Reading Exercises and Activities: A Parent Guide

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

This page sums up the practice on our reading activity pages. It gives a few ideas from each one. This page is not a complete list.

The home routines on this page are ours.

Where do we start?

Reading is several jobs at once. In our view, one weak skill is rarely the whole story.

Some of the jobs are about the code. That means getting the words off the page. Teachers build the code in an order.

The order below is our working model, not a measured finding. Children still work on several steps at the same time. It is not a set of gates your child must pass.

1. Hearing the sounds in spoken words. This is done by ear, with no letters.
2. Matching sounds to letters. Teachers start with the common, reliable ones.
3. Blending. Running the sounds together into a word.
4. Reading words in text your child can sound out. That way the new skill gets used.
5. Correct before fast. The right words come first. Speed is worked on after that.
6. Ease. Reading without the words being hard work.

Other jobs run alongside the code. Knowing what words mean is one. Knowing about the subject is another. So are understanding the page and spoken language. A child still learning the code can work on these too.

Start where the difficulty is, not where the worry is. If a child cannot read words in a book, first check the earlier steps. The question is whether they were taught, not only whether the book is too hard.

Our page on the reading skills map has more on the jobs.

How do I help my child hear the sounds in words?

Phonemic awareness is hearing and working with the separate sounds inside a spoken word. It is done by ear, with no book and no letters.

Hearing the separate sounds inside words can be taught. The National Reading Panel found that planned teaching of these spoken sounds improves reading and spelling.

• Clap the beats. Clap the beats in a word, like but-ter-fly.
• Drop a sound. Say a word without its first sound. Stop without the /s/ is top.
• Blend. You say the sounds one at a time: /sh/ /o/ /p/. Your child says the word.

Say the sound, not the letter name: /m/, not "em."

Our page on phonemic awareness activities has a five-minute routine. That routine is our own practice. That page has more.

How do I help with sounds and letters?

Phonics is which letters make which sounds, and in what combinations.

• Sound cards. Write one letter, or a letter team like sh, on a card. Your child says its sound.
• Build a word. Build cat with letter tiles. Swap the c for h to make hat. Change only one sound at a time.
• Write it from its sounds. Say a short word. Your child says its sounds, then writes the letters for each one.

The home routines in this section are ours. We hold no home study that names these routines. The National Reading Panel reviewed studies of phonics teaching itself.

When your child misreads a word, point back to the sounds. Do not just say the word. Teachers correct this way. We hold no study of this correction on its own.

Our page on phonics activities has more.

How do I help my child read more smoothly?

Reading fluency means reading correctly, at a good speed, without the words being hard work.

Teachers put accuracy before speed. Their reason is that chasing speed first rewards guessing.

• Echo reading. You read a sentence aloud while pointing to the words. Your child reads the same sentence back.
• Reading together. You and your child read the same words aloud at the same time. Teachers call this choral reading.
• Taking turns. You read a page. Then your child reads the next one. Teachers call this paired reading.

We hold no home study that names echo, choral or paired reading. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that they do not work.

One review pooled small, older trials of parent programs at home (Nye, Turner and Schwartz, 2006). The children were in elementary school. In Nye's review, those programs raised children's reading overall. The most common kind had a parent reading together with the child. The result for that kind was not statistically significant. The summary we hold does not describe what the reading together involved. We cannot tell whether it matches the reading together on this page.

We set no speed target for reading practice at home. In our view, watch the reading, not the clock.

Our page on reading fluency activities has more.

What is multisensory reading practice?

Multisensory reading practice uses sight, sound and movement together, on the same letters and words.

• A tray of sand or salt. Your child forms one letter with a finger and says its sound. Then they write the same letter on paper and read it.
• Letter tiles. Your child says each sound as they place its letter. Then they read the word, and write it on paper.
• Tap the sounds. Write a short word on paper, like ship. Your child taps a finger for each sound, then reads the word.

Each round ends with the letter or word read or written on paper. Keep any movement practice alongside reading instruction, not in place of it. Reading improves with reading instruction.

Orton-Gillingham is a family of reading programs that teach in a multisensory way. Another review looked at studies of these programs (Stevens and colleagues, 2021). Its results for reading were positive but not statistically significant. Its authors said the studies were few and weak. To us, that makes these programs promising but unproven, not debunked. Our position is to ask the school for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name.

The activities in this section are ours. We hold no home study that names these activities. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that they do not work. The research we hold does not show that sand or texture itself helps.

Our page on multisensory reading activities has more.

How do I help my child understand what they read?

Reading comprehension means understanding what you read. It depends on more than reading the words.

Reading every word aloud and understanding the page are different jobs. Each needs its own teaching.

Keep talk and audiobooks alongside reading instruction, not in place of it. Reading improves with reading instruction.

• Read aloud and talk about it. In our view, reading aloud to your child still matters while they learn to read. What they understand by ear is where their own reading is heading. In our view, read aloud for the story and the words, not as reading practice.
• Stop and ask one question. At the end of a page, ask who, what happened, or why. In our view, one question is a chat.
• Retell it. At the end of a story, ask what happened. Your child tells it in their own words.

Another review looked at parents trained to help with reading at home (Sénéchal and Young, 2008, as reported in Higgins and Katsipataki, 2015). Some parents were taught specific reading activities to use. Their children gained more in reading than children whose parents only read aloud. The summary we hold does not name the activities. We cannot say they match the activities on this page. In Sénéchal and Young's review, gains were smaller, but still real, for children with difficulties. In three of Sénéchal and Young's studies, parents read books to their children. That did not give significant reading gains.

The activities in this section are ours. Apart from reading aloud, we hold no home study that names them. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that the others do not work.

Our page on reading comprehension activities has more, including new words and audiobooks.

What about words that do not follow the patterns?

Phonics is necessary. In our view, it was never the whole answer.

Some words do not follow the patterns your child knows. In our view, those are taught as whole words, alongside phonics.

Said is one of those words. Sounding it out gives the wrong word.

How much, and how often?

Our position is that short, frequent sessions do more here than long, rare ones. In our view, stop while it is still going well.

We cannot say how long progress takes for your child. In our view, watch the practice, not the calendar.

How hard should the reading be?

In our view, most of the words should be ones your child can read. A few should take some work.

Suppose your child stops on almost every word. In our view, check the sounding out first. Then pick an easier book for this practice. Keep the hard book for reading aloud to them.

What about practice that is not reading?

Suppose a program promises better reading from an activity that is not reading. Check that claim.

In our experience, a child who works hard at each word can lose their place. From across the table, that can look like an eye problem.

In our reading of the eye-movement research, hard sounding out largely causes the jumpy eye movements, not the reverse. Tracking a line can be practiced, and practice improves it. Keep any tracking practice alongside reading instruction, not in place of it. Reading improves with reading instruction. Have the eyes checked because eyes should be checked. Do not buy a course of eye exercises as a way to fix reading.

Where do reading programs fit?

A reading curriculum is the full teaching: the order, the scope and the lessons. A short practice works on one part of the job, often and briefly. In our view, the two are not alternatives. A short practice does not replace the teaching.

Ask the school for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name. That means teaching letters and their sounds in a planned order. The sounds are not left to be picked up from reading. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction significantly improves reading achievement.

Our page on reading programs and methods has more. It gives questions to check any program with.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.