Helping the Physically Active Child Learn to Read

Highly energetic kids often have a hard time sitting still long enough to enjoy reading. For these kids, you need to provide reading assistance "on the run" as it were.

• Teach these kids the alphabet by having them run their letters. Go out to a large paved area, such as a driveway or playground and write the letters of the alphabet in chalk, so that they're several feet high. Then have him walk, hop, or run along the chalk lines of each letter.

• When he begins to read his first books, let him pick them up and walk around as he reads if he wants to. After he's read a while, suggest he get together with some other kids to put on a play.

• Let him act out sight words using pantomime. Assign body gestures to different vowel and consonant sounds and have him pronounce new words with his body.

• Let him write his own sentences, using large pieces of chalk on the driveway or playground surface, so that he can put his whole body into the activity.

By giving him permission to use his whole body in reading activities, you're helping him learn in his own way.

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