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A Back to School Must Have!

When you help your child with their home readers or listen to them read, do you find that they, or you, become anxious and frustrated? Rather than being a pleasant experience, is it a tense time and you just wish it was all over? If you’ve answered ‘yes’, you’re not alone and if you’ve answered ‘no’, then we want what you’ve got!

For many parents and others who assist children as they learn to read, it’s a difficult time, especially if your child struggles with reading. Unless you have learnt how to teach children to read, it’s unlikely you’ll know how to do it. You may have a vague memory of how you learnt or what your parents and teachers said to you. Despite your best efforts, though, some of what you do as you support your child has the potential to turn them off reading.

When it comes to reading, Australian children are being left behind. International and national testing shows that Australia has the second largest proportion of children below the international intermediate benchmark among English speaking countries. Results from PISA show that reading standards have fallen dramatically this century. While NAPLAN results reveal some improvement in the percentage of children at National Minimum Standard (NMS) since NAPLAN was first introduced in 2008, children only have to get approximately 25% of the reading questions correct to be considered at NMS. Your child’s NAPLAN results may give you the impression that everything is fine when it may not be.

It’s important you say and do what will foster reading development, rather than discourage it. So, what are the best ways to encourage and support your child? Helping children become better readers … a guide for parents, caregivers, teachers and aides gives practical, and easily implemented approaches to support the developing reader. It identifies the reading behaviours of successful and less successful readers so you can see if your child is likely to make progress or not. The majority of the book is organised in the following way:

If your child … This identifies the reading behaviour

Then: This provides a possible reason or reasons for the behaviour.

So, you can: These are suggested ways to respond to the behaviour. Choose from several suggestions.

This is because: These are the reasons for the suggested ways to respond.

In a nutshell: This is a summary of the main points.

If you follow the ideas in the book, home reading will be enjoyable for you and your child your child will gain confidence, develop a love of reading and be more likely to seek a book for entertainment than a screen. Nobody persists with something they find too difficult, so it’s critical parents set their children up for success. We know that a small gap between your child’s reading level and that of others quickly becomes a large one that is almost impossible to close. Without strong reading skills, schooling is difficult for your child.

This book is available in all good bookstores and online at www.boolarongpress.com.au

This competition is shared and powered by mom.Connect

Please note this competition is open from 3rd February 2022 until 3rd March 2022 and is only available to members of Mouths Of Mums. This competition is a game of skill – answer in 50 words or less. We are unable to accept entries posted via facebook. Facebook LIKE functionality is not a requirement of entry to this competition. The winners of this competition will be published on this page. Winners’ name and address will be provided to the promoter of this competition and prizes will be sent to the address you have in Your Profile. Please ensure your details are up to date so that you receive your prize.

Winners for this competition

  1. R. WoodNSW
  2. I. HarveyNSW
  3. J. ByrneQLD
  4. P. ChandraNSW
  5. N. CartwrightVIC
  6. C. ScarfoSA
  7. H. KilpatrickNSW
  8. J. SpagnoloNSW
  9. A. O'DwyerNSW
  10. R. MashfordNT
  • I have always led by example, reading at bed times and being an avid reader myself. As the kids have improved in their reading we focused on comprehension ensuring they understood what they were reading. They all love books now.


  • My child is currently 2 so I’d love to know the best ways to get her I to reading and assure that she continues to read. I’d live for her to enjoy reading rather then becoming another screen nerd.


  • I sit with the grandchildren and we put an emphasis on reading time, they come and raid the bookshelf and love the sit down time. My daughter reads daily with them and also tries to keep them engaged.


  • I would sit with my boys and read to them every night. Sometimes if they were looking over my shoulder I’d point my finger to each word as I said it so they could follow what I was actually reading.


  • By association to words and pictures


  • This a Magic Book full of Knowledge and Power not only for the children but for Parents and Teachers alike.


  • We help by reading bedtime stories every night and pointing along to the words as we go


  • we have words written on paper and placed around the house to help him to read, spending time each day with a word list of his favorite words. He likes to use the words to make a story


  • I read to my son every night before bed this is his routine and this has helped Him to become confident and an involved learner


  • i have always helped my kids with their sounding out and sight words and am watching them become more confident. I’d love some tools, like this amazing book, to help my son achieve greatness in reading and to be able to pick up a novel and want to read it with confidence. He has always struggled with certain words and id love to see him shine and do it with ease.


  • My son had dyslexia and has struggled from reception until a beautiful teacher picked up on it in year 2 and he was finally diagnosed. He is receiving help from the school but is not enough, he is still 18 months behind his peers


  • We currently help our eldest read by reading to him regularly and helping him use pictures to help decode texts etc. He’s desperate to learn to read, this would be very helpful


  • We love our special reading time. I read the book to her and have her follow the words along then give her a chance once to read it back to me herself. We keep it light, fun and exciting.


  • We do a reader book every night from school, and then we read a book together. We have always read together as a family!


  • I am currently studying to become a teachers aide as well as have children that struggle with reading due to behaviour issues. This would be such a great help to learn techniques to minimise tantrums before reading time as well as how I can assist future students and my own children.


  • I have always encouraged my children to read whether it be a comic, a weekly magazine or a novel or Little Golden Books. I also used to help my grandchildren read and now I have a great grandchild I will be reading to her and encouraging her to read too


  • Fostering a love of reading from the earliest age is so important. Such a precious time enjoying a bedtime story. Children need to see adults in their lives who live and value reading. The ability to enjoy books is a precious and lifelong gift.


  • I help my children to learn to read by reading books every night and sound out words so my children get use to the words


  • I do my own reading next tp my daughter to encoyrage her to read more often


  • We try to read alot loud all the time, sounding our our letter


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