Reading is one of the greatest skills we can give our children. A love of reading is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children.
Before we teach our children how to read, we need to ensure that they have all the skills necessary to learn.
If your child has the necessary pre-reading skills, then learning how to read will be much easier on them. If they don’t, learning to read may be a bit more challenging.
Use this checklist to assess your child’s pre-reading skills. It will tell you what they already know and what skills you can work on next!
What are pre-reading skills?
Pre-reading skills are the skills that a person should have before they learn how to read. There are five main skills that we should have before approaching learning how to read text.
These are; print awareness, phonological awareness, motivation to read, narrative skills and letter knowledge. Some of these terms can seem a bit intimidating. Don’t worry, they’re not! I will explain them in greater detail below.
Why are pre-reading skills important?
Pre-reading skills are not just important they are essential. As adults who know how to read, we don’t give much thought into how we got here. It is so natural to many of us now that we don’t remember how difficult it was to learn.
Reading is a complex skill, it takes years to read fluently and build our vocabulary and comprehension skills. Reading does not come easily to everyone. In my opinion, one of the reasons that it does not come easily to some children is because they do not have the necessary pre-reading skills before they start.
In order to give your child the best foundation for reading; you must ensure they have these pre-reading skills and are reading ready before they ever try to read a word.
Pre-reading Skills and How You Can Encourage Them
These are the 5 pre-reading skills that your child will need before they start to read. I have included some ways that you can encourage these skills at home.
Print Awareness
Print awareness or concepts of print refers to how well a child understands the concept of a book and language.
A child with good print awareness will; know how to hold a book correctly, be able to turn pages in the correct direction and understand that English books are read from left to right and from the top of the page to the bottom.
They will also understand that the words on the page represent something. They tell a story or describe an action, etc.
You can improve your child’s print awareness by allowing your child to hold the book and turn the pages while you read to them. You can use your finger to track the words that you are reading. You should take the time to point out the parts of the book as you are reading, things like the cover, title, author, etc.
Phonological Awareness
This refers to your child’s awareness of sounds. Sounds can include letter sounds, word sounds, parts of words, rhymes, etc.
A child with good phonological awareness will be able to; identify rhyming words and sounds, count/clap syllables in words, segment or break down words into sounds and substitute one letter for another in order to create a new word, e.g., swap the ‘m’ sound in mat for a ‘h’ and say hat.
You can work on your child’s phonological awareness by singing songs and nursery rhymes. As parents we can get very tired of the repetition of old songs and rhymes but the benefit for your child and their pre-reading skills are massive!
You can read rhyming books and poems. You might even be able to pause towards the end of rhyming sentence and see if your child can guess the rhyming word.
Play word games. See how many words they can find that rhyme with hat or tap, etc. Try giving them nonsense words too and see if they notice. Challenge them to replace one letter sound with another. This may sound tricky to you but you will be amazed what your child is capable of if you let them show you!
Motivation to Read
This skill is super important! I’m sure you’ve noticed already that your child is much more motivated to learn if they are interested in a topic. My 4 year old could not care less about soccer but if you mention dinosaurs, out comes the box of dinosaur toys and the facts you didn’t even know yourself! Not to mention his range of vocabulary when it comes to that topic!! He’s not sure what a goalpost is but he can take you through the Jurassic period like a pro!!
You will know your child is motivated to read if; they show an interest in books, ask you to read to them or pretend to read themselves!
Side note, occasionally your child may trick you into thinking they are reading, don’t get too excited that you are raising a genius!! My son can sit and “read” his favourite books! He knows them so well that he can turn each page and recite off by heart the text that is on it! He’s not reading but it’s a neat party trick to pull out when you have guests over!!!
Encourage your child’s interest by letting them choose the book you read together. Read with them every day. Make it fun, not a chore to be ticked off a list. Read with enthusiasm, use funny voices, make it interesting for them!
Narrative Skills
This refers to how well your child understands what is being read to them. Can your child answer simple questions about the story that you just read. Can they retell the story? Can they describe elements of the story?
As you are reading with your child, ask them open ended questions, e.g., what do you think will happen next? What was your favourite part?
Ask the child to retell the story to you, maybe even use hand puppets to make it fun! Encourage your child to make up their own stories.
Your child’s narrative skills will build a strong foundation for their comprehension skills which will be vital for them as they grow older. It is not enough to just be able to read. Your child must also understand what they are reading.
Letter Awareness
This is exactly what it sounds like! How aware is your child of letters. Ideally they would be able to recognise and name the letters of the alphabet. If they can do this with both upper and lower case letters, even better!
One of the nicest ways to start with letters is to begin with the letters in your child’s name. They get a real sense of achievement when they can say the letters in their own name. You will also see them light up when they tell someone else and that person is suitably impressed!!!
From there, you can introduce more letters. Then ask them to identify letters when you are out and about. Maybe ask them if they tell you the letters on a STOP sign or a street sign. They will truly get such a rush when they can do it! And the more enthusiastic you are with your praise, the bigger the rush they will get! This will then encourage their interest and add to their motivation, wohoo!!
Conclusion
Pre-reading skills are not nice-to-have skills, they are have-to-have skills! If you want your child to have the best foundation they can before they learn to read then these skills are essential.
Don’t worry about what age your child is or that Little Bobby down the street is already reading Harry Potter at the age of 3 and a half! Give your child the gift of these skills before you approach reading with them. Use the checklist to see where they are with their pre-reading skills and what ones they need to work on next!
If you put the work into these skills, learning to read will come easier. Not only that but you will create a bond with your child and an interest in learning. Reading daily is a beautiful way to spend time with your child. And praise from you when they are learning new skills will light up their day!
Get some more activity ideas to develop their pre-reading skills here!
