4 ways to prepare your preschooler for reading
The process of learning to read starts long before kids actually sound out letters on a page. Here’s how parents can lay the ground work and help kids gain some basic skills at home.
1. Start with the basics
The first step toward reading is oral proficiency and doesn?t involve any printed letters at all. Rather, it?s teaching phonological awareness, which is the ability to identify and work with sounds in words. According to David A. Kilpatrick, a psychology professor and author of Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, a deficit in this area is actually the most common reason why children struggle with reading words, which is often called dyslexia or can be classified as a learning disability.
April Hackett-Helmkay, a speech-language pathologist working in schools in Eastern Ontario, says even preschoolers can engage in phonological awareness activities like rhyming, alliteration and clapping syllables. Another trick is to get them to delete parts of words. For example, you can ask them to say the word ?applesauce? without ?apple.? ?Or you say a word slowly and they say it quickly so they?re blending the sounds,? suggests Hackett-Helmkay. Nursery rhymes, rhyming games and discussing initial sounds (??Taylor? and ?taco? start with the same sound?) are also helpful.
2. Focus on phonics
Learning the alphabet song alongside a visual component like a book or video encourages letter recognition, and many kids recognize the letters in thei...
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