Literacy Resources for Families

See below for different ways to support your child's literacy development.

How can I help my child play with sounds?

  1. Read about why playing with and perceiving sounds in words is important to reading in this Reading Rockets article.  
  2. Amplify (click on phonological awareness) offers ideas for at-home activities for younger students to develop foundational skills. 
  3. Improving Literacy (click play with sounds) offers parent tips, resources and a video on phonological awareness.  
  4. This video, provided by the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, will help you learn how to blend words by doing quick activities around the house. 

How can I help my child learn their letter names and sounds?

  1.  Improving Literacy offers parent tips, resources and a video on phonics and letters. 
  2. The Meadows Center has a great video with materials to play games that will help your child to learn letter sounds.  
  3. The Institute of Education Sciences has great resource videos with materials to practice letters and sounds. 
  4. Reading Rockets offers activities via Letters and Sounds: Practical Ideas for Parents .

How can I help my child read and spell words?

  1. Amplify (click on phonics) offers ideas for at-home activities for younger students to develop foundational skills. 
  2. The Institute of Education Sciences has great resource videos with materials to improve spelling and reading skills. 
  3. The National Center on Improving Literacy has a toolkit for parents that includes videos, infographics, and activities for parents.  

How can I help my child learn new vocabulary?

  1.  The Meadows Center has a video on building vocabulary and comprehension through read alouds.  
  2.  The IES Regional Educational Laboratory Program has parent videos to show how you can build vocabulary during every day activities.  
  3.  Learn an easy strategy to teach your child new vocabulary while reading aloud. 
  4. This video, offered through the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, helps families identify which vocabulary words to preteach to their child before reading. 
  5. Reading Rockets offers a list of vocabulary-building activities for Pre-K students through 2nd grade with videos included at each grade level.
  6. The Iowa Reading Research Center provides 9 tips for building a young reader's vocabulary.
  7. Michigan State University- Extension's article discusses skills and strategies to teach young children vocabulary. 
  8. Reading Rockets offers 4 easy steps for teaching new words at home.

How can I help my child with reading comprehension?

  1.  Amplify (click on comprehension) offers ideas for at-home activities for younger students to develop foundational skills. 
  2. The IES Regional Education Laboratory Program has parent videos to demonstrate how to support your child in reading for understanding. 
  3. The Meadows Center has a video with two simple ways to help your child understand what they are reading.  

How can I support my child's writing?

  1. Read Helping young children develop strong writing skills from Colorin’ Colorado for day to day activities to support your child as a writer. 
  2. Learn how to support young children as they are just learning how to write in this Reading Rockets article on supporting early writing skills.  
  3. The PBS Kids for Parents—Helping your child Become a Writer Age 5 Age 6 Age 7 Age 8 pages include 8 ways to help your child build writing skills.  

How can I help my child read with an appropriate pace and expression?

  1. Learn about reading fluency and how to support your child at the National Center on Improving Literacy.  
  2. Read about Five Easy Ways Parents Can Increase Their Child’s Reading Fluency 
  3. Explore what fluency problems look like and how parents can help at the Reading Rockets Fluency page.

All of the information above comes from the Virginia Literacy Partnerships website.

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