Activities for Improving Reading Speed and Stamina in Children

Stories

• Reading story books independently will help your child become a more fluent and faster reader. The PBS Parents website recommends that second- and third-graders read more fiction because nonfiction has a different, more difficult structure. Reading a story helps to capture your child's attention so he eagerly tries to read ahead to see what happened to the characters. Let your child read his favorite story book repeatedly. Turn story time around by having him read you the story.

Phonics

• The goal of phonics is to help children learn the relationship between letters and sounds. LD Online, a website for learning disabilities, notes that recognizing alphabet sounds quickly helps your child with his reading fluency and speed. Help your child read a story by pointing out unfamiliar words beforehand. Have your child sound out the word, one letter at a time. Then help him read the story so she can see the word in context. This helps your child memorize alphabet sounds and recognize how they are used in words.

Repetition

• Learning songs and poetry can also help your child with his reading skills. Recite a short three- to five-line poem with catchy rhymes, together with your child. Repeat it until he has memorized it. Then have your child read the poem to you, tracking each word with his finger. Reading Rockets also recommends having your child follow as you read a passage of poetry aloud to him. This helps to make the sounds and spellings of words more familiar to him, letting him read faster.

Decoding Words

• Help your child decode words with a game that lets him add different sounds to the end of a word. Start with easier, short words to boost his reading confidence. Write a word, such as "walk" on a flash card, add the endings "-ing," "-ed" and "s" on other flash cards. Then write a sentence that uses each version of the word and have your child fill in the blank. For example, you could write: "I was 'blank' to the park." Your child can read each new sentence aloud at the end of the activity.

Expression

• Reading quickly is not about speed-reading but how smoothly your child can carry sentence flow as he reads. Reading Rockets recommends helping your child build his reading stamina by teaching him to read with expression. Show him how to pause or stop at punctuation marks by reading aloud with him. Have your child choose one character in a story and read his lines with expression.