Pre-Reading Skills
Many of your child’s early reading skills are obtained naturally during childhood as you read and talk to them. By doing this you have instilled essential skills that will help them develop pre-reading skills. When your child has reached the pre-school age they will be ready for pre-school reading.
Pre-reading skills for preschoolers are what your child needs to become a reader. It seems schools are requiring readers to develop earlier and earlier as generations pass by. Several competencies lead to good reading ability. These skills include:
Letter skills
Recognizing letter shapes and learning common sounds the letters make gives them a head start.Often these shapes and sounds are taught in preschool and then are a required competency for finishing kindergarten.
Motor skills
As your child writes letters and words, they will learn to read them. Reading them will make it all come together for them. Studies have shown that physical activities contribute to better learning overall.
Matching
Your child will learn how to match shapes, letters, patterns and then words. Matching helps them earn symmetry and helps them differentiate left and right sides.
Rhyming
Studies show that if a child can understand rhyming words it will give them an advantage in learning how to read and even spell. Knowing how to spell goes a long way towards better writing skills.
Language skills
Practical life skills help your child to listen, read and write. Your child will hear and join in conversations as well as listen to stories and poetry. The more exposure they have to language the easier it will be to learn reading. They will gain exposure to pre-reading work like; antonym concepts, rhyming and sound games. At preschool your child will be exposed to material that will develop their visual abilities that will help them develop pre-reading skills.
Pre-reading skills for preschoolers will teach your child to read short words introduced with small objects. Once they become comfortable with the sounds they will move on to learning how the written language works and from knowing how to write small words they will move on to being able to read them.
There are many benefits to encouraging a lifelong love of reading in your children. Reading will lead to adventures and experiences they might not attain elsewhere. The earlier you start to foster this love of reading, the better off your child will be in the future.