Preschool Reading

LET YOUR CHILD SEE YOU READ If you read (it’s especially important for children to see dad read) your child will sense the importance of reading and will eventually be interested in learning to do it themselves.

It is also important that your child see you look to books for information and answers to questions. Cookbooks, dictionaries, newspapers, and magazines are just a few information sources.

Lists are also very good to emphasize the importance of reading. For example, at the grocery, say “Let’s look at our list to see what else we need...hmmm….this says we need milk…”

PROVIDE AN ABUNDANCE OF READING MATERIALS Once your child has learned a respect for books, have them everywhere. If they are still learning to respect books, still have them everywhere, just out of reach. Books, magazines, newspapers, take out menus, comic books. Visit the library often, browse the shelves and take home as many books as you can read in the allotted time. (More on that later.)

READ, READ, READ aloud…then read aloud some more. This should be the core of your preschool reading program.

Start when your child is born. No, they won’t understand what you are saying and yes, you should talk to them too. For infants, choose books with rhyme, rhythm, or repetition since the sounds are important at this age. Your voice sounds somewhat different and the cadence is different when you read aloud and when you speak. Some parents are uncomfortable reading aloud. If you start early, you will have an opportunity to build your confidence. If your child gets fussy, put the books away for another time. You do not want to foster a negative association with reading.

As your child gets older add simple read aloud stories with easy to follow plots and a few characters. Use your finger to point left to right under the lines of print that you are reading. You can point out simple words - in books or elsewhere (like the grocery store). Answer questions that your child has about printed materials…”What’s that say?” Encourage your child that eventually, he will be able to read his favorite books all by himself.

Even if you feel like you’ll lose your mind if you have to read “Down on the Farm” one more time….try to oblige happily. Repetition is beneficial to a child’s preschool reading experience.

Don’t be afraid to read books without pictures to your preschool child. Remember the storytellers of days gone by? They didn’t have “pictures” for their audience. The audience used their imagination to create their own pictures. At first, you may only be able to keep your child’s attention for a few minutes, but as time goes by they will sit an listen for longer and longer periods especially if the story is interesting. This is a WONDERFUL skill to develop early and will enhance your child’s reading experiences as they get older.

By allowing your child to develop a sense that reading is important, they will eventually WANT to learn to read and may even learn to do it with a minimum amount of instruction from you. If you are patient, most children will come and ASK you to teach them to read. For some this may happen at 4 years old, for others it may not happen until 7 or 8 years old. Even though having a 7 or 8 year old “learning to read” may seem like a failure to someone involved with traditional schools, it is happening exactly when it should.

If your child is a late reader, don’t feel like a failure. Instead, focus on teaching reading through other means (science experiments, field trips, cooking, nature walks, songs…) while continuing to read aloud quality, exciting books to set a positive tone for learning to read when the time is right.

Your child’s preschool reading experiences will shape his or her attitude toward reading and learning for years to come. Forcing a child to “learn to read” may get a positive short term result (they can read at age 5) but an unwanted long term result (getting them to read is like “pulling teeth”.)

There are three factors that need to be considered before your child learns to read... find out about these reading readiness factors.

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