1. Reading with your child
EYFS

2. Workshop Outline: 1. Introduction When does a child learn to read?
Key skills/Opportunities to develop these skills
Research
Importance of reading aloud
2. Engagement and Excitement
Engaging your child with reading
Literacy rich home environment
Tips and support
3. Supporting Reading
Supporting your child with reading to you
Phonics
Questioning 4.
How can we help?
More emphasis in this session on your role in the reading process – this is delibrate. Many parents read regularly with their child but don’t find the time to really promote reading for pleasure and model how to be a good reader. We really want to express how improant and fundamental it is to be reading TO your child every day and promoting reading at home! Reading underpins everything your child will do in the future – good writers develop from good readers.

3. When does a child learn to read?

4. When does a child learn to read?
Readers from birth
Children learn quickly that we communicate via spoken language
Babies are sung to, laughed at, talked to, listened to
Children understand that print conveys meaning when adults read aloud to them and when they see adults reading.
Open question – talk on your table. Children can begin on their journey as ‘reader’s from the day they are born. Very early on children begin to learn about spoken language when they hear their family talking, laughing, singing, and when they respond to all of the sounds that fill their world. ‘We talk to our children from the word go, we make faces, sing to them, they learn early on that we use language to communicate’. They then begin to quickly understand that print conveys meaning, when they hear and see adults reading stoires to them and when they see adults reading themselves!!! Newspapers, novels, bills!

5. What makes a skilled and confident reader?
Opportunities to:
Build spoken language by talking and listening
Learn about print and books
Learn about the sounds in spoken language (this is called phonological awareness)
Learn about the letters of the alphabet and how they come together to form words
Listen to books read aloud
Every one of these elements is vital!
So what makes a skilled and confident reader? Several decades of research has supported us to identify some common features that all strong, confident and engaged readers demonstrate. If a child is to be a succesful life long reader they need to have the opportunitiy to develop the following overtime: We will go through each of these in more detail…
It is a combination of all of these elements (have highlighted some that research tells us have particularly huge impact) that has the impact on children’s reading

6. Build spoken language by talking and listening
1 years old:
Know a lot about spoken language
Recognise some environmental and speech sounds
Know words that are important to them
Begin to imitate those sounds
Children learn all of this by listening to family members talk. Children who do not hear a lot of talk and who are not encouraged to talk themselves often have problems learning to read.
By the age of 1 children already have learned a lot about spoken language – noises around them, around the house (door bell, fire engine, bird), respond to their name
Mum, Dad, food! more! In EYFS we are constantly modelling this process – sharing, discussing, questioning, teaching how to be a good listener – eye contact, taking turns to talk, talking 1 at a time. Really important that this is maintained at home

7. Learn about print and books
We use books in certain ways:
Hold them the right way up
Turn pages one at a time
Read L-R
Print Awareness
Print is all around us
Home and outside environment
Environmental Print
Books don’t come with operating instructions but we learn to use them in certain ways. Knowing about print and books and how they are used is called Print Awareness.
We also need children to tune into print around us – huge varieties of print in our homes (we will touch on the importance of this rich variety later), children need us to model how we use print. ‘I got a letter today from Granny, she has been telling me about her new house”. Print outside the home important – adverts, signposts, bus timetables, Environmental print (you will notice in our classroom that we place importance on print being visable around the rooms). When children see that family members use print and they notice that print is all around them they learn it is used for a variety of purposes and that it has a value/importance.

8. Sounds and words in spoken language
Rhyming
Alliteration
Voice and environmental sounds
Tuning into phonemes
Blending and Segmenting
Phonological awareness – tune into and work with sounds of spoken language
Some words rhyme. Sentences are made up of separate words. Words have parts called syllables. The words bag, bug, ball all begin with the same initial sound. When a child begins to notice and understand these things about spoken language, he is developing phonological awareness – the ability to hear and work with the sounds of spoken language. When a child also begins to undestand that spoken words are made up of separate , small sounds, they are developing phonemic awareness. As we covered at the reception phonics workshop these individual sounds in spoken language are called phonemes. In Nursery we explore how words can be broken up by playing games and talking in ‘sound talk’. Can you follow my instructions, stand up, wave, jump, ,stop, hop, sit. Children who have developed their phonemic awareness can take spoken words apart sound by sound (segmentation) and put sounds back together to make words (blending). Both of these skills are also integral to childrens writing development.

9. Listening to books read aloud
Reading aloud = single most important acitivty for building knowledge required for success in reading (and writing!).
Reading aloud supports:
Self esteem
Positive attitudes/social values
Development of rich vocabulary
Learn learn learn! New concepts, World, interests, written language, new words
Develops listening and attention skills
Make connections between spoken/written words
Profile of reading – shows its important to us as adults!
Children learn the JOY of reading!
All children - Keep doing this until they leave school!!!!
Reading aloud, with children participating activly, helps children learn new words, learn more about the world, learn about written language, develop rich vocabularlies, and see the connection between words that are spoken and words that are written. Bottom line is reading aloud to your child shows you value reading, it deserves to have special time put aside for it.
Reading aloud to children is widely recognised as the single most important activity in leading to language development. It can hugely boost self esteem, emotional wellbeing (how many of you read a good book to escape, pick up a magazine for some downtime in the bath) If we want our children to write amazing adventure stories, we have to expose them to a huge range of amazing adventure stories, read them aloud to them and talk about them.

10. Listening to books read aloud
Evidence
‘Reading aloud to young children is not only one of the best acitviites to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curisity and memory.’
Research: more words parents use speaking to 8 month old infant, greater size of child’s vocabulary at age 3.
Research suggests that reading aloud helps children build a stronger foundation for school success.
Huge wealth of research that supports that if you make one change today it is placing that importance on reading aloud. Parents here with much older children – same goes, infact in some repsect, do it more!! One way to encourage your child to be listening to more stories is by using audio books. We have found some links to websites that offer these and have been regularly blogging stories, songs and rhymes to support this. There are lots of audio books available on ipad and on ibooks. Reading aloud in the early years and beyond exposes children to story and print knowledge as well as rare words and ideas not found in day-to-day conversations or screen time.

11. Engagement and Enjoyment
What is a literacy rich environment?
How many different types of print are on offer at home?
cards
chapter books
menus
newspapers s
non-fiction
picture books
magazines
recipe books
catalogues
letters
atlases
shopping lists
programmes
comics
food packets
poetry

12. Literacy rich home environment
Environment is the total impact of conditions, influences and surroundings on children.
Children who grow up in homes where reading is valued do better at school.

13. Literacy rich home environment
How?
Establish a regular time (before bed/bath time works well)
Keep a large variety of reading materials at hand
Store books/materials in places children can access
Get library cards for whole family
Share your love of books with them/advertise the joy of reading!
Have paper and writing tools available along side
Model reading and writing for pleasure
Make time for conversations about books and reading
Use board games to reinforce language/literacy skills
Building a rich literacy environment tells children that reading and writing are important lifelong activities that are fun and useful. It shows children how much you value reading. Establishing this environment supports you to have regular conversations with your child about reading; it allows everyone the opportunity to express their ideas, opinions and feelings about books. Sharing your love of books is key: ‘This was my favourite book when I was little’ ‘I cant wait to finish my book’ – help raise the profile of reading for pleasure!

14. Literacy rich home environment
Where to find good books?
Bookshops
School book fairs
Ask for books as gifts
Library and library sales
Church and table top sales
Charity shops
Ebooks and audio books
Building a home library doesn’t have to cost the earth. At each of our school fairs we always have a used book stall, charity shops are amazing and having access to the library means a constant stream of new books coming into your home.

15. Engaging your child Join the library Build a home library
Let your child choose the book
Use funny voices!
Tap into their interests
Take books with you on journeys or shopping trips
Use technology to your advantage
Get Dads reading!
Member of the library team here – hoping to get every child in EYFS set up with a library card to support parents in accessing the library.
Talked about the variety of ways to get more books into your home. Don’t be disheartened if your child picks the same books over and over – this shows that they are enjoying the book and getting real pleasure from it. Children also love to learn stories (just like songs and ryhmes) off by heart – this shows your child is well on the way to becoming a reader! It also shows they understand the connection between the words and print and the story. If you are a less confident reader help your child by talking about the picutres and making up the story using them as you go along. Audio books are a great way to support this for less confident readers. Children love it when you use your voice to your advantage when reading a story. Adding accents, deep and high tones and silly voices and noises makes reading fun and begins to teach children to use expression in their reading. If your child is reluctant reader the key is to tap into their interests. Reading a football match report of a recent game to them, using comics to tap into interests in superheroes, tune into which tv shows they like and try to buy/borrow books related to these (there are lots of this types at our book fairs and online when using bug club). Popular culture is a really powerful tool! Research suggests that reluctant readers (boys in particular) really benefit from the use of touch screen technology to positively influence their reading bavhiour. It highlights that sharing both printed and touch screen stoires benefits children’s vocabualry attainment compared with looking at or reading printed stories only. DON’T BE SCARED OF SCREEN TIME! Balance is with equal ‘wild time’! Project wild thing is a great film for supporting this – don’t have to get rid of screens but just balance the time spent outside/doing something active!
Research also suggests that in most families its mums who do the majority of the reading. Reading together is a great way to build in quality time daily and develops a strong and loving relationship with your child. It can help open your childs eyes and minds up to different peple and situatuons and stretches their horizons – get involved dads!

16. Supporting your child with reading
Reading at Ashmead
Nursery – every child chooses a picture book weekly. Parents encouraged to swap them more regularly if required. These are for parents to read to their child.
More confident and settled children given ‘Lilac’ banded book to read with parents.
Lilac books – no text. Encourages children to use pictures as clues to tell the story. Builds confidence in reading ability. Adults need to model to begin.
Now you have done your bit, how to go about helping them when they read! Lilac books are great – fantastic way to begin on the path to being a reader, develop story telling skills, use pictures as clues, encourage language use and development. Builds confidence and self esteem – I’m a reader! Lilac books on your tables – work in pairs trying to use the pictures to tell the story/information. Great precursor that allows chidlren to build those good solid reading skills and habits.

17. Supporting your child with reading
Reading at Ashmead
Nursery
Children begin Letters and Sounds Phase 1
Teaches children to tune into and discriminate sounds
Has 7 aspects covering: environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending and segmenting
Nursery parent workshop later in the year to develop your knowledge of these areas and help support your child with these at home. Phase 1 is FUNDAMENTAL in developing the skills needed to be able to distinguish sounds when reading and writing. If you cant hear that that is an aeroplane and that is a lawnmower it will be diffcult later on to hear the subtle differences between d, b. Gives children lots of practice with this and opportunities to play with sounds. Phase 1 continues throughout Reception, alongside Phase 2 – where the children learn their letter-sound correspondence needed to support reading and writing development.

18. Supporting your child with reading
Reading at Ashmead
Reception
Children each have a reading day once a week
Children select picture book for parents to read aloud
Adult supports child selection of appropriately leveled book to support specific aspects of their reading development – banded book
Read 1:1 with Class Teacher or TA
Further support from 1:1 reading TA
Parent access to bug club
We support children from their individual starting points in all aspects of their learning and this is no different with reading. Use bug club to supplment your child’s reading in print. Stocked book shelves by Class teacher – target children's ability with reading. Lots of comprehension activities to support these skills after finishing books.

19. Supporting your child with reading
Reading at Ashmead
Reception
Reading information pack to support reading at home
Phonics: children in Reception have been learning Phase 2 and Phase 3.
Banded books are decodable so allow children to practice segmenting a word by saying the pure sounds and then blending it back together.
We support children from their individual starting points in all aspects of their learning and this is no different with reading. Use bug club to supplment your child’s reading in print. Stocked book shelves by Class teacher – target children's ability with reading. Lots of comprehension activities to support these skills after finishing books.Demo reading using phonics
Ask parents to use photocopied example of red book to sound out the text with others on their table.

20. Supporting your child with reading
Use phonics first
Play games – flashcards can help with unfamiliar vocabulary or ‘tricky/cheeky’ words (cannot be worked out by sounding out e.g said)
Use ‘book talk’ – talk about stories and story language, key features of the book, word level – words, sentences, punctuation, features on the page e.g. speech bubbles
Check understanding – encourage use of picture clues to help understanding, also show your child how you might be able to predict the meaning from other word clues.
Use question prompts to help deepen your child’s understanding and support their reading development
Model
Read in your home language!

21. Supporting your child with reading
Extra tips:
Turn of the TV
Read when you are out and about – road signs, timetables, billboards
Play games
Sing songs and rhymes
Tongue twisters
Read and recite poetry
TALK TALK TALK!

22. Any Questions:

23. Give us your feedback: Take a post it What did you find useful?
What did you learn?
What changes will you make from this workshop?
Any areas you would like further support or information?
Questions?