You Already Have What it Takes to Support Your Child’s Literacy
Families play an important role in their child’s literacy development. You can support your child’s literacy even if you don’t speak English or are learning it yourself. There are activities you can do at home to practice reading and writing skills. You don’t need to be your child’s teacher at home; their teacher at school is handling the academics. Your role as a parent is to encourage and support your child. Simple, cost-free activities can help your child learn to read. Speaking and reading with your child in your home language helps transfer reading and writing skills from your home language to English. You don’t have to do everything at home that their teacher does at school to help them succeed in learning to read in English. You’re helping your child’s literacy skills by encouraging them to speak English at school and talking with them in your home language at home.
The Benefits of Reading to Your Child in Your Home Language
Fun and Engaging Literacy Activities
There are many free activities you may want to do with your child at home as they are learning to read in English to support what they’re learning at school.
- You can put sticky notes on household items in English and in your home language, and practice using the word when you are talking with your child.
- Your child can listen to free audiobooks in English and then your home language from sites like this.
- You and your child can play games that are fun and build early literacy skills, like the ones here. A fun game to try is I-Spy.
- Explore wordless picture books and tell the story of the illustrations in your home language to your child and have your child tell it to you in English. Click here for a list of books you can ask for at your local public library.
- This video shows you how to read a wordless picture book or a picture book with your child, even if you don’t read English.
- The 26 letters in the English alphabet make 44 different sounds. Watch this video with your child to learn how to produce these sounds.
- Many languages have words that rhyme, or have the same ending sound. Rhyming games help your child start to recognize the vowel sounds in words. You can make up your own rhymes or find rhymes in traditional nursery rhymes, children’s books, poems, and music.
- Letters make different sounds. Here is a video to practice making the sounds.
- Look for letters and words around your home such as on cereal boxes, books, or mail. Find more fun ways to recognize words around you here.
- Have your child sort pictures or household objects by the sound the item begins with. You can use English or your home language.
- Encourage your child to write at home. As they write, remind your child to include all the sounds they hear in the word.
- Here is a video about print awareness and how to develop this skill with your child:
- To practice speaking and reading with fluency, have your child remember and repeat sentences back to you.
- Have your child select a favorite book and practice re-reading the book.
- Your child can practice reading at the same time as listening to an audio recording of a book. United for Literacy has free books your child can listen to in English and your home language!
- Explore the Reading Rockets site and choose a fluency activity that you and your child like.
- Cognates are words that look or sound similar in your language and English. For example, 40% of words in English have a similar, word in Spanish such as Family/Familia, Center/Centro, Radio/Radio, Class/Clase, Gorilla/Gorila Click here to see a list of related words in English and Spanish.
- Some languages do not have cognates. You and your child can still compare the differences between words in your native language and English to expand your vocabulary.
- You can choose a new English word every day to write down and you and your child can learn what the word means together.
- Play charades! Charades is a game where one person acts out a word and others try to guess it. Then, you can see what the word is called in English.
- You can explore Reading Rockets vocabulary activities for kids here.
- As you read, ask your child questions about what they are reading to ensure understanding.
- After your child reads in English, have your child talk about what they read in their home language to you.
- Let your child learn about the topic of a book prior to reading it by reviewing new words or looking up a short video on the topic. This builds background knowledge and helps children learn and remember the information they read.
- Have your child read a book in English and then re-read it in their home language to see if they understood what they read. United for Literacy offers free books in both English and your home language, available for your child to read at home.
- If you do not speak or understand English, you can ask your child questions about what they are reading using your home language and praise them for their thinking skills about what they are reading.
- Your child can draw a picture and then write what the picture is about.
- Your child can use a voice-to-text app on a smartphone or tablet to speak all their thoughts in their home language. Then, translate it into English.
- Have your child keep a journal in English and your child can write down what happens during the day.
- Your child can create a family newspaper or email and write exciting stories about what your family is doing. Then they can share it with friends and family.
- You can explore these Reading Rockets writing activities.
Additional Resources
Bridging the Gap in the 603: Pathways to Literacy Proficiency is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs Grant # H323A240003. This website, however, and any documents contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education.