to endurance, he hits a wall when he gets tired. I can tell right away - he either says he doesn’t want to read anymore, or his focus suddenly vanishes and he’s hard pressed to produce even the basic letter sounds, never mind stringing them together into words.

I’ve discovered three simple tips to help him progress in his reading that I thought I’d share:

I have him read a small amount every night, without fail. Even if it’s only two or three words, I get him to read to me. There’s no “oh, you’re tired, let’s skip tonight”. If he’s tired, he can still read “the cat sat”, or something like that. He’s very willing, because I get him to do it before I read stories to him (”Buddy, I’ll read your two stories to you after you read to me, OK?”). So he reads to me every night.
I stop immediately when I see signs that he’s tired. Ending on a good note is so important, and struggling with a tired child doesn’t always end well. As soon as I see he’s tired, I’ll say “aw, that’s OK for tonight Mister, you’ve done great”, even if it’s in mid-sentence. Interestingly enough, 99% of the time he wants to continue and finish the sentence or story he’s reading (so I let him, of course). Focusing on anything is so much easier for a child when it’s their idea.
Praise, praise, praise! Such a common sense thing, but I can’t stress it enough. If reading is something that brings him increased self-esteem, he’ll have a positive association with it and want to do it more.

This works for us! While my lil’ guy is nowhere near his sister’s level at that age, the improvement I’ve seen in his reading is definitely encouraging. Reading is such an important life skill, and well worth investing the time in : )