• No child is too young to enjoy books.reading image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com
  
  The ability to read and write is one of the most important skills that children can develop. Because of learning disabilities or other factors, however, many kids struggle to learn to read and write. Games keep kids motivated, helping them to persevere and even enjoy the challenge. Along with an encouraging and skilled teacher, games can play a central role in helping young learners to become literate and enjoy reading.
  
  

Reading Bingo

• Give young kids bingo cards with pictures of animals, people, plants, and other things they'll read about in a story. Read it together, with kids taking turns reading aloud. When kids see one of the items on their card, they put a sticker or draw a star on it. Whoever finds a whole row first says "Bingo!"
  
  

Who Would You Be?

• After reading a story, or a chapter of a short novel, talk with kids about which characters they most identify with. Ask them which character they would rather be, and what they admire about those characters. Prompt them to find qualities to admire in even the less sympathetic characters in the story, and talk about why each character might have become the way she is.
  
  

Story Diorama

• On the bulletin board, create a diorama of the story you're about to read. Ask the kids what they think is happening in the scene. The board will invoke their curiosity, prompting them to want to read the story to find out what's happening in it. Create movable characters so you can arrange them in different ways each day as the story progresses.
  
  

Cartoons

• Have kids create a cartoon about a story they read, or a story they made up on their own, as Reading is Fundamental says. Give them various media to work with such as crayons and paints, as the National Children's Literacy Website says. This will make reading and writing more fun for many kids, helping them to become more actively engaged in learning.
  
  

Alternative Telling

• Talk about how different people sometimes remember events in different ways or have very different opinions about why things happened. Ask kids if they ever disagreed with a brother, sister or parent about what really happened. Then tell them each to choose a character who might have a different perspective than the one shown in the narrative. Have kids retell the events of the story from that character's perspective. For example, they could describe how the Big Bad Wolf survived when he couldn't find any little pigs to eat. After you read their stories, talk about why these characters might have different understandings of what happened.
  
  

Reading Aloud

• Children of all ages love to be read to, and this is one of the best gifts you can give to your students or children. Set aside a certain amount of time each day for reading aloud to the children. For those who struggle to read, this will remind them that literature is exciting and enjoyable. Tell kids to close their eyes and envision the story unfolding as you tell it.