Tips for Families: Help Your Child Learn to Read

Family Literacy Tips

Note: These tips are also available in other languages. To download social media graphics of the tips for sharing, click on the image next to each tip.

1. Speak to your child in your home language.

Children are able to learn many languages at once. Using your home language will not confuse them, even if they speak English!

2. Talk about the benefits of being bilingual with your child:

• a strong connection to family and culture
• more opportunities for education, careers, and travel
• lifelong benefits for the brain

3. Share stories, rhymes, games, and songs from your culture!

Children love stories! Share family stories as well as songs, games, and rhymes from your childhood.

4. Share special traditions and recipes from home.

Talk about important traditions from your culture and choose some special recipes to prepare together.

5. Talk with your children about their day.

Ask them to tell you about something they enjoyed, something they found difficult, or something they learned.

6. Encourage your child to write every day.

Ask your child to help you write your grocery list or a note to a relative. They can write a text message on your phone, an email on the computer, or a handwritten note on paper.

7. Listen to your child read out loud.

Ask your child to read to you from a book, your mobile phone, or the labels on your groceries.

8. Get free e-books from the library on your phone.

• sign up for a free library card to download e-books
• look for educational websites, videos and apps