Did you know that there are five skills your child should master before you begin formal reading instruction? These reading readiness skills are so important, that we call them The Big Five Skills.

 

Although much of your child’s learning comes naturally as he plays and experiences life, there are some skills, like reading, that must eventually be taught. That may feel a little scary, but if you’ve taught your child how to pick up their toys or put on his socks, you can teach your child to read too!

 

In this post, you’ll learn about the skills for reading readiness, and you’ll discover over twenty fun ways you can help your preschooler or kindergartner develop in these areas. Let’s dig in!

 

5 Critical Skills for Reading Readiness

 

Print Awareness

Print awareness is the understanding that the print on a page represents words that have meaning and are related to spoken language.

 

To develop this skill:

  • Help your child learn how to hold a book correctly.
  • As you read books together, emphasize the fact that you’re reading from front to back and from left to right. Let your child turn the pages.
  • As your child helps you in the kitchen, point out the names on the food boxes and cans and the ingredients as you read your recipe.
  • Point out and read road signs and store signs as you travel in the car.

 

Letter Knowledge

Letter knowledge enables a child to recognize the letters of the alphabet and to know the names and sounds of each.

 

To develop this skill:

 

Phonological Awareness

It is a big term, but it is really quite basic. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and identify the various letter sounds in spoken words.

 

To develop this skill:

  • Read lots of nursery rhymes and rhyming picture books together. Encourage your child to anticipate rhyme as you read together.
  • Play clapping and rhyming games like Miss Mary Mack and Pat-a-Cake.
  • Sing silly songs by changing the first sound in some of the words. For example sing, “Bingle bells, bingle bells, bingle all the bay,” or “If you’re chappy and you chow it, chap your chands.”
  • Play games that encourage children to identify words that begin with a specific letter sound. For example, say, “I spy with my little eye a color that starts with /r/.”

 

Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning of words heard and relate to them‌. A child with good listening comprehension has a wide vocabulary and a growing understanding of the world around them.

 

To develop this skill:

  • Read aloud to your children daily. Read books that are in line with your child’s interests so they realize that there is a benefit to learning to read.
  • Encourage even young children to interact with books.
  • Attend story time at the library.
  • Let your child see you enjoying books.
  • Make read-aloud time an enjoyable shared time. Here are some picture book lists to get you started.

 

Motivation to Read

Motivation to read is a child’s eagerness and willingness to read.

 

To encourage your child:

  • Read both fiction and nonfiction books to your child.
  • As you read, ask open-ended questions. For example, ask “What do you think is going to happen when we turn the page?” or “Why did the boy go outside?”
  • Use everyday life experiences to build your child’s vocabulary.
  • Encourage imaginative play and storytelling.

 

Determine if Your Child Is Ready to Read

Have you been working to help your child develop these important pre-reading skills? If so, it’s very possible that your child is ready to begin formal reading instruction. But if you’re not sure whether your child is ready, complete this checklist to measure your child’s reading readiness:

 

After completing this checklist, you’ll be able to identify the pre-reading skills that your child still needs to work on. The All About Reading Pre-reading program makes it easy to fill in the gaps and get your child ready to read. Is your child already ready to read? If so, All About Reading Level 1 is the perfect starting point!

 

One Final Note

I’m a firm believer in letting kids be kids and not pushing academics too early. I also know from extensive experience that most kids don’t develop reading readiness skills on their own. The All About Reading Pre-reading program strikes a good balance. In about 15 minutes per day, depending on your child’s attention span and abilities, this easy-to-use curriculum helps children develop all five of the Big Five Skills. The program includes crafts, rhyming and word games, alphabet charts, and lots of playful activities. If you’ve never met Ziggy, you’re in for a treat!

 

Most of a young child’s day should be filled with play, real-life activities, and physical exploration. Add in just a touch of daily intentional instruction in these five reading readiness areas, and your child will have an enormous advantage when the time comes for them to read.

 

Marie Rippel is the founder and curriculum developer behind All About Learning Press. At All About Learning Press, we offer effective, fun, and affordable reading and spelling programs to help your student become a proficient reader and speller for life. All About Reading and All About Spelling are easy to teach and easy to learn. We guarantee it!

 

 


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By Jennifer Orr from Eyewords

 

Learning to read is not a privilege but a basic and essential human right. In Canada, provincial inquiries and in the US, state and national panels have reviewed public education systems and found that we have been failing students, particularly those with reading disabilities such as dyslexia, and many others, by not using evidence-based approaches to teaching students to read. 

 

Recommendations:

Now tasked with the challenge of how to address systemic issues and change the way we approach reading instruction. Here are some key recommendations.

 

Curriculum and instruction – Using research based explicit and systematic instruction that includes phonemic awareness, phonics and teaches letter-sound correspondence is critical to support learners as they decode and spell words.

 

Early screening – It is necessary to use evidence based screening assessments to screen students who may be at risk for reading difficulties as young as 3 or 4 years old and continue throughout the first few years of school.

 

Reading intervention – Reading inventions need to be available to ALL students who need them and be evidence-based. 

 

Accommodations – Accommodations or modifications should not replace teaching students to read and should be timely, consistent, effective and supported in the classroom. 

 

Professional assessment – Professional assessments need to meet the needs of diverse learners e.g. racially, linguistically, identity, socio-economically while also being timely, and based on clear criteria.

 

 

Shifting Instruction:

Considering the above recommendations, we become more capable of shifting reading instruction in a direction that works. This graphic outlines what practices are “less effective” and “more effective” for our learners.

 

 

The Science of Reading:

The Science of Reading is the name of the body of research that combines several disciplines to give a more thorough understanding of what is involved in the reading process. Similarly, structured literacy is a term coined by the International Dyslexia Association, IDA, that refers to evidence-based programs and approaches for teaching literacy. Whatever you choose to call the approach, the fundamental base of these programs comes from evidence-based, systematic approaches to direct phonics instruction.

 

What makes the Science of Reading the most effective approach? It takes what we know about reading from all the disciplines and recognizes the value of multisensory instruction to create meaning and context for vocabulary, and considers what we know about the learners in front of us. It isn’t a one-size fits all approach; rather, it recognizes that assessment is key to determining what each individual learner needs and what instruction or interventions are most helpful. Having a plan sets the Science of Reading apart. It does not rely on children picking up literacy skills, but is a structured approach with a predictable sequence of skills that build on one another.

 

As an educator who talks to other educators, this was the missing piece in literacy instruction and many are thirsty for more. Here at Eyewords, we have some freebies that can help you get started.

 

Check out the free products below you can find on the SPED Homeschool Free Downloads page to get started with an effective, evidence-based program that can be your first step towards reading success.

  • Top 10 Multisensory Sight Words Cards
  • Top 10 High-Frequency Words Orthographic Mapping
  • Multisensory-Orthographic Printable Worksheet

….and more

 

 

 

 


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by Michelle Noonan from Blooming Sounds

 

Just as Mary Poppins says, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, music can make parenting so much easier! Somehow instructions sound better when they are sung, resulting in faster compliance than with nagging for sure. 

Songs help us remember routines, facts, how to spell, etc. Music helps us change the subject, redirect, change the mood, and self-regulate. 

Two great resources on parenting through songs are PBS’s Daniel Tiger and this great post on the Music Together® Worldwide Blog. 

 

My favorites from personal experience are:

  • Singing “bad opera” about things left around the house or chores being left undone. I get stress relief for myself and it seems to motivate my child, and husband, in getting it taken care of. Pick it up and the bad opera stops!
  • Teaching my child important phone numbers, addresses, etc: I changed the lyrics to a couple of her favorite children’s songs to my cell, my husband’s cell, and my parents’ phone numbers. She was able to recall our numbers at a very young age. Changing up familiar songs also works great for addresses and names. 
  • Using music to help with transitions: Time to leave the park? Use Daniel Tiger’s “It’s almost time to go, so choose one last thing to do.” song followed by a quick segue into a game of Name That Tune on the way home.  
  •  Using music as a timer: “Let’s cleanup for 3 songs and then take a break.” Music helps pass the time while doing the dreaded chores of picking up around the house, cleaning your room, brushing teeth, thank you Elmo’s Brushy Brush song!, and just about everything else that needs to be done.

 

Need some tunes to get you started or inspired? Download the Hello Everybody App that is preloaded with 8 Music Together ® favorites. Want even more? Join us for class!

 I would love to hear some of your favorite ways you use music to make parenting easier. Please share at info@bloomingsounds.com

 

Michelle Noonan is the owner of and lead instructor at Blooming Sounds LLC, an inclusive online music center licensed by Music Together LLC and Canta y Baila Conmigo LLC to provide these amazing early music programs to 0–8-year-olds and their grown-ups, including homeschoolers on the go! Older children are welcome. You can follow Blooming Sounds on Facebook and Instagram. You can reach Michelle at info@bloomingsounds.com.

 

 

 

 


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by Cheryl Swope from Simply Classical and Cheryl Swope Consulting

 

Parents may give little thought to a child’s early development when all is well, but parents of young children with special needs do not share in this luxury. When a child evidences aberrant development, delayed speech or language, or signs of difficulty in normal maturation, we must attend to this child. Some call it early intervention, but I call it an essential intervention. We cannot wait.

 

Support may take the form of professional therapies, improved nutrition, or medical specialists, but we can also do much for the child of early needs from the comfort, warmth, and security of our own homes. As we pursue needed care, we must always remember that the child is a human being with the customary need for love, respect, and moral order. 

 

A more humane approach to early childhood special education comes from an understanding of the child’s inherent personhood. From conception onward, this little child before us is a human being, fearfully and wonderfully made. Knitted and formed by their Creator, their Savior also redeemed them. Far more than a presentation of measurable goals and finite objectives, they are given to us as a person to nurture and love for as long as they live. 

 

Engaging Your Child as an Individual:

As we work on therapy goals and tend to physical needs, we must not neglect their humanity. Our earliest years are to be filled with people who love us, people who care enough to discipline us, people we trust, and people to love and respect in return. We are not to be placed in front of televisions, tablets, or phones as digital substitutes; rather, as little persons we are to be held and spoken to face-to-face by brother, sister, mom, dad, cousins, grandparents, neighbors and church friends. We are to hear stories, sing songs, and see beauty. 

 

We are to be esteemed but not indulged. We are not to throw our toys and our food. We are not to scream or whine. We are to engage as we are engaged. When a toddler reaches out to share a soggy Cheerio, we can look them in the eye and say with appreciation, “Thank you.” We are taught and given the respect of good manners.

 

Engaging Your Child as a Family Member:

Some speculate that the dramatic rise in childhood disorders such as anxiety, adhd, oppositional defiant disorder, and autism is due in part to the proliferation of devices designed to addict, possess, and scatter a child’s mind as a substitute for human interaction, play, and quiet. Dehumanizing, fragmentation of a child from his family and from his own ability to play on his own will not serve him well. 

 

What is a busy mom to do? We can engage the child by providing time to play with the family dog, a playmate, a neighbor, or as a mother’s helper. We can ask extended family, someone from church, or a college student to come over and play. This may or may not include implementing therapy exercises.

 

Example: As a young child my son, Michael, required physical therapy for low muscle tone and malformed legs. He could not perform the therapy exercises himself, but I found myself with decreasing time and patience to do them. My dad came over to help. Michael was to extend his little leg and push forward from the toes, downward, as someone held the foot to provide resistance. Rather than my bland counting, “Push, Michael: 1, 2, 3…,” Grandpa turned this into “Press the pedal to make the car go fast! Let’s go! Vrooooooom,” he grinned as Michael pushed the imaginary pedal forward, harder than ever. As my dad worked to strengthen Michael’s legs, Michael looked into my dad’s face and found warmth, acceptance, and encouragement to strive. 

 

Engaging Your Child as a Cultural Citizen:

Our children need responding, engaging human faces. We honor our children’s personhood when we engage them with what is real. We let them hold or weigh real fruit at the grocery store, fold real socks together, and have real conversations – or see and hear others speaking directly to them if they cannot yet speak to us. We roll a ball back and forth or play “Follow the Leader” and let them become the leader. We teach saying or signing “please” and “thank you” with respect and humility. We teach them to look for ways to help.

 

By introducing carefully selected books to combine with simple lessons, we respect the young child, raise their tastes higher than they might naturally incline, and reward efforts with greater competence in cognition, communication, and understanding. 

 

When we give our youngest children the therapies and medical care they need, let us also teach, nurture, and engage our children by knowing that their personhood grants them human needs: love, discipline, kindness, respect, gentleness, order, patience, joy, and kindness. Like all of us, our youngest children need the familiar faces of those who will be with them through the ups and downs, trials and resilience, sadness and joys of being the loved and respected persons they have been created to be.

 

Resources:

Based on abilities, not chronological age, each of our Simply Classical ready-to-implement packages is themed with simple ways to include piety, preparation, and play within the therapeutic context of building skills, strengthening minds, and learning to engage with others.

Level A: Readiness, Rhythm, & Rhyme

Level B: Essentials, Etiquette, & Ear Training

Level C: Animals, Alphabet, & Aesop

 

Cheryl Swope is the author of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child and creator of the curriculum voted #1 for Special Learners, the Simply Classical Curriculum for Special Needs (Memoria Press). With a master’s degree in special education, Cheryl homeschooled her adopted boy/girl twins from their earliest years through high school graduation. The family lives together in a quiet lake community in Missouri. For more articles like this, subscribe for free to the Simply Classical Journal, a print magazine arriving twice annually.

 

 

 


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