Games for improving reading skills can be valuable tools to help your children refine their reading comprehension.
Instead of taking a traditional approach to teaching, you can engage learners more interactively.
With the help of programs like Children Learning Reading, helping children gain fundamental skills is significantly more straightforward.
What Reading Skills Are Important?
When you find reading fluency games, you’ll want to ensure they cover all aspects of reading.
Otherwise, your children could be missing out on vital knowledge to assist them with developing their capabilities.
Several of the most important skills your chosen games should focus on include:
Decoding
Decoding is something children use when they first begin learning how to read.
As they approach new words, they will try to sound them out rather than writing them down.
You’ll find this skill is an essential part of phonemic awareness, and it allows children to play with words and syllables.
Games that focus on decoding will help learners connect sounds to letters.
As they progress through different text types, they can use these connections to sound out new words.
Fluency
Another essential part of learning how to read is the ability to recognize words instantly.
Also known as fluency, this process helps readers figure out words that they can’t sound out.
The higher the reader’s fluency, the faster they can consume and understand the text.
This skill is also essential for helping children identify irregular words.
By improving fluency, children can group words together, identify proper tone when reading, and more.
Over time, they will recognize specific words, transitioning them from irregular to “sight words“.
Vocabulary
When we have discussions, we used words from our vocabulary, a collection of words we’ve been exposed to.
When children are exposed to new phrases and terms, they begin building their own collections.
The best way to improve vocabulary is to read and discuss unfamiliar words to learn their meaning.
Children are bound to pick up new terminology when reading aloud, especially with a parent’s help.
When they encounter an unfamiliar term, parents can explain the meaning of the word.
You can then reinforce learning by having your child use the newly learned term in conversation.
Using this process, you’ll notice a significant improvement in your child’s reading and verbal communication.
Comprehension
Identifying specific words and phrases in the text to make it easier to read is the foundation of reading.
However, comprehension is another significant part of the process.
It’s important that readers not only recognize the words they encounter but also understand what they’re reading.
Comprehension is developed over time and is imperative for increasing your child’s reading level.
It’s imperative when they’re in school, as understanding passages can help with learning challenging topics.
Memory and Attention
Attention and memory are two components of executive function, essential for your child’s development.
As they read through the content, children will acquire information from the text.
Their memory then holds onto the learned knowledge so that they can use it in the future.
A great example of this process is to think about how students study for tests.
When they read through their studying materials, they memorize key knowledge, which then helps them pass an exam.
For children, the more often they read, the easier it will be for them to remember key elements of the text.
It’s also important to note that reading can assist with increasing your child’s attention.
This point is particularly true if they encounter reading materials that capture their interest.
When they’re engaged in the media, they will be motivated to complete the book or passage, benefiting their attention span.
What Activities Are Useful for Developing Reading Skills?
With a clear idea of the fundamental skills reading activities should cover, let’s explore some fantastic game ideas.
Whether you’re teaching your child how to read or preparing activities for your class, there are many options.
Some of our favorites include:
Rhyming Word Game
Rhyming is one of the many activities children love participating in when it comes to learning how to read.
Instead of reading a generic nursery rhyme, you can turn it into a fun and exciting game.
With the rhyming word game, you won’t need any tools other than your memory.
First, you’ll want to assign a turn to each person in the activity to determine who goes first and second.
The first person will say a word aloud, and the second person will need to say a word that rhymes with the first.
For example, if person one says “car,” person two could say “far“.
You’ll continue to go back and forth, repeating rhyming words until one person hesitates before answering.
What we love the most about this game is that it applies to several reading-related skills.
You could quickly turn the task into a word association game instead, depending on your child’s skill level.
The first person says one word with word association, and the second person says a term related to the first word.
For example, if person one were to say “car“, person two could then say “speed“.
Each party will have a turn to say another word that is associated with the first.
Small Words in Large Words Game
If you’re looking for a reading activity that’s more on the creative side, this is an excellent option for you.
All you’ll need are pieces of paper and pencils so all parties can draft their responses before answering.
With this task, you’ll want to pick a long word with several letters.
Each participant will then be instructed to make smaller words out of the larger word’s letters.
For example, with the term “encyclopedia“, you could write down words like “cycle“, “dice“, and “ace“.
This game is not only ideal for keeping your kids entertained but can also assist greatly with building their vocabulary.
If you want to support your child as they learn new words, you can turn it into a group game rather than independent study.
Together, create a list of words out of a single word to see all of the fantastic ways you can transform words.
Proofreading Game
Another critical part of reading is knowing when words are spelled correctly and incorrectly.
If you want a tool to help your child spot incorrect spelling, we recommend the proofreading game.
With this task, you’ll want to create a list of words spelled right and wrong.
You can then have your child go through the list to determine where there are misspellings.
To take this game a step further, have them correct the words to their proper spelling.
As your child enhances their skills, you can begin inputting misspelled words in longer paragraphs, making them harder to identify.
Memory Game
One of the most popular reading fluency games that parents do with children is the memory game.
There’s an assortment of variations to this task, making it a flexible format for every learner.
The game’s primary objective is to make pairs of cards by remembering placement and content.
You’ll want to gather a group of ten to twenty blank note cards, splitting them in half.
In one half, write a single word on each card, and on the other half, write the pronunciation of the corresponding words.
Arrange the cards face down on a table so the text is hidden from plain sight.
Have your child flip the cards over one-by-one, finding matching pairs and putting them together.
Not only does this task help improve memory, but phonemic awareness as well.
As they begin making matches, they’ll relate the spelling of words to how they sound when read aloud.
Is There an App to Improve Reading Skills?
As we transition to a more digital society, there are plenty of app games to improve reading skills.
It can be more time-efficient to download professionally designed teaching apps recommended to help new readers.
Some of our favorite apps include:
Children Learning Reading
Children Learning Reading is a valuable online resource specifically designed to help young readers.
It’s one of the few resources packed with the essential knowledge to help parents develop their child’s skills.
You’ll have access to a nine-part mini-series that contains plenty of helpful information for reading.
Parents will also have a 50 step-by-step lesson plan that is built into two key stages.
In the first stage, you’ll learn about building foundational reading knowledge while focusing on the “Basic Code“.
During the second stage, you’ll learn about advanced learning and working with the “Complex Code“.
It’s one of the most easy-to-use formats to help you guide your children and students towards reading success.
By the conclusion of the program, you’ll notice a significant improvement in reading comprehension and literacy.
Kids Reading Comprehension Level 1
As the first step to this platform, Kids Reading Comprehension Level 1 is ideal for kindergarten students to grade three.
In the app, readers will be presented with short passages that they’ll have to read through independently.
At the end of each passage, they’ll be faced with age-appropriate assessments based on the text.
Children can improve reading comprehension by answering questions about what they just read.
All of the passages in this platform are non-fiction and designed to be easy for readers to consume.
StoryBuilder
StoryBuilder is intuitively designed to help readers focus on three essential components of reading:
- Improving formatting for paragraphs
- Improving idea integration
- Improving inference
In the app, children will have access to three levels of play depending on their skills.
There’s also support for special needs readers, including audio clips for better auditory processing.
By providing a fun and engaging reading environment, students can create their own narratives.
They can use their voices to record responses to clips or photo questions in levels one and two.
In level three, students answer four questions about video clips or photos.
They can then play their recorded answers, telling a story based on the media they’re presented with.
It’s a fantastic tool for teaching sentence structure while also reinforcing reading comprehension.
Games for Improving Reading Skills: Final Thoughts
It’s easy for parents to develop games for improving reading skills that will be fun and engaging for learners.
Whether you’re looking for digital games to improve reading skills or at-home resources like Children Learning Reading, the options are endless.
By focusing on reading fundamentals, you can quickly improve foundational knowledge to better support your children.