Photo via Usborne Books

When your child struggles with reading, it doesn’t just affect his or her reading and spelling grades. Not being able to read well can mean your child doesn’t understand directions on a math test and can’t figure out that social studies assignment. Learning to improve reading skills is essential.

For children who have a serious reading disability, the key to learning to read well is to work with teachers and tutors who understand the disability to get remedial help. However, there are some easy and fun ways for parents to help  kids who just aren’t catching on as quickly as some of their classmates to improve their reading skills:

• Get a book on CD and let your child follow along with it using a traditional book. (This is a great car ride activity for children that don’t get car sick.)
• Read stories with your child instead of to your child. For example, you could read a sentence and then have your child read a sentence. (Reading an entire page can be overwhelming for a struggling reader.)
• Ask questions to help your child develop comprehension skills. Understanding what they read helps children learn to figure out words using contextual clues. (A fancy way of saying kids can use other, easier words in a sentence to help them figure out a hard word.)