Teaching reading preschool
The Pre-K Years: Getting Ready to Read and Write
Creating literacy-rich environments
There’s no doubt that building skills in a few areas during the preschool years can make a huge difference when a child enters school. Browse through to learn more about helping preschool children learn about language, letters, sounds, and how print works. Finally, learn how to choose and read children’s books that will help you enjoy reading together for years to come.
Learn about each of these key areas
Letters and the alphabetic principle
The best predictor of success in reading is a child’s familiarity with the the alphabet. This includes knowing a letter’s name, shape, and sound. A child who can name the letters and their sounds accurately and quickly have an easier time learning how to read. Let’s watch some activities that help children learn their ABC’s.
The Importance of the Alphabetic Principle
Renowned reading researcher Dr. Louisa Moats explains the need for understanding the alphabetic principle.
The Building Blocks of Reading
In Baltimore, a pre-kindergarten program called Children’s Literacy Initiative helps at-risk children meet the school’s high expectations.
Teaching the Alphabetic Principle
In Houston, the teacher of an advanced kindergarten class connects letters and sounds in a systematic and explicit way.
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Sounds in speech
Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers can learn to have fun with sounds! Figuring out words that rhyme, coming up with words that share a beginning sound, and saying silly words all help build a child’s phonological awareness; that is, the ability to notice, think about, and play with sounds in words.
These skills will be used every time your child reads and writes!
Fun with Phonemes
One family in Raleigh, North Carolina, shows how playing word and rhyming games puts their child on the road to reading success.
Babies Tune in to Speech Sounds
At a baby speech lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, psychologist Janet Werker studies how babies develop skills that distinguish speech sounds of their native language.
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Oral language and vocabulary
Unlike reading, babies and young children are wired to learn how to speak.
From birth to 5 years old, children learn to communicate and acquire a sophisticated vocabulary. This foundation of spoken language forms the bedrock that supports their future reading and writing skills. Let’s learn some ways to support children’s budding language skills and explore some activities for the early childhood classroom.
Having fun with words
This brief Parenting Minute video from WNET talks about how parents and caregivers can help build their children’s language skills through storytelling, talking, singing, playing rhyming games, as well as by pointing out and discussing things throughout the day. (Video also available in Spanish, Bengali, and Chinese)
Encouraging Young Storytellers
Two- and three-year-olds benefit from a project based in Washington, D.C., called STORIES, which is built on the premise that when adults respond to a toddler's efforts to communicate, they increase conversational skills, boost vocabulary, and propel toddlers towards literacy.
Exposing Pre-K Children to Big Words
In this clip from our webinar, Babbling to Books, early literacy expert Dr. Sharon Ramey talks about the importance of exposing very young children to rich language and big words.
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Print awareness
Print awareness is understanding that print is organized in a particular way — for example, knowing that print is read from left to right and top to bottom. It is also knowing that print communicates meaning. Watching your child scribble and ask you to “read” it back.
Sharing a book together as you point out the title and pictures versus the print. Activities that adults may take for granted, such as finding letters, words, and spaces in books. These are all examples of concepts of print.
Parents can support print awareness by pointing to words as you read and stopping a few times during the story to ask questions, make a comment, or to point to something in the text you want your child to notice. Justice and Ezell (2004) call this strategy print referencing and suggest adults stop and make 3-5 verbal or nonverbal references to the print during read alouds. Understanding how print works puts children on the path to learning to read and write.
Becoming Aware of Print
Mira is two-and-a-half years old. Watch how Mira's parents help her become aware of print.
Concepts of print and letter recognition assessments
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Reading together
Sharing books with your child can be among the most special moments of the day. These moments with books teach your child many reading readiness skills. Our resources in this section describe the why's and how's of reading with even the youngest child.
House Calls for Literacy
Watch as an early literacy educator visits a family at home to demonstrate and support interactive readalouds.
Bringing Up Baby
Parents are a child’s first teachers and those early years are key to creating a strong foundation for later reading. The Reach Out and Read program works with pediatricians across the country to help parents and kids start off on the right foot.
Reading as Dialogue
In a Long Island Head Start classroom, children who are at risk for reading failure boost their reading skills using a technique called "dialogic reading."
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Writing
Children, even our youngest learners, enjoy putting crayon to paper. What often starts as scribbling ends up being important clues to a child’s understanding that print carries meaning. Four-year olds often enjoy “writing” their name and other special words like Mom, Dad, love, and you. Helping your child develop writing readiness skills includes making the most out of everyday writing and providing lots of opportunity to practice!
First Marks
Writing expert Dr.
Jane Hansen describes how powerful it is for very young children to realize that they can communicate through oral language — and by making "marks" on a piece of paper.
Emergent Writing
Let’s watch classroom teachers demonstrate effective writing instruction for young children in this video by the Northeast Florida Educational Consortium.
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Children’s Books to Read Aloud
Developmental milestones
Find out what language accomplishments are typical for most children from birth to age three.
If you have questions or concerns about your child's progress, talk with your child's doctor, teacher, or a speech and language therapist. For children with any kind of disability or learning problem, the sooner they can get the special help they need, the easier it will be for them to learn.
Learn More
Try It!
If You Have Concerns
High-quality preschool programs
Strong preschool programs are lively places — there’s lots of conversation, active play, interactive read alouds, adults listening to and responding to the kids, all with full attention to each child’s social and emotional needs. A high-quality pre-k curriculum sets goals specific to pre-k and uses learning and developmental standards that are research-based, age-appropriate, and aligned with your state’s K-12 standards. And families are valued — high-quality programs respect and support each family’s home language and at-home teaching efforts.
Reading Maestros
Master teacher Dr.
Rebecca Palacios runs a dual-language immersion preschool in Corpus Christi, Texas. While teaching her kids, she also mentors teachers-in-training on how to provide top-notch teaching in a preschool environment.
Learn More
For Preschool Teachers and Childcare Providers
Looking at Writing
Annotated writing samples from kids PreK to grade 3, plus teaching tips
Match Young Readers with Books They Will Love!
Create custom booklists from our library of 5,000+ books
Reading Tips for Parents in 13 Languages
How to help your kids (babies to grade 3) build their literacy skills!
Everyday Conversations
Activities to encourage speech & language development
Fun with Phonemes
Tips for teaching young children about sounds and letters
What Works
Preschool language and literacy practices
Toddling Toward Reading
The early literacy skills our preschoolers need to become successful readers.
Print Awareness: Guidelines for Instruction
Teaching our youngest children that written language carries meaning.
Looking at Writing: PreK
Samples of writing from real kids. What are preschool children able to do as writers?
Encouraging Young Storytellers
When adults respond to a toddler's efforts to communicate, they increase conversational skills, boost vocabulary, and propel the kids towards literacy.
- Watch Roots of Reading >
- Launching Young Readers series >
Our PBS series explores reading and writing development in young children. These shows focus particularly on preschool children:
Reading and writing readiness
Overview
Sounds of Speech
Figuring out words that rhyme, coming up with words that share a beginning sound, and saying silly words all help build a child's phonological awareness — the ability to notice, think about, and play with sounds in words.
Print Awareness
Print awareness is understanding that print is organized in a particular way — that print is read from left to right and top to bottom, words consist of letters, and spaces appear between words.
Letters
One strong predictor of success in reading is a child’s familiarity with the letters of the alphabet — knowing a letter’s name, shape and sound.
Oral Language and Vocabulary
Kids who hear more words spoken at home learn more words and enter school with better vocabularies. This larger vocabulary pays off exponentially as a child progresses through school.
Writing
Even our youngest learners enjoy putting crayon to paper. What often starts as scribbling ends up being important clues to a child’s understanding that print carries meaning. Give kids lots of opportunity to practice!
Developmental milestones and early intervention
Developmental Milestones
Early Intervention
Reading aloud
Reading aloud is one of the most important things parents and teachers can do with children.
Reading aloud builds many important foundational skills, introduces vocabulary, provides a model of fluent, expressive reading, and helps children recognize what reading for pleasure is all about.
High quality preschool and childcare
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Cracking the Code: How and Why Big Horn Elementary School Went All-In with Structured Literacy
Print-to-Speech and Speech-to-Print: Mapping Early Literacy
100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know
A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words
7 Great Ways to Encourage Your Child's Writing
Screening, Diagnosing, and Progress Monitoring for Fluency: The Details
Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom
Our Literacy Blogs
Meet Ali Kamanda and Jorge Redmond, authors of Black Boy, Black Boy: Celebrating the Power of You
Map Fun: Creating a Visual Itinerary
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Learning to read | Kindergarten No.
74 of a general developmental type Home » Our consultations » From the experience of our teachers » Learning to read
For you, parents!
(from the work experience of the educator MADOU No. 74 Rubtsova Marina Vasilievna )
Parents of preschool children attending kindergarten often rely on the fact that their children will be prepared for school by the efforts of educators. Indeed, specially organized classes help children prepare for school, but without the help of parents, such preparation will not be of high quality.
Experience shows that no best children's institution - neither kindergarten nor elementary school - can completely replace the family, family education. In a preschool institution, children are taught many useful skills, they are taught to draw, count, write and read. But if the family does not take an interest in the child’s activities, do not attach due importance to them, do not encourage diligence and diligence, the child also begins to treat them with disdain, does not strive to work better, correct his mistakes, and overcome difficulties in work.
Some children are deeply offended by such inattention of their parents, they cease to be sincere and frank. On the contrary, the interest of parents in the affairs of the child attaches particular importance to all the achievements of the child. Help in overcoming the difficulties that arise in the performance of any kind of activity is always accepted with gratitude and contributes to the closeness of parents and children. At home, the ability to read can come as naturally to a child as the ability to walk or talk. Dear parents, grandparents! If you want to teach your child to read before he goes to school, pay attention and understanding to all our advice. To avoid the sad consequences of illiterate learning.
Learning to read
It is believed that learning to read early gives a child great intellectual potential. A pre-reader or a first-grader who is already reading develops faster, learns easier and better, and remembers more.
Where to start?
- The main rule of learning to read: "Do not chase the result!".
First, show your child the alphabet. If he is interested, consider it, name the letters, syllables. Learning to read is best started on their own initiative. Your task is to support, not to ruin the initiative with excessive zeal.
- Learning to read can begin with the study of letters or syllables. Colorful tables, posters, cubes are well suited for these purposes. The material may change from time to time. And it is not at all necessary to memorize the alphabetic name of the letters with the kids.
- Pay special attention to the game form of the lessons, as well as their duration (15-20 minutes). Do not forget how joyful and interesting they will be, his further education largely depends. The main thing is not to forget that all this is just a game, and not preparation for the exam.
-If a child is ill or not in the mood to study, it is better to postpone the “lesson”, do not study by force.
-Lessons should be varied, change tasks often, because small children get tired quickly and their attention is scattered.
So you will have to constantly maintain the interest of the child in what you propose to do.
-Read in front of the child. Mom is the best role model.
- In parallel with reading, you can learn to write. The child will be quite capable of performing graphic tasks: circle simple figures point by point with your hand. You can "type" on the old keyboard. Maze toys prepare a hand well for writing, in which small details need to be raised, for example, from bottom to top, or swiped from left to right.
Important about letters
You can often see such a picture on the street. Mom asks the child, pointing to any letter of the sign on the house: "What is this letter?" The child happily answers: "PE!", Or "EM!", Or "ES!" One feels like saying:
“Dear adults! If this is how you call letters to children,
, then how will your little student read the syllable "MA"? Imagine, he will most likely get "EMA"! And he will be right: EM + A = EMA. And the word "MA-MA" in this case will be read as "EMA-EMA"!
Most teachers and speech therapists agree that when teaching preschool children, the alphabetic army should be called in a simplified way: not “pe”, but “p”, not “me”, but “m”.
Learning to read at home
How to teach to read and not injure the psyche, not to force, but on the contrary, arouse interest and desire? If you actively played with the child, while attracting a book, then this will greatly facilitate the task.
The first unsuccessful experiences can completely discourage you from starting to learn to read. The child understands that learning to read is not so easy and hardly repeats attempts. Learn more letters back and forth. But to combine them into words and read, and then understand what you read - it's pretty hard. But gradually the child overcomes this difficulty.
Learn to read in the game. But, most importantly, what we should remember is not to torment the child and ourselves. Don't make it an unpleasant duty, don't compare one child to another.
Here we need patience, love, consistency, fantasy. You can beat the learning process, turn it into a holiday, into an exciting game.
Keep it short but effective.
So, let's move on to the study of letters and sounds.
1. Learning is best to start with vowels.
Some parents have already introduced their children to different letters, but where do you start? You need to start with vowels, which you need to determine whether the child remembers them well.
To teach children to read, you can use cut out letters, paint, plasticine, whatever you want.
Now I'll show you some exercises that will help you reinforce the learned vowels.
- I will call you a letter, and you take it out of the magic box and we are building a house with you:
E e
A A A A
Ob of
and
U has
EE
This exercise is necessary for that so that the child learns to read and write lines. ( Can be read)
It will take some time to memorize one letter, three, four, five or even six days.
If the child remembers longer, it's okay. It is important that the child not only read a new letter, but also knows how to find it. You can ask the child to find the letter O , then the letter A , and so quietly the child makes a train.
A U O E I S E Y Y Y Y E
Later, when the train is completed, the child can read it. If a child has a hard time remembering vowels, you can remember them associatively. But A , as always, does not cause difficulties, U are ears, And - we smile, O - this is a circle, what we see, then we say, the letter Yu - can be remembered as a skirt, E - the car is driving, E - hedgehog, If the child has forgotten the letter, then ask him: "Prickly with eyes."
The most difficult letter of the vowels is the letter E . This letter is difficult because some children pronounce it like E , this is wrong.
It is necessary to monitor the correct pronunciation of the sound and correct the child.
A U O E I S E Y Y Y E
The letter E came out to the yard for a walk, which letter came out to her, choose.
EO , change places you get OE .
So, we have already learned the vowels, let's move on to the consonants.
Consonants
To study consonants, choose the first voiced letter, M, N, L, R .
Consonants are best studied immediately with a familiar vowel. It is easier for a child to remember a new letter. In addition, we thus imperceptibly approach the syllables.
To do this, the child needs to build a house out of vowels:
A E
OU
U
and I
Next, we introduce the child with a new consonant letter.
We tell the child to raise the letter on the elevator while reading the syllable.
If a child cannot remember a letter or pronounces it incorrectly, an exercise called "Pens, Pens" will come in handy.
The child sits in front of you so that he is not distracted, take his hands. This exercise is difficult and requires a lot of attention.
You hold the child by the hands, and he, looking into your mouth, repeats after you.
The peculiarity of this exercise is that the child does not see the letter, he perceives it by ear.
First, show the child the letter with your hand, and let him name them, later you remove your hand and the child should show and name the letters. For example: with the letter , will have NU , etc. It is necessary to ensure that the child reads not only when you show him with your finger, but so that he himself can take and read.
Syllables
Children usually stumble at this stage.
It is difficult for them to read syllables together. It is important that the child not only read the syllables first consonants and then vowels, but also to be able to distinguish when, on the contrary, there are first a vowel and then a consonant.
We offer you a manual that makes it easy for children to learn syllabic reading.
Didactic manual for teaching reading "Magic Windows"
At the stage of learning to read syllables, it is useful to use such a device. Making this educational game is not an easy task. But all preschoolers like to play with "windows", and you will not regret taking the time to make this manual.
You will need:
2 sheets of white or colored card stock;
sketchbook;
ruler;
simple pencil;
colored pencils or markers;
scissors, glue.
Make a markup on one sheet of cardboard: lay the sheet horizontally, divide it into 2 equal parts with a vertical line, mark windows at the same level in each half, observing the same indentation from the edges and from the middle line.
Cut out the windows with scissors. On the reverse side, glue a cap from the second sheet of cardboard. Apply glue only along the middle line, along the right and left edges.
Open the album in the middle, unfasten the staples and pull out the double sheet of paper. Cut it in half lengthwise so that you get two identical strips. Mark each strip along its entire length: draw rectangles with a width corresponding to the height of the window in the part made of cardboard earlier. On one strip, write the vowels A, O, U, Y, I, E, E, I, Yu, E (one letter in each rectangle). On the second strip, write the consonants M, P, N, K, C, C, T, B, D, G, 3, F (also one letter in each rectangle).
Insert the strips into the cardboard frame: the vowel strip on the right, the consonant strip on the left.
Now set any consonant letter in the left window, and move the right bar so that vowels appear in turn in the right window. Let the child read the resulting syllables. For example: MA - MO - MU - WE - MI - ME - MY - MY - MU - ME.
Move the bar on the left to make a new consonant appear, move the right bar again, inviting the child to read new syllables.
Next time, leave the vowel you chose unchanged, and change the consonant by moving the left bar in the boxes. Ask the child to read the resulting syllables. For example: MA - PA - NA - VA - TA - BA - KA - SA - GA, etc.
You can swap the stripes, in this version the child will read chains of so-called reverse syllables, where the first letter is a vowel and the second is a consonant . For example: AP - AM - AN - AB - AT - AS - AF - HELL, AK - OK - UK - KY - IR - EK - YOK - YUK - YAK - EK.
Invite the child to move the strips independently. Ask to compose any syllable according to your task or the desire of the baby. Organize a "School for Toys" where the teacher - your child - will show his toys different syllables with the help of this manual. Good luck!
Teaching preschoolers to read at home: methods, games and tasks
Teaching a child to read is a very important process that requires patience from parents.
Often carried out by parents in the form of home preschool exercises. There are also special classes or classes with tutors. All parents begin to teach their children to read with the help of basic books, primer or alphabet. This does not require special training and a set of exercises.
The initial stage is to learn the letters of the alphabet step by step. There are various ways to teach reading to be used. Quite popular and recommended by psychologists and other specialists in the field of psychology and primary education are reading games for preschoolers. It is up to the parents to choose the teaching method.
Primer - the main book for learning
How to understand if a child is ready for learning
The difficulty lies in the fact that there is no universal age when a child must begin to be taught and given his first education. At what age to start this process, only parents should decide. Leading experts recommend paying attention in time to such first factors of a child’s readiness for learning, such as:
- Correctly formed speech construction skills.
If the child is able to logically and well build complete sentences. - If there are no certain speech disorders, the pronunciation of sounds and their perception of the child is good.
- There is the ability to qualitatively recognize spoken sounds and the skill of their definition in specific words.
- When a child has a clear orientation in space and an understanding of directions, for example, "left", "down" and others;
Important! The average age when all of the above factors are manifested in a small person is from 4 to 5 years.
However, as far as the opinions of teaching professionals are concerned, there is no consensus. There are supporters of early development who claim that the maximum learning ability in a child appears before 3 years. The main thing is to provide an entertaining and interesting gameplay.
With an early start to learning, one should not expect quick results in the baby's skills in merging syllables and a great desire to learn.
At this age, children are much more interested in just playing. Parents, of course, require great patience and diligence, only in this case can a result be achieved.
Syllabic reading for preschoolers
There are also advocates that a child needs to start learning to read at a later age. The fact is that, after conducting certain studies, scientists have found that the active phase of brain development begins from the moment of birth and ends at 15 years of age. The brain structure in this case is formed in several different periods:
- Up to 3 years, the stage of development of the centers of emotional, physical perception, and cognitive interest continues.
- From 3 to 7 years is the time of development of kinesthetic, auditory, visual perception, speech abilities, the formation of the basis of personality.
- From the age of 7, a child begins to perceive information quite consciously.
Please note! Most experts agree that it is necessary to start learning reading in the second or third periods.
In addition, according to studies, it was found that starting intervention in processes ahead of time can be dangerous for the unformed psyche of the baby.
It is impossible to pinpoint a specific age for learning to read. Everything depends on the child. Some begin to show learning abilities earlier, others later. A more important condition is to start learning exactly at the moment when the baby is completely ready for this.
Basic rules on how to teach a child to read by syllables at home
Reading lessons for children 4-5 years old are gaining more and more popularity. Regardless of age, experts recommend forgetting about learning to read letter by letter. It is necessary to immediately start giving assignments for reading by syllables and smoothly master this process.
Among the huge amount of various literature for children, there are many such cases - the syllables are written, but it is not explained how to read them. However, there is literature that suggests ways to combine sounds using various methods. For example, in the primer, which was compiled by N. S. Zhukova, there are several ways. There, all the pictures are shown in color and have instructions in the form of a set of actions:
- With the help of a running person, it is proposed to connect vowels and consonants.
- It is necessary to draw a line from the first letter to the second with a pencil, connecting them.
- Drag the first letter until the little man reaches the second letter.
- The second letter must be read in such a way that the line does not break.
Important! Such a simple way fascinates the child and makes him study the book more enthusiastically.
Primer Zhukova
As an alternative, you can consider the book "Teaching children 5-6 years old to read" from the author Yu.
V. Tumalanov. It also contains some of the available ways to combine syllables into one word. For example:
- An adult holds one letter in his hands, the child reads, at the same time another letter is brought up from a distance, and the first “falls”, the child proceeds to reading a new letter.
- An adult holds letters in his hands, one high, the other lower, the child begins to read the upper letter, slowly approaching the lower one, and switches to reading the lower one.
- An adult holds a card with letters written on both sides, the child reads the letter on one side, the adult turns the card over to the other side, the child continues to read.
Classes with a child, and specifically the memorization of syllables, should be carried out in an identical order, as in the study of letters. It is necessary to follow the following scheme:
- The adult repeats the syllable aloud several times.
- The child needs to find the required sound in the book and pronounce it.
- Subsequently, the baby needs to independently name the syllable and read it.
In this case, interest in the lesson is shown, the child is interested in finding the required syllable and voicing it.
At the moment, special online computer lessons have been created to teach reading. They are more suitable as reading lessons for children 6-7 years old, since for this you need to be able to use a computer at least at the initial level.
Reading by syllables
Methods for teaching at home
There are many different methods for teaching children to read. The following are the most widely used.
Zaitsev's technique
Today it is one of the most popular and widespread. The author created a method for placing frequently spoken letters in one table, and later divided them into many cubes. In this case, it turned out that the child is learning letters and syllables in a playful manner, on cubes.
The method has several negative aspects, which lie in the fact that, having studied letters and reading, children begin to “swallow” the end of the word, and subsequently they cannot also make out the composition of the word, since they only know it completely.
Please note! Despite the shortcomings, the technique is actively used by many parents.
Zaitsev's Cubes
Glen Doman's method
It is the simplest teaching method, which consists of several stages. In this case, the author does not set unattainable goals and difficult tasks for the child, so there is no difficulty for the baby and his parents. The main stages that make up the methodology:
- Reading individual words;
- Reading phrases;
- Learning simple sentences;
- Transition to more complex common sentences;
- Books.
The method of Maria Montessori
It consists in stimulating the independence and originality of the baby. These are natural things that are present in every person. However, the author proposes to pay attention to them from childhood, that is, to show all the abilities and talents in advance.
The technique consists of several stages:
- Outline and hatch.
Reading begins with writing, and writing begins with the preparation of the hand. To do this, Montessori teachers are advised to do shading and strokes. Shading a drawing or tracing frames, children draw lines of various lengths and in all directions, which develops freedom of movement of the hand and hardness of the fingers. - Feeling letters. By touch, children remember better than by ear or even visually. Feeling the soft, fluffy letters gives the kids great pleasure, and soon they will already know the whole alphabet.
- Composition of words. When children recognize several vowels (3-4) and the same number of consonants, they begin to compose words from the movable alphabet.
- Writing words.
- Reading.
Training in the form of a game
Almost all the methods presented are carried out in a game form. Zaitsev's technique consists in playing with cubes, while the whole learning process invented by Maria Montessori is presented in a game form.
