kristakmj

my son who is 6 confuses his b and d as well my daughter who is 7 did until this year . i would say encourage phonics and get books that she is interested in. when i was helping my kids learn how to read i would encourage them to sound words out and if it was a silent E let them know in advance if it was a long E let them know that as well . but if they didnt know a word i would always at least have them try to sound it out and then before they got frustrated just tell them the word and move on .

einzweibel

Getting them into the door is the real trick. Kids these days are so visual that if it's not animated it may not catch their attention. A trick I learned was to ask them to tell me about what they'd just read. They'd then look at it more carefully and improve their comprehension. It's kind of a selective situation, but when it works, it works.

Shari Nielsen

I'm a high school science teacher and am amazed at how difficult it is for some kids to sit down and pull content from a book or article. The kids openly admit that they will read a section and then have no idea what they read - they knew the topic, but couldn't give you any details. Most want to complete the HW and think that as long as they read every word they have done their homework...even if they didn't get anything out of it.

For my lower level kids - the ones who really struggle w/ reading, I create these simple RST (guided reading sheets). The RST stands for Read a little bit, Stop before going any further and Think about what you just read. Some times I will ask them specific questions that they have to answer, sometimes I will give them a partially completed outline that they have to fill in, and other times, I have them jot down notes about what they read - sometimes after every few sentences!

Kids need to learn to slow down and let their brains digest what they read, not just try to hurry through a bunch of words.