Developing Reading Skills in Young Children

Developing early reading skills plays an important role in laying the groundwork for independent reading in the future. You can help your young child develop these skills in everyday life, where ever you are, shopping, at the playground or at the doctor’s office.

Reading Together is one of the most important things you can do with your child. Reading stories with your child, if only for 10 minutes a day, helps to capture your child's interest in books. Even babies enjoy looking and listening to books.
Here are a few tips on how to help children develop good reading skills at an early age:

1. Teaching Direction
Use your finger to run across the words and guide your child's finger as you read. This will help them understand that the writing moves left to right.

2. Letters
Children need to make the connection between the letter, its name and the sound it makes like “b” makes the sound "buh". Children can gain a familiarity with the alphabet and the sounds they represent at a fairly young age.

3. Language skills
Children can begin to understand the connection between spoken and written word at a young age. Teaching word recognition at a young age can help with reading comprehension at the later stage of learning and reading. Have them listen to and tell stories.

4. Rhyming
Dr. Seuss and other rhyming books are loved by children and they teach kids that words and sentence often have a natural rhythm.

It may seem challenging to teach children reading skills at an early age; however, it will all be worth it. Early intervention in reading prevents future problems