When older kids struggle to read and write, the issue can become fraught for the whole family.

Parents can lose their patience and blame the child or themselves and the child loses their confidence and begins shying away from reading at all. Grades fall and interest in school can flag.

Kids who struggle to read often try to hide it from teachers and parents, and develop unhelpful strategies, which only exacerbate the problems.

Ways to encourage effective reading in older children

• Ask your child what subjects they would like to read about.
• When reading with your child, limit reading time to 10 minutes of quality time – and make it fun.
• If reading together is traumatic in your house, do it in a café, or under a tree.
• Before reading aloud, orient your child to the text by talking about it beforehand. Look at unfamiliar words, for example.
• Encourage your child to predict what a word could be based on the meaning.
• Try ‘echo reading'. Depending on the text, read a sentence, paragraph or page aloud first, and then get your child to read it.
• Try ‘shared reading'. Take turns reading sentences or paragraphs. You read the first sentence and your child the next.
• Read aloud and encourage your child to mimic you by following along behind you. Trace your finger under the words in a fluent way to show where you are reading. Avoid reading word by word.

Read the full article on the School A to Z website.