Get your children ready to read, two - three

Here is what you can do to help your child get ready to read. The information is provided by The Early Literacy Initiative from PLA/ALSC, divisions of the American Library Association. To see the PDF file of this page, click here.

Activities to build on the six pre-reading skills :

1. Vocabulary
• Talk with your child about what is going on around you. Talk about feelings — yours and your child’s.
• When your child talks with you, add more detail to what she says.
• Speak in the language that is most comfortable for you.
• Read together everyday. When you talk about the story and pictures, your child hears and learns more words.
• Research shows that children who have larger vocabularies are better readers. Knowing many words helps children recognize written words and understand what they read.

“Vocabulary is learned from books more than from normal conversation with adults or children or from television exposure.”
From Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children by B.Hart and T.R.Risley.

2. Print Motivation
• Make book-sharing time a special time for closeness between you and your child.
• Let your child see you reading.
• Visit your public library often.
• Children who enjoy books will want to learn how to read.
3. Print Awareness
• Read aloud everyday print — labels, signs, lists, menus. Print is everywhere!
• Point to some of the words as you say them, especially words that are repeated.
• Let your child turn the pages.
• Let your child hold the book and read or tell the story.
• Hold the book upside down. See if your child turns the book around.
• Being familiar with printed language helps children feel comfortable with books and understand that print is useful.
4. Narrative Skills
• Tell your child stories.
• Ask your child to tell you about something that happened today.
• Read books together. Stories help children understand that things happen in order first, next, last.
• Read a book that you have read before. Switch what you do — you be the listener and let your child tell you the story.
• Being able to tell or retell a story helps children understand what they read.
5. Phonological Awareness
• Say nursery rhymes and make up your own silly, nonsense rhymes.
• Sing songs. Songs have different notes for each syllable in a word, so children can hear the different sounds in words.
• Play word games such as, “What sounds like ‘ran’?” or “What starts with the same sound as ‘ball’?”
• Say rhymes and sing songs in the language that is most comfortable for you.
• Being able to hear the sounds that make up words helps children sound out words as they begin to read.
6. Letter Knowledge
• Help your child see different shapes and the shapes of letters.
• Talk about what is the same and what is different between two things.
• Write your child’s name, especially the first letter.
• Make letters from clay or use magnetic letters.
• Point out and name letters when readingalphabet books, signs or labels.
• Read alphabet books with clear letters and pictures.
• Knowing the names and sounds of letters helps children figure out how to sound out words.

© Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 American Library Association.