Reading is a basic skill every child needs to be academically successful. So how do you know your elementary-school child is on track, and what can you do if he's not?

Here are some guidelines from area reading specialists:

What's a reasonable reading timeline?

If your third-grade child is not reading fluently, experts say it's cause for concern.

"What we are finding is if kids come in the third grade or leave third grade without being able to be fluent readers ... what happens is the text and the content get so much more challenging that they really struggle," says Lara Drew, manager of elementary-school education with the Edmonds School District.

How and when are kids tested?

Every second-grader must by state law be given a reading assessment at the beginning of the year. If students score substantially below grade level, the law requires that they're tested again later in the year.

Some districts give the reading test again regardless of how the students scored. Students read aloud one-on-one with the tester and are assessed on accuracy and fluency.

Is your child's reading on target?

The key is: "Do they understand what they are reading?" says Nancy Johnson, an English and language-arts education professor at Western Washington University.

Some early warning signs, kindergarten through fourth grade:

• Slow to learn the connection between sounds and letters

• Trouble recognizing common words (run, eat, want)

• Transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)

• Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, X, /, =)

• Slow recall of facts

• Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization

— Sue Geiger, reading-program specialist, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

The results should be available by the fall parent-teacher conference. At the conference, the teacher should discuss options if the child is reading below standard.

(Districts may give additional tests, including some before second grade.)

What kinds of resources are available for borderline students?

Depending on the district, after-school programs, extra time with the teacher, summer schools, tutoring and referral to outside resources.

What if the child's not yet in second grade but struggles?

State reading specialist Sue Geiger advises parents to ask teachers to assess their children as early as kindergarten.

Also, says Dan Coles, literacy-program manager with the Seattle Public Schools, here are some things you can do as a parent:

• Read to your child as often as possible. Make reading fun from the time your children are babies: Read to and with them, have them read to you, take them to libraries and bookstores; join a book group or summer reading program.

• Have audio tapes of favorite stories.

• Make a point of noticing words in the environment (stop signs, grocery-store signs, etc.)

• Put sentence tagboard labels around the house (words rarely exist in isolation so it is better to put "This is Jane's room," than just room).

• Talk, talk, talk all the time to your child and for any attempt at reading, praise, praise, praise.

• Schedule a conference with the teacher and ask for available literacy programs and resources.

What if my child can read but just doesn't like to?

"It's really about tapping into what they like to read," says Coles. "If they're motivated, they'll read."

You might want to subscribe to these children's magazines: Sesame Street magazine, Your Big Backyard, Ranger Rick, Zoobooks, Sports Illustrated for Kids

The International Reading Association recommends these online-magazine sites which features stories written by children.

www.kids-space.org

www.cyberkids.com

For more information, here are some resources recommended by area reading experts:

National/state resources

Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction: Click on "parents" for info on reading assessments.

www.k12.wa.us/

U.S. Department of Education: "Help My Child Read: Reading Resources" includes info on early reading programs, research publications and activities you can do with your child.

www.ed.gov/parents/read/resources/edpicks.jhtml?src=qc

Family Education: Web site has resources related to school. Click on the "school" tab for reading resources.

www.familyeducation.com

Seattle Public Library. Click on the Start Pages and then on the Children tab to learn about free events for your children and the summer reading program.

www.spl.org

America's Literacy Directory — National Institute for Literacy and partners' online-search database has information on more than 5,000 national literacy programs that can be searched by location and the types of educational services it offers.

www.literacydirectory.org

International Reading Association — The site links to the Parent Resources page where you can find 12 brochures, most of which are also available in Spanish, that gives tips on how to prepare your child for reading tests and other advice for parents of young children.

www.reading.org/resources/tools/parent.html

Multimedia

Starfall — A free online-interactive reading site founded by the Polis-Schutz family. Susan Polis-Schutz is the best-selling poet of the book "To My Daughter, with Love, on the Important Things in Life." The family is also creator of the popular greeting-card site bluemountain.com

www.starfall.com

Reading Rockets — This site contains news related to reading, video interviews with reading experts and children's authors, advice for parents, and links to PBS shows.

www.readingrockets.org

Colorin Colorado — Reading Rockets launched this Web site for Spanish-speakers which contains advice on fun activities that you can do with your child, resources and video clips of celebrities such as the late Cuban singer Celia Cruz.

www.colorincolorado.org