Goofing On Purpose

 

            As your child is beginning to decode words on the page, and reading aloud independently in the early stages, the process is exciting enough as it is. Give your child a lot of encouragement and don't be too picky about mistakes in pronunciation. Remember the 80/20 rule: give 80% praise and 20% correction, and you'll keep the tone light and the learning fun.

 

            But as reading mastery begins to set in, in first or second grade and beyond, and your child is making fewer and fewer decoding errors, you need to find ways to help your child strive for the utmost accuracy in reading. That's the best route to excellence in comprehension.

 

            Here's a fun but simple way to help your child become a critical, analytical reader who is a careful listener, can spot errors, and loves to get things right:

 

            Goof, on purpose.

           

            Snuggle up with your child so that you both can see the book. Now you read aloud, at a moderate pace. After a few paragraphs, deliberately insert a word in a key place that shouldn't be there. Make it extremely obvious. Accentuate the mistake verbally for humorous exaggeration.

 

            You know: instead of reading, "Sally sat on the cushion," say, "Sally sat on the cucumber."

 

            At first, your child might be shocked. But then, he or she will catch on to the game. It's good for children to see that adults can make mistakes and laugh about it. It's relaxing and encouraging, instead of making them feel like they're "working" or under a microscope when they're reading with you.

 

            Substitute the child's own name for a given name in a story, greatly exaggerate a number, or Children usually start shouting out the correct word, and then laughing like crazy at their parent's goofy mistake.

 

            Read on for a few more paragraphs, and then goof again. Instead of "They all went for a ride in the car," say, "They all went for a ride in the magic pumpkin."

 

            Your child will laugh again, insert the proper word, and by then, may want to follow the text with his or her finger in order to "catch" your next error just as you say it.

           

            It may sound crazy . . . but ending up with a child who's a good reader makes you crazy like a fox. 

 

            By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • Read to Me 017 • © 2006