A beginning reader is juggling many new strategies. They are trying to understand what’s happening in the story and they are trying to remember the sounds of letters and then combining these sounds to make words. These new activities are not automatic, so they have a heavier cognitive load. Here are a few things that an adult can do that can lower the cognitive load of a book:

• Book Walk: Go through book with child and talk about what’s happening in the pictures. Try to give your child the gist of the story or topic. Video Example

• Vocabulary: Pre-read the book before the child does. Write tricky vocabulary words on a card. Before reading the book, read the word to your child and talking the word’s meaning.

• Phases: Before the child reads, have child say a refrain or complicated phrase in a book.

• Book Level: A child’s book must be at the child’s reading level. If a child is the reader, then the book should match the child’s reading level. If a book is too hard, a reader will get frustrated. If a book is too easy, a readers might get board. A simple way to determine if a book level matches a reader is the five finger rule: A book is too difficult if a child makes five or more mistakes on any given page of the book. There are books specifically written for different levels. More information about leveled books can be found here.

• Support your child’s love of reading