Having a child that is a strong reader is a black mother's imperative. Studies show that school-aged African American children consistently perform below their white peers in reading, math and science. We can close the achievement gap! There is nothing more important to future academic achievement than being a solid reader. If your child isn’t there yet, don’t fret. With time, attention and a few good tips, you can help your child become a stronger reader.  Here are some great tips:

1. Model good behavior. The simplest thing a parent can do to boost their child’s reading skills is to model a love for reading for your children. Seeing you read will inspire your children to read. Set up a daily 15 to 30 minute time when everyone in the family reads together silently. Just 15 minutes of daily practice is sufficient to increase their reading fluency.
2. Read for fun.  “Reading for the sheer enjoyment of the story and knowing they [students] can just read as a pastime and no one is going to ask them to do anything extra, is imperative to fostering a desire to read in students,” said  Ginny Dowd, creator of The Phonics Dance, and a 23 year veteran teacher in Ohio.  This also builds an internal motivation where your child will want to read on their own, Dowd says.
3. Make it fun. Play games with your children in the car and during downtime.  Word games can range from anything such as asking a child what a synonym, antonym or a rhyming word is to another word.
4. Read together. Parents should do shared reading with their children. In shared reading, a child and another reader take turns reading to each other.  While reading, ask text-related questions, like “What do you think will happen next?” Another strategy to boost reading skills in children age six to eight years old, is to have them re-read stories; re-reading stories boosts fluency and confidence.
5. Develop the library habit. Entice your children to read more by taking them to the library every few weeks to get new stuff. The library also offers reading programs for children of all ages that may appeal to your children and further increase their interest in reading.
6. Find books that are just right for their child. Just right books are books just what they say—they’re not too hard and they’re not too easy. Ask the classroom teacher or a local librarian to find books that are on the child’s level and interesting to the child.