Literacy skills are inextricably linked to success in the modern world.
But boy’s literacy rates in schools are falling in comparison to the literacy rates of girls. The fact that girls’ literacy skills are climbing is FANTASTIC! What’s not fantastic is the fact that boys aren’t keeping up. Globally, boys are struggling with reading and writing, and a lack of literacy skills can dramatically affect a boy’s trajectory through school and life. Boys who have poor literacy skills often come to hate school — and themselves. Too often, they believe that they are “dumb,” “stupid,” or “incapable” of success, when in reality, they may have unrecognized learning disabilities or may simply be floundering in a school system that routinely expects boys to read and write before they are developmentally ready to do so.
Not all competence starts in the home, but it can well and truly help. Improving your son’s literacy skills, step by step, means taking some time to figure out what resources they respond to best, where to start working at their level, and from there, how to encourage and foster their development and confidence in this field. Literacy, perhaps even more than numeracy, is a lifelong skill, one that we need to use every single day. Here’s how you can build your son’s literacy skills:
Make Reading A Habit
Reading to your child, and helping them read, should become a daily habit. Some children learn literacy skills by being read Harry Potter before bed each night, while some relax by having a morning read-along session with you. Exposing them to flow, tone, intonation and helping them to see the sentence structure of spoken word and writing can work wonders in their pattern recognition, which is the basis of good literacy.
Word Games Can Help
Word games remain a valuable resource in helping children gain competent literacy skills. Games like wordfeud, and the wordfeud cheat resource, can make a putting together words and sentences fun! Child-friendly crosswords can help your son curate their spelling ability, as can online games designed to support learning and slow developmental competence. Interactive games take some of the pain out of literacy skill acquisition.
Promote Writing
It can be healthy to promote a regular writing habit. For instance, each evening, sitting down with our child for five minutes and writing down the good parts and areas of improvement for each day can be healthy. It can also help them begin to put their thoughts down in writing, which is quite a sophisticated means of communication. This is because while thoughts and feelings can float around our minds, writing them down makes them material and gives them structure. Writing at home also helps your son view writing as a life skill, rather than an annoying school requirement.
These 3 tips can help you improve your son’s literacy skills step by step. Celebrate the small victories, and you’ll see just how far you’ve come.
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