|
Return
to the Article List
Reading
Road Signs
How to Know if Your Child is on the Road to Reading Success
Amy Pedigo, Director of Education, Let's Go Learn, Inc.
The
road to reading can be a long one. It is important to start
recognizing some of the signs of reading skills long before a
child actually begins to read. These signs will indicate that
your son or daughter is on the right track. Language development
begins from birth, and the process just keeps developing over
the years and naturally extends right into reading. Some
scientists say that the final language process needed to learn
to read is called phonemic awareness; the ability to distinguish
sounds one from another. This skill is necessary to sound out
words, a crucial part of beginning reading. Those same
scientists usually agree that phonemic awareness doesn't fully
develop until the age of five or six years of age. However,
several other processes are involved in the complex task of
learning to read. You can recognize some of them in your child
from the list below. Keep in mind that every child is different
and reading is not an exact science.
Ages
3-4
- The
child may babble words in sentence form imitating regular
speech. You may even hear them babble something with the
intonation of a question.
- The
child will usually respond to the facial expressions of
others. You may see the child sympathize with some one who
is hurt or crying.
- By
this age the child will listen and enjoy books being read
aloud, alone or in groups.
- A
child will choose favorite books and may like to hear them
over and over.
- A
child will point to objects in pictures, like animals and
people, "Where is the cow?" "Point to the
farmer."
Ages
4-5
- This
child will enjoy listening and discussing stories.
- He
or she may think about story characters above and beyond the
story, "Maybe they all went home after the story was
over."
- This
child should be able to name people in a story, "He is
a policeman!"
- A
child should be able to name objects in pictures,
"That's a fork."
- A
five-year-old child should easily identify their first name
in print.
Ages
5-6
- Understand
how to hold a book and turn the pages the correct way.
- This
child should be able to retell a story.
- This
child should begin to use more advanced vocabulary than past
years. They should learn to name things in a more succinct
manner, like learning to say television instead of TV.
- A
child of this age range should certainly be able to print
their first name legibly and possibly last name as well.
- A
child of this age should begin recognizing familiar words
like exit, or mom.
Return
to the Article List
|
