n Have your child read aloud to you every night.

■ Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do nightly reading assignments.

■ As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.

■ When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out the words she has missed and help her to read the word correctly.

■ Ask your child why she thinks a character acted in a certain way and ask your child to support her answer with information from the story.

■ Ask your child to tell you in her own words what happened in a story.

■ After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.

■ To check your child's understanding of what he is reading, occasionally pause and ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.

■ Before getting to the end of a story, ask your child what he thinks will happen next and why.

Information modified from US Department of Education publication.