Learning to read is one of the most critical skills that children need to excel in school. In fact, poor literacy skills will impact children negatively through their years in school and have a negative impact on their lifetime earnings and career advancement.
Early literacy skills can help set your child up for success when they start learning phonics and will need to read to learn, versus learning to read. If you want to help your child develop pre-reading skills while they are in the literacy development stages, read on.
Print and Book Awareness
Make sure your children have access to books as early as possible and put them around your house so they can always find a book to look at. Teach them how to hold a book the proper way and where the front, back, and spine are
When they are very young, choose board books that don’t have fragile pages. When they get a bit older, teach them how to gently turn the pages of a book so they do not rip them.
Children who are exposed to books early on will choose books to look at when given the opportunity for independent play.
Read Early and Read Often
Children who are the most successful readers are those whose parents read to them every day, starting when they are babies. Choose age-appropriate books and read to them as often as possible.
Even young babies enjoy looking at books, especially those that have black and white images, as their full range of colour visualisation is not yet developed.
Phonics Awareness
Phonics is a way to teach children how to read and write by teaching them to recognise the different sounds that each letter, or groups or pairs of letters, make. Age-appropriate introductions to phonics can help your children build the skills needed to learn how to read once they are ready.
At an early age, you can teach your children rhyming words, clapping or stomping out rhythms to music, or singling silly songs where you change the first letter of the words.
Teach Them The ABCs
Children will often learn the ABC song early on, as they simply memorise it. However, teaching them to recognise different letters when they are two or three years old can help them develop pre-reading skills.
Use puzzles, matching games, and simple letter identification on TV, in print, or on signs when you’re out and about to help them differentiate letters.
Give Your Child the Skills to Learn to Read
If you want your child to develop strong pre-reading skills, start exposing them to books and phonics, and read to them as much as you can. Strong literacy skills are one of the most important predictors of success in school and beyond, so it’s never too early to expose your children to reading.
If your child is ready for more structured work with a reading specialist, our programmes focus on children aged three and a half to age seven to help them move up in reading levels and become more confident in reading. In just 12 weeks, you can expect to see significant changes in their reading ability.
Contact us today to learn more about our programmes and what may be right for your child.
