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The Right Start to Reading

Just as a healthy breakfast provides the right start for the day, pre-literacy experience provides children with the right start for entering Nursery. You can help your child develop important pre-literacy skills by regularly reading and verbally interacting with them. Not only do pre-literacy skills improve a child’s chances for academic success in pre-school, but they also improve a child’s chances for academic success throughout their years of basic education.

It is easy for parents to fall into the habit of switching on the TV instead of spending time reading or talking to their child about his or her day. To combat that urge, there are some easy-to-follow tips to ensure that your preschooler starts school prepared to succeed.

Tips for Creating a Pre-Literacy Experience

• Talk to your children from day one. When you're doing the laundry, talk about the colours of the clothes. When you’re preparing dinner, talk about the ingredients and the different steps. Use every opportunity to introduce your child to new vocabulary, no matter how simple. You'll be setting your child on the path to becoming a lifelong learner.
• Surround your child with reading matter. Make your child aware that words are everywhere—on cereal boxes, milk cartons, signs, even on toys! Help him or her notice that words are made of individual letters, and that letters have names and sounds. Join the local library to add variety to the tomes you have at home.
• Read to your child every day. No matter how busy you are, you can spare ten minutes a day!
• Praise your child frequently. Make him or her feel encouraged to explore, learn and experiment.
• Take regular trips to the library. Even if you go just once a month, this is an outing that will benefit the whole family.
• Write the names of common objects on index cards. Tape labels on the objects (such as desk, chair, door, etc.) in your child's room. This will help him or her understand that those squiggles on the page, when arranged in certain combinations, stand for something. Don't forget the most important word of all: your child's name!
• Encourage literacy in other children, too. Share the gift of literacy with others by donating used books, or inviting children with you on visits to the library. You can help other parents understand the importance of encouraging their children and recognise the value of pre-literacy.  Our schools will not improve, and our children will not flourish, if we don’t do what we can to help everyone achieve literacy!