For the last 2 weeks in reading support, we have been practicing how to use the pictures to help us read. Illustrations provide valuable hints to help students decode or figure out words. This is a necessary strategy for beginning readers to use and helps prepare them for other more developed strategies later on. You can help reinforce this strategy at home by using a picture book to model how you spend time looking at pictures when reading. Talk about your thinking so that your child can hear your thoughts. Most importantly, let your child know that good readers DO use pictures when reading in order to understand a story.