When your child finishes a book, and on their progress page, you may see a short card headed "For the grown-up". It says what your child is learning at the moment and how you can help while you read together. The same tip can come in the weekly summary, if you get it. This article explains each part of the card.
Say the pure sound
Each letter sound is said on its own, as short and clean as you can make it. The "s" in sun is a long hiss, sss. The "t" in tap is a quiet tap of the tongue, with no "uh" after it.
That "uh" matters more than it seems. A child who hears "tuh", "a", "puh" is given three sounds that do not run together into tap. Said cleanly, t, a, p blend into the word.
Sounds you can hold, like sss, mmm and fff, are stretched. Sounds you cannot hold, like p, t, k, b, d and g, are kept short and whispered.
The card has a line for the sound the book was written to practice, and a list of every sound in your child's phonics phase. Where we have a recording of a sound that two people have listened to, there is a button to hear it. Where we do not yet, the line describes how to make it.
We write the sounds the way they are said in American English, unless your child's stories are in British spelling. For a few sounds, such as the "ar" in car, the two accents differ, and the card follows your child's.
If your child is stuck
When you tap a word in the reader, the sounds of that word show under it. We call them the sound buttons.
If your child stops at a word, point at the sound buttons and say, "Sound it out, then blend." Say the sounds with them if they need it, then run the sounds together into the word. Letters that make one sound together, like "sh" or "ai", share one button.
You may have been told to ask a child to guess a word from the picture, from its first letter or from what would make sense. We never do. Each of those teaches a child to read by something other than the letters, and it stops working as soon as the books get harder.
Reread tomorrow
Read the same book again the next day. Words that were slow the first time come more quickly the second time, and that is how reading becomes smooth. Rereading a book your child knows is never going backwards.
Ask one question
After reading, ask one question about the story, such as "What happened when...?" Then use one new word from the book together that day. One question is enough. The aim is a conversation.
When your child reads a book to you
If your child is 5 or older, the end of a book they have practiced may show Read it to a grown-up. A book they have practiced is one they have read aloud to Pip or finished more than once. Reading it again to somebody who is listening is the step after practice: the same words, now for an audience.
- Your child hands you the device. The screen is for you: it says what is about to happen.
- Your child presses "Start reading" and reads the book aloud to you. The app only turns the pages. Nothing is recorded, nothing is heard by the app, and no word is marked right or wrong. Help only if they ask.
- At the end, press I heard it. You get one question to ask about the book, the page it is about, and one sentence you could add after whatever your child says.
Accept any answer, add your sentence, and ask again. That is the whole of it.
When you press "I heard it", we note the book and the day, and nothing else: not the question and not the answer. It shows on your child's progress page as a book "read to a grown-up", it is in your account's data export, and it is deleted after three months or when the reader is removed.
Heart words
Some common words do not sound out all the way, like "said" or "the". We call them heart words. Most of the word still sounds out. Read them together and point to the part that has to be learned by heart. The card lists the heart words for your child's phase.
For children aged 2 to 5
Children who are not reading yet get a different card, about reading aloud to them. It suggests five kinds of question to ask while you read:
- Finish the line. Stop before the last word of a line you have read before and let your child say it.
- Remember. After the book, ask what happened.
- Tell me more. Point to a page you both like and say, "Tell me about this part."
- Who, what, where. Ask about the page you are on.
- You and the book. Link the story to something in your child's own life.
It also suggests a game with sounds in it, such as "I spy something that starts with mmm". Use the sound. Letter names can wait.
Hiding the tips
The tips are on for every reader. To hide them for one reader:
- On their progress page, choose "Hide these tips" on the card.
- Or go to Readers, then your child, then Settings, and in "Reading" switch off "Reading tips for grown-ups", then press "Save".
To see them again, switch "Reading tips for grown-ups" back on in the same place.
What the tips are not
The tips say what to do tonight. They never give a reading age or a grade, and they never compare your child with anybody else. They are written by us and read by people before they are shown, and nothing your child does changes what they say, apart from which phase and which sound the card is about.
Reading level and phonics explains how phonics phases work, and Talking about a book before and after reading covers the picture walk and the retell.