Helping your child at home

Updated 29 October 2026

How to help your child with reading

Practical ways to build a stronger reader at home, from first books to confident Year 6 readers, based on UK Department for Education (DfE) and Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) guidance.

Why reading at home matters

The EEF, which reviews evidence for schools in England, finds that parental engagement adds around four months of progress over a year on average, and most of that evidence comes from home reading. Its guidance says that for young children, shared book reading should be at the centre of what parents do, and that tips which prompt longer and more frequent conversations during reading make it more effective.

Reading for enjoyment matters too. The DfE's reading framework points to England's 2021 PIRLS results: pupils who liked reading most scored on average 34 points more than those who did not. It also links regular reading for pleasure with better vocabulary and maths progress.

For younger children: reading aloud together

The DfE's reading framework includes advice for parents. It suggests children bring home two books: one they can read to you, chosen so they can work out all the words, and one for you to read to them and talk about together. Its tips for the read-aloud book:

• Make it a treat: a quiet time, sitting close so you can both see the book.
• Read the whole story the first time without stopping too much.
• Read with enjoyment. If you are not enjoying it, your child will not either.
• Reread favourite stories. On later readings, let your child talk about the pictures and join in.
• Chat about the story: 'I wonder why she did that?', and link it to your own family or to other books.
• Explain anything you think your child did not understand.
• Avoid quiz questions that test what your child remembers, and avoid telling them that reading is good for them.

For the book your child reads to you, the point is practice with words they can decode using the phonics they have been taught, so give them time to work words out.

For older children: fluency and understanding

In Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) the focus shifts from decoding words to reading fluently and understanding more complex texts. The EEF's guidance for Key Stage 2 recommends two ways to build fluency that work well at home:

• Model, then echo. You read a short passage aloud with expression. Your child then reads the same passage aloud, and you give gentle feedback.
• Repeated reading. Your child rereads a short, meaningful passage a few times until it sounds natural.

The EEF also corrects some common myths about fluency:

• Fluent is not fast. Faster reading does not lead to better reading. The goal is a pace that lets your child understand.
• Silent reading alone does not build fluency. Fluent reading aloud is what leads to fluent silent reading.
• Hearing you read is not enough on its own. Modelling helps, but your child needs to read the text themselves too.
• One reading is rarely enough for a hard text. Rereading improves both fluency and understanding.

To build understanding, talk about the book: new words and what they mean, why characters act as they do, and what your child thinks will happen. The EEF's guidance stresses talking about books and repeated exposure to new words.

A simple weekly routine

• Read aloud to your child most days, whatever their age, and talk about it.
• Two or three times a week, do a short rereading session with a passage from their own book.
• Keep a pile of books your child chose, and let them see you reading too.

The routine is a practical suggestion based on the guidance above, not a research-tested programme.

If English is not your child's first language, their CAT4 verbal score can sit below their other scores while their reasoning is just as strong. See CAT4 scores explained.