Help your child develop phonemic awareness, which is the ability to recognize, think about and repeat individual sounds in spoken language. Teach your child phonemic awareness by helping him/her recognize different words that all start with the same letter. Work through each letter of the alphabet, asking your child questions such as, "What is the first sound in the word apple?" and "What is the first sound in the word ant?" Ask other questions such as, "What sound is the same in ball, bat and broken?"
Teach your child phonics, as well as phonemic awareness, understanding that phonics is the relationship between the letters of written language and their individual sounds. Choose a variety of simple books that work through each letter of the alphabet and their sounds. Read these books daily with your children. Look for phonics books which have words spelled out with dashes between the letters so that children can practice sounding out each letter to form words. Spend extra time on letters that you notice your child mispronouncing.
Improve your child's reading skills by focusing on developing his fluency. Diagnose your child's reading fluency by listening to him read a passage or page of a text at his reading level. Listen for whether the reading sounds natural or very broken. Recognize if your child still sounds like he is spelling out every word, which indicates his fluency, and therefore, comprehension is low. Understand that fluency develops over time. Help your child improve his fluency by reading with expression and emotion.
Work on expanding your child's vocabulary. Get a dictionary for your child and teach him how to use it to look up words he doesn't understand or can't explain. Create word lists for your child of 10-12 words to look up and define in the dictionary each week.
Work on your child's comprehension to make sure he/she understands what is being read. Test his comprehension level by asking him to read a passage and then summarize it for you. Demonstrate summaries to your child by reading a passage yourself and telling your child what that passage meant. Practice summary exercises daily with your child to improve her comprehension.