Reading Skills: Birth Through Preschool - Part 1

Teaching Reading To Your Preschooler (Page 1)

Recent research into human brain development is proving that parents truly are their children’s first teachers. What parents do, or don’t do, has a lasting impact on their child’s reading skill and literacy.
 

Teaching Reading To Your Preschooler (Page 2).

Research demonstrates that the size of a young child’s vocabulary is a strong predictor of reading—preschoolers with large vocabularies tend to become proficient readers (National Research Council, 1998).

Becoming a Reader

Every step a child takes toward learning to read leads to another. Bit by bit, the child  builds the knowledge that is necessary for being a reader. Over their first 6 years, most  children will:

Talking and Listening

Scientists who study the brain have found out a great deal about how we learn. They have discovered that babies learn much more from the sights and sounds around them than we thought previously.

Reading Together

Imagine sitting your baby in your lap and reading a book to him for the first time. Now you’re showing him pictures. You point to them. In a lively way, you explain what the pictures are. You’ve just helped you child take the next step beyond talking.

Learning about Print and Books

Reading together is a perfect time to help a late toddler or early preschooler learn what print is. Your child will begin to understand that the letters form words and that words name pictures.

Early Efforts to Write

Writing and reading go hand in hand. As your child is learning one, he is learning the other. You can do certain things to make sure that he gets every opportunity to practice both.

Reading in Another Language
 

If your child’s first language is not English, he can still become an excellent English reader and
writer. He is on his way to successful English reading if he is beginning to learn many words and is interested in learning to read in his first language.

Part 2: Birth Through Preschool: Activities For Developing Reading Skills in Your Preschooler

Activities for Developing Reading Skills In A Preschooler

What follows are ideas for language-building activities or early reading activities that parents, teachers and caregivers can do with preschool children to help build the skills children needs to become readers.

Baby Talk

Babies love hearing your voice. When you answer your child’s sounds with sounds of your own, she learns that what she “says” has meaning and is important to you.
 

Books and Babies

Sharing books is a way to have fun with your baby and to start him on the road to becoming a reader.