Parents can help their children learn to read. The effectiveness of parents' help, however, varies according to the type of parent-child activities. Educators, when deciding which type of intervention to implement, will have to weigh the differences in effectiveness across the different types of intervention against the amount of resources needed to implement the interventions. The information in this book comes from many research studies that examined early literacy development. This book contains a summary of what scientific research says about how children learn to read and write, and also discusses the things you can do with your child at different grade levels to help him become a reader. What to look for in quality day-care centres and pre-schools to help your children become readers is examined as well.

The Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome (RLI) teaches language and literacy skills following evidence-based principles adapted to meet the children’s specific learning needs. It is designed for pupils with Down syndrome aged 5 to 11 years. The intervention is suitable for beginning readers through to those with reading ages up to 8 years and for students with a wide range of language abilities. Teaching is adapted to meet individual needs through initial assessments of skills and regular monitoring of progress. Together with two accompanying DVDs illustrating teaching techniques and a CD of resources, the handbook offers teachers and teaching assistants the detailed guidance, assessment tools and example teaching materials needed to implement the intervention.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

By following families over three years the authors have convincingly shown the power of a family literacy program to change lives. At the broadest level their conclusions will come as little surprise to anyone in the literacy field--the children with the greatest need benefited the most, and parents with at least high school education could help their children the most. The real richness of this volume, however lies in the depth of detail. The parents involved in the program told the researchers they were generally paying more attention to printed material, reading more often and wanted to learn how to improve their literacy. They became more sophisticated in gauging their children's literacy skills and more sure of their own abilities to help those children.