Learning to read can be hard work for children - especially if they have not been given important daily learning experiences in their first five years.

If, however, children are given a range of important daily experiences in their first five years, learning to read becomes a much easier skill - and children "naturally" learn this skill progressively over time (just as they learn to walk and talk with daily practice and encouragement).

Key grown-ups in young children's lives - parents and other family members, child care providers, day care and Head Start teachers, and nursery school teachers - need to help children enter school with the necessary skills to learn to read well.  Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade teachers (and parents and after-school child care providers) can then build on these early skills to help children become successful, proficient readers.

You can help your children develop important pre-reading and reading skills, including learning to -

use language in conversation

listen and respond to stories read aloud

recognize and name the letters of the alphabet

listen to the sounds of spoken language

connect sounds to letters to figure out the "code" of reading

read often so that recognizing words becomes easy

learn and use new words

understand what is read
 
 

Read to your children every day,  Spend time talking about stories, pictures, and words.  Read with expression. And choose books your children will enjoy!  Create happy, warm, enjoyable times so children look forward to books and reading with enjoyment and interest.

Share conversations with young children over meal times and  throughout the day and evening. Children learn words more easily when they hear them spoken often.  Introduce new and interesting (and relevant) words at every opportunity.

Be a reader and a writer.  Children learn habits from the people around them.

Teach the letters of the alphabet.  Help children learn to recognize letter names and shapes by talking about them, pointing to them, and by encouraging early attempts to write and draw them.

Help children learn and use new words.

Practice the sounds of language.  Read books with rhymes.  Teach your children rhymes, short poems, and songs.  Play simple word games, "How many words can you make up that sound like the word 'bat'?"

Help children take spoken words apart and put them together.  Provide opportunities for children to practice the sounds that make up words.  Help children separate the sounds in words, listen for beginning and ending sounds, and put separate sounds together (Young children can start with the beginning sound of familiar words and understand that the word "cat" begins with a "k" sound, "dog" begins with a "d" sound, etc.  Then children can progress to understand that the word "cat" has a "k" - "a" - "t" sound which, when put together, sounds like  and makes up the word "cat".)

Practice the alphabet by pointing out letters whenever you see them and by reading alphabet books -helping children name the letters (upper and lower case) and the sound(s) each letter makes.
 
 

Continue to read with your children each and every day.  And continue to make new and interesting books available to children - with multiple opportunities each day for children to look at, read, and enjoy books and story-times.

 
Continue to systematically teach phonics - how sounds and letters are related.

Give children the opportunity to practice letter-sound relationships they are learning.  Practice sounds and letters by reading easy books that use words with the letter-sound relationships they are learning. 

Help children write the letter-sound relationships they know by using them in words, sentences, messages, and their own stories.

Show children ways to think about and understand what they are reading. Ask children questions to show them how to think about the meaning of what you and they are reading.

Point out the letter-sound relationships your children are learning (using labels, boxes, newspapers, magazines, and signs).

Listen to your children read words and books.  Be patient and listen as your child practices.  Let your children know you are proud that they are  learning to read.
 
 

Continue to read with your children each and every day. There are hundreds of "new" books that your children will enjoy - available at bookstores and at your local library.  Continue to provide familiar books and new books to keep reading enjoyable and interesting.

Encourage your children to reread familiar books - both silently (to themselves) and aloud (to you, to their stuffed animals, etc.).  Children need practice in reading comfortably and with expression using books they know.

Build reading accuracy.  As each child reads aloud, point out words he or she missed and help him or her to read the words correctly.  If you stop to focus on a word, have a child reread the whole sentence to be sure he or she understands the meaning.

Build reading comprehension.  Talk with children about what they are reading.  Ask about new words.  Talk about what happened in the story.  Ask about the characters, places, and events that took place.  Ask what new information he or she has learned form the book. 

Continue to teach letter-sound relationships for children who need more practice.

Teach the meanings of words, especially words that are important to understanding a book.

Teach ways to learn the meaning of new words.  Teach children how to use dictionaries to learn word meanings, how to use known words and word parts to figure out other words, and how to get clues (context clues) from the rest of the sentence.

Help children understand what they are reading.  Good readers think as they read and they know whether what they are reading is making sense.  Help children to check their understanding.  When children are having difficulty, show them ways to figure out the meaning of what they are reading.
 
 

For more information on the Soho Center's national children's literacy efforts,
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