Is your child interested in learning the names of letters? Does he look through books and magazines on his own? Does he like to “write” with a pencil or pen? Does he listen attentively during story time? If the answer is yes, he may be ready to learn some of the basics of reading. If not, he’s like most preschoolers, and will take another year or two to develop the language skills, visual perception, and memory he needs to begin formal reading.
In this article we would be looking at Weather your child Is Ready to Learn.
Although a few four-year-olds sincerely want to learn to read and will begin to recognize certain familiar words, there’s no need to push your child to do so. Even if you succeed in giving him this head start, he may not maintain it once school begins. Most early readers lose their advantage over other children during the second or third grade, when the other students acquire the same basic skills.
The crucial factor that determines whether a student will do well or poorly in school is not how aggressively he was pushed early on, but rather his own enthusiasm for learning. This passion cannot be forced on a child by teaching him to read at age four. To the contrary, many so-called early learning programs interfere with the child’s natural enthusiasm by forcing him to concentrate on tasks for which he’s not yet ready.
What’s the most successful approach to early learning? Let your child set his own pace and have fun at whatever he’s doing. Don’t drill him on letters, numbers, colors, shapes, or words. Instead, encourage his curiosity and tendencies to explore on his own. Read him books that he enjoys, but don’t push him to learn the words. Provide him with educational experiences, but make sure they’re also entertaining.
When your child is ready to learn letters and reading, there are plenty of valuable tools to help him—educational television programs, games, songs, and even some of the latest age-appropriate video games and DVDs. But don’t expect them to do the job alone. You need to be involved, too. If he’s watching an educational TV show, for example, sit with him and talk about the concepts and information being presented. If he’s playing with a computer program, do it with him so you can make sure it’s appropriate for his abilities. If the game is too frustrating for him, it may diminish some of his enthusiasm and defeat the whole purpose. Active learning in a warm, supportive environment is the key to success.
If these thoughts sound familiar, not to worry — you’re not the only parent who has wondered. Before children start to read books, it’s important for them to master a few key skills that will help them make sense of all those words on the page (remember, while you see letters, right now they only see little black squiggles!). Work on reaching these milestones established by the National Institute for Literacy with your child, and you’ll have a confident bookworm on your hands in no time.
Milestone 1: They recognize all types of print.
Show your child that people read words, not pictures, by drawing attention to the many places you can find text. Munching on cereal for breakfast? Read the words on the box, and explain how they tell you if it’s your favorite flavor. Driving to the store? Point at street signs and mention how helpful they are in helping you get to your destination. Soon, your child will understand that the words she sees in print are related to the words she speaks and hears.
Your child has reached this milestone if she:
- Recognizes print in everyday life
- Holds a book, turns pages, and pretends to read
- Asks questions or makes comments that show she understands what you read to her
Book pick: Penguins Love Their ABC’S — Teach your child how fun it can be to look for letters in unexpected places! This lovable tale follows six adorable penguins who play a snowy hide-and-seek game to find all the letters of the alphabet.
Milestone 2: They’ve mastered the alphabet.
Once your child recognizes and names letters, he can start focusing his attention on next-level tasks that will help him learn to read, like pinpointing the sounds associated with each letter. Your goal: Help him learn as many letters as possible by the time he starts kindergarten.
Your child has reached this milestone if he:
- Can sing the ABC song
- Recognize the shape of letters
- Is starting to learn the sounds of letters, like that “B” makes the “buh” sound
Book pick: Scholastic Early Learners: Trace, Lift, and Learn: ABC123 — Make learning the alphabet feel like play with this hands-on book, which provides indented finger grooves for letter tracing and interactive lift-the-flap features.
Milestone 3: They have a knack for the sound of speech.
The fancy term for this is “phonological awareness.” In plain English, that means your little one can discern certain sounds in words, an important foundation for reading skills. She might understand that some words repeat sounds (think a tongue twister like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”) or that other words rhyme (like “cat” and “rat”).
Your child has reached this milestone if she:
- Notices sound repetition in nursery rhymes or certain stories
- Understands that “dog” does not rhyme with “cat”
- Can clap out syllables in familiar and unfamiliar words — cow/boy, ro/de/o
Book pick: Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young — Improve your child’s phonological awareness by exposing them to a world of rhymes! This child-friendly anthology showcases more than 200 short poems that are perfect for little learners.
Milestone 4: They can break words apart into specific sounds.
This skill is called “phonemic awareness,” and it’s usually one of the last phonological skills (described above) your child develops. If he can break apart the word “bird” into sounds “b-ir-d,” or can say the word “bird” after hearing each sound individually, he has fine-tuned phonemic awareness. These skills help children understand the connection between written letters and words and the sounds we say out loud.
Your child has reached this milestone if he:
- Can name several words that begin with the same sound, like “bat,” “boy,” and “bell”
- Can replace one sound with another, such as swapping out the first sound in “pig” with a “d” to make “dig”
