This toolkit helps parents and families understand the many different skills involved with teaching your child to learn to read and how to support your child's reading development at school and home.
You will learn:
- How to tell if your child is getting high-quality reading instruction at school.
- Questions to ask about the reading program in your child’s school.
- How to tell if your child has reading difficulties and how you can help.
This toolkit includes:
- An Online Tutorial
- Research Briefs & Infographics
- Tools & Resources
- A Facilitator's Guide
Get Started
Online Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will learn evidence-based information about your child’s reading development from preschool through adolescence, all in an interactive online experience. You can use the table of contents to learn about the skills needed to learn to read, how reading typically develops, why children might struggle to read, and signs of risk for reading difficulties.
Approximate tutorial length per topic: 30 minutes.
Supporting Materials
Download and print these infographics with ideas and questions to ask your child’s school linked to the tutorial.
Learning to read is difficult and does not happen naturally. It requires explicit and systematic instruction, which is especially important for struggling readers. Learning to read involves many different skills that must be taught to your child. Instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension will help your child learn to read.
Questions to ask about your child's reading skills.
Questions to ask about your child's reading instruction at school.
Questions to ask about your child's assessments and instruction at school.
Difficulties can be spotted early, ask these questions if you have concerns about your child's progress at school.
Skills Needed to Learn to Read
Reading involves many different skills that must be taught to your child. Learning these skills does not come naturally. You can help your child read by practicing skills learned at school.
Big Ideas
- Reading is a complex system of making meaning from print that requires many skills. Reading successfully involves both correct word reading (accuracy and fluency) and understanding material read (meaning).
- Reading is not a natural process. Children’s brains are not organized to read.
- Reading takes practice to master, just like playing a sport or learning arithmetic.
Visit these Resources to Learn More
Learning to read consists of developing skills in two areas: accurate, fluent reading and comprehending the meaning of texts. Learning these skills does not come naturally. Both accurate word reading and text comprehension require careful, systematic instruction.
This infographic highlights seven ways that families help to promote early literacy and is available in English and Spanish.
Topic: Beginning Reading, Partnerships, Spanish
Although all children develop at their own pace, there are reading readiness skills that children commonly develop based on their age. Knowing what to look for not only helps you follow their development, it can alert you to any reading skills that may need extra attention.
Topic: Beginning Reading
Reading comprehension can be challenging for kids. Kids must master a number of key skills, like decoding, to fully understand what they're reading.
Topic: Beginning Reading
How Reading Typically Develops
Your child typically moves through several stages as they learn to read. You play a key role in their reading development at every stage. You are your child’s first teacher because you can lay the foundation for becoming a skilled reader right from the start.
Big Ideas
- Parents and caregivers play an important role in supporting children’s reading.
- Learning to read, like in all learning, happens across time. Children typically move through several stages as they learn to read.
- Understanding what is expected at different ages can help you notice when children’s skills are progressing appropriately or not.
Visit these Resources to Learn More
This booklet describes activities that parents can do with their children to improve reading skills at specific ages from birth through Preschool.
Topic: Phonemic Awareness, Language Development
This booklet describes activities that parents can do with their children to improve reading skills at specific ages from kindergarten through third grade.
Topic: Beginning Reading
This checklist is designed to help parents get children ready to read and to better understand literacy skill development for toddlers through grade 3.
Topic: Beginning Reading, Writing
This handbook describes ten reading practices for middle and high schools with strong evidence of effectiveness from high-quality research, including selected grade level descriptions of what students should know and be able to do.
Topic: Vocabulary, Comprehension, Writing, Adolescent Literacy
This chart explains motor development, communication, and cognition milestones for children ages 0-5 and includes tips on what families can do at each stage.
Topic: Identification
Why Children Might Struggle to Read
Sometimes it is just temporary, while other times it may point to a deeper learning issue. Parents and caregivers play an important role in supporting children’s literacy development, especially when children are having difficulty.
Big Ideas
- All children with reading difficulties are not the same. Because children may struggle to read for different reasons, children often have a specific profile of strengths and weakness in reading skills and strategies.
- It is important to find out early if children are lagging behind so they don’t miss out on the kind of early reading instruction and practice that helps them become a successful reader later.
Visit these Resources to Learn More
This document presents five ways that parents can help students of all ages develop important text-reading skills.
Topic: General Literacy
Read an information sheet that explains the steps a family can take when a child is struggling to read.
Topic: Dyslexia, Advocacy
This tool is designed to help parents understand the specific problems a child may be having with reading, including practical suggestions on what you (and kids themselves) can do to help students address their reading difficulties.
Topic: Beginning Reading, Dyslexia
Signs of Risk for Reading Difficulties
There are signs to look for in your child that may show a risk for reading difficulties later. You play an important role in your child’s education by sharing signs of risk in your child with others.
Big Ideas
- Parents and caregivers play an important role in supporting children’s reading development, especially when children are having difficulty.
- Signs of risk for later reading difficulties are often noticeable very early when children have trouble learning key language and early literacy skills compared to their peers.
- If there are concerns that children’s language and/or reading difficulties are unexpected and unusual compared to their learning in other areas, seek further information early from the school and others about next steps.
Visit these Resources to Learn More
Dyslexia is a brain-based learning disability that specifically impairs a person’s ability to read.
Breaking down the truth about Dyslexia.
Child Find is a legal requirement that schools find all children who have disabilities and who may be entitled to special education services.
Answers to commonly asked questions about eligibility for special education services, the evaluation process, and other related issues.
Facilitator's Guide
The purpose of the facilitator guide is to provide information and materials to effectively facilitate the Learning about Your Child’s Reading Development at Home Tutorial in-person as a workshop series and enable participants to achieve the learning objectives.
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The research reported here is funded by awards to the National Center on Improving Literacy from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, in partnership with the Office of Special Education Programs (Award #: S283D160003). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of OESE, OSEP, or the U.S. Department of Education. Copyright © 2024 National Center on Improving Literacy. https://www.improvingliteracy.org
