Welcome back to this week’s segment of After School Tea Time! Get your teacups ready because we have more to spill this week! Keep your questions coming because you could be helping someone who has similar questions! 

Question from Middlesex County- In our program the children take turns reading every day from a book that they like. There is one child in our program who is very shy and does not like reading out loud. We have a hard time encouraging this child to participate in reading to the group. They get very upset when it is their turn to read and completely shut down. How can we help this child feel comfortable to participate? 

Hey Middlesex, thank you for asking this question. Having participation in the classroom can be difficult for some children, especially during these times. Many factors can affect a child’s ability to be present for activities. I would first speak with the child and try to understand why they are having a difficult time participating. Ask them what would make them feel comfortable to participate. Depending on the direction of the conversation I would also speak with their parent/guardian and ask if they might know why this child has a hard time participating. This would also be a good opportunity to go over your classroom rules and norms with the group. Maybe this child is being teased and is too nervous to talk about it. Remind all of the children that teasing or bullying of any kind is unacceptable. Another option to consider is to ask the child to pick the book that they like when it is their turn to read and have another child volunteer to read for them. The child still has the opportunity to participate by still being able to pick their book. This will help the child still feel included in this activity. Here is an article about how to encourage children to have a growth mindset. A growth mindset means that the child has the ability to believe that a quality they are not the best at can change and evolve through practice. Reassure this child that even if they feel like they can’t read out loud currently, they can practice and grow that ability. We hope that this is helpful!

We’ll see you next week for another segment of After School Tea Time! Don’t forget to submit your anonymous questions here.