Parents, teachers, school volunteers, older brothers and sisters, friends, grandparents, and baby sitters - at some time most of the adult population will be asked to listen to a young child read. The value of that experience will depend largely on the adult listener.

Reading aloud gives the child a chance to share a story and to share his accomplishments in reading. It gives him a chance to be the center of attention in a very positive and meaningful way. It can and should be a pleasant experience for both the child and the listener.

The child who seldom has the opportunity to read aloud to an adult may be content to simply read the story straight through with no prior motivation and no purpose except to read the story. However, some children need motivation before they are willing to read aloud. Children who read aloud often will enjoy a change, a chance to do something different. For any child, the experience will be more meaningful and hence, more valuable, if he has a purpose as he reads.

The following suggestions are intended as ways to help motivate a child to read. In all cases, it is assumed that the child has had an opportunity to read the selection silently before he attempts to read orally. As you read these suggestions, you will probably think of other ways to add a little spice to the oral reading experience.

1. Children generally love stuffed animals. Provide a stuffed animal and tell the child that "Teddy" (or whatever name is appropriate) wants to hear him read. Prop the animal up between you and the child so that the animal becomes an active listener.

2. Give the child a puppet and ask him to help the puppet read the story. Children often use more expression when they read through a puppet. The shy child especially may benefit from this approach.

3. Offer to read the first part of the story to the child as he looks on. This gives you the opportunity to serve as a role model in setting tone, using expression, and reading fluently. It also gives you an opportunity to pronounce proper names that may be strange to the child.

4. Offer to read pages alternatively with the child. Again, this gives you the opportunity to serve as a model. This is particularly effective for the child who does not read fluently and needs more frequent reinforcement.

5. Stop the child part-way through the story and discuss possible endings and outcomes. Offer some input and suggestions yourself. This gives the child a break from reading, reinforces comprehension, encourages creative thinking, and provides a purpose for continuing the story.

6. Stop the child part-way through the story and ask questions to review what he has read. Questions might deal with characters, events and details, main idea, and sequence of events. This gives the child a break and reinforces comprehension.

7. If the child has had particular difficulty with the words on a given page, you may ask him to read that page again or you may offer to read it aloud to him. If he has struggled with the words, he probably has not comprehended that passage.

8. When the child has read the entire story, discuss with him what he has read. Again, you may focus on characters, events and details, sequences, main idea, character motivation, and conclusions.

9. When the child has read the entire story, discuss whether the story is real (true to life) or fantasy (make believe). Have the child support his answer with clues from the story.

10. After the reading, discuss where and when the story took place. Again, have the child support his answers with facts from the story.

11. When appropriate, you may ask the child to go back to a certain page in the story and locate and pronounce certain kinds of words, such as contractions, compound words, color names, number words, or words with more than one meaning. This should be done after the oral reading is complete so that it does not interfere with comprehension.