SMMARTideas

SMMART READING: COMPUTER SKILLS

Give your child the opportunity to regularly work on the computer, under your supervision. He can develop important skills at a young age. Open a typing program, enlarge the font, and even choose a fun font color.

Show your child how to use a keyboard and mouse. Teach your child to lightly tap each key to produce one letter at a time. Show your child how to use the SHIFT key to make capital letters. Have your child type a capital and the lower case letter next to each other. Explain how to use the delete key and the space key. Talk about keys that are off limits.

Encourage your child to spell out his name on the computer.

Let your child type nonsense words and read the silly “word” to your child.

Dictate words to your child and then help him read the word that he typed.

Let your child use the mouse to highlight words and to place the cursor where he wants to type.

You can even let your child type a page full of letters. Ask your child to highlight a "C" or another letter. Have your child highlight a capital "C", and then a lower case "c".

All of these activities will sharpen your child’s computer skills and improve his reading skills as well.

Lisa