In Brazil, 49% of students aged 15 show low performance in reading, and only 44.5% of children who completed the 3rd year of elementary school demonstrate adequate learning in reading.
Reading needs to become a habit, and for that, it must be part of the family’s routine. To help parents, here are some strategies that can be adopted before, during, and after literacy. Check them out below:
• It is essential to allow the child to come into contact with books from an early age. Young children need to play, handle, and touch the book. Today, publishers offer a wide variety of differentiated books with appropriate material for this age, such as plastic books, with different textures, flexible and colorful. It is important for parents to take children to libraries, book fairs, newsstands, and places where children can have contact with books.
• Noticing adults’ interest in reading fosters children’s interest. If parents enjoy reading and have this habit, their behavior influences the child and helps them develop a taste for reading as well.
• It is essential to read to children. The interest in reading starts with this bond, this exchange. The child enters the world of stories, gets involved, enchanted, and begins to develop the desire to take ownership of reading, to become a reader.
• Besides reading, it is very important to talk to the child about the story. Reading is much more than decoding, giving a sound to letters; reading is about building meaning, finding significance. By discussing what they read, the child thinks, reflects, and develops their comprehension skills.
During Literacy
• Encourage joint reading: the child reads one part, and the parents read another, until the child has the fluency to read an entire book alone.
• At the beginning of the reading learning process, offer books with many images and little text, gradually increasing the amount of text as the child develops. It is important to provide books according to the child’s age group and reading level.
• Promote activities that involve reading. For example, cooking. Encourage the child to read the recipe and make something they really enjoy, like brigadeiro or cake. It is important that reading is something pleasurable and not an obligation.
After Literacy
• It is interesting to stimulate the child to invent stories and create their own books.
• Encourage the exchange of books among friends, cousins, and neighbors to promote contact with a greater diversity of titles.
• Familiarize the child with different literary genres.
• Balance the reading time so as not to overwhelm the child.
Source: www.ebc.com.br