Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. — Richard Steele

There are four language skills your child needs to learn to communicate in English. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Two of them—listening and reading—are receptive skills, which means your child is taking in information from outside of him- or herself. The other two—speaking and writing—are expressive skills, which means he or she is giving the message.

The receptive language skills require your child to understand the words and gestures of your language. They are passive skills because your child does not have to produce language to do them.

Here are 5 ways to know if your child is not developing typical receptive language skills: Does he/she–

1. Ask you to repeat what you say often?
2. Give answers to your questions that are off-target?
3. Have trouble understanding and learning new vocabulary?
4. Tune out when people are speaking?
5. Have trouble following directions?

Before your child can use language to express himself/herself, he/she needs to understand spoken language.

With expressive language, your child must be able to use words to convey his/her thoughts. These are active skills because your child must produce words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.

Children learn the sounds of their language by listening to those around them. They learn to speak by copying the people around them.

With reading and writing, someone needs to teach your child. It takes a lot of time to learn how to do them well.

The way your child is taught will determine whether he/she will consider reading interesting or not.

Here are 5 ways to make reading come alive for your dyslexic children:

1. Let them see you reading for pleasure
   • In parenting, more things are caught than taught
2. Pick age-appropriate books to read aloud to them
   • Choose books about things they are interested in and excited about
3. Act out the story
   • Make connections between the story and life
4. Create a reading nook
   • Add pillows, blankets, and anything else to make the space conducive to relaxation
5. Have a scheduled reading time every day
   • During this time, talk about what is happening in the story, ask what their favorite part is, and what they think will happen next.
   • Use reading strategies that use their natural strengths and abilities

Remember, you oversee your child, therefore; you have the full responsibility for their education… not some school system.

While I cannot guarantee you absolute success should you follow my suggestions, if you take action, you will see improvement.

No matter what some school system may call your children because of their difficulty, if you help them make the most of their natural gifts and abilities, they will rediscover the joy of learning. This will make reading come alive for them.

Which language skill does your child have difficulty with?