How to help boys read and write

7 top read-write strategies

Boys can often take longer to show an interest in formal learning and  because they’re inclined to be more active they can be easily distracted when it’s time to sit quietly and focus on letters and words. The solution is to make learning fun, and to time reading and writing sessions for when he’s most likely to sit still for 10 minutes or so. How do you do it?

Helping active kids settle into learning

So just how do you motivate your lively boy to sit down for a few minutes and concentrate? Follow these tips…

• Set up a special learning spot Decorate it with an alphabet frieze and have plenty of paper and crayons so he can sit and make letters. Make templates for him: form the letters with a series of dots that he can write over or join up. A drywipe board is useful for this and you can get these with dotted-line letters for your child to follow. Letter stencils are also useful.
• Write any time anywhere! Use letter magnets to form short words on the refrigerator – spongy bath letters he can use to ‘write’ on the tiles are also good fun.
• Play letter and word games such as I Spy, Hangman, Scrabble Junior and Silly Rhymes.
• Embrace his interests Don’t throw out old comics, birthday cards or kids’ magazines – let him cut out pictures he likes and paste them in his own word book. And when it comes to choosing books, don’t force him in the direction of what you consider to be suitable reading material – let him choose his own, whether it’s Barney or Spongebob.
• Label things Use post-it notes to label things around the house or even play a treasure hunt with simple word clues such as up, the, on, under, by, to lead him to the prize.
• Work on his penmanship Exercises that involve hand-eye coordination are excellent for improving writing skills. Plastic tweezers, threading beads, cutting, playdough, paperclip chains, Lego, pegboards and Perler beads all help strengthen finger muscles and improve coordination.
• Try technology Electronic educational toys, such as those produced by Vtech (we like the Write & Learn Letter Pad) and LeapPad, might be just the thing to turn your child onto reading and writing. Make sure that phonics (letter sounds) is taught rather than just alphabet names. There are also plenty of good phonics games online – try Sesame Street and PBS Kids.

 

Was this article helpful?