In the Reception Hub, we focus on teaching the children the following skills in order to foster a love of reading. In this post, there is also some tips for how you can help at home.

1. Motivation:

In order to learn, children need to be ready and have the motivation to read.

What Can Children Do?

• Show an interest in books and reading.
• Ask others to read aloud to them.
• Pretend to read books.

What Can Parents Do?

• Let your child pick what book he or she wants to read.
• Read to your child everyday.
• Read with enthusiasm.

2. Language Skills:

Children need to have language skills before learning how to read so they can describe things and share their knowledge and ideas.

What Can Children Do?

• Answer simple questions about a story.
• Retell a story in their words.
• Describe elements in a story such as the characters and setting.

What Can Parents Do?

• Ask your child open-ended questions like “what do you think will happen next?”
• Have your child retell the story using puppets.
• Encourage your child to make up his or her own story.

3. Concepts Of Print:

In order to learn how to read, children must understand how books work or concepts of print.

What Can Children Do?

• Hold a book correctly.
• Turn pages in the right direction.
• Read from left to right and top to bottom.
• Understand words represent a spoken word and convey a message.

What Can Parents Do?

• Use your finger to track the words.
• Point to the parts of a book such as the front cover, title, and author.
• Let your child hold the book, turn the pages, and point to the words as you read.

4. Letter Knowledge:

Letter knowledge is understanding that the letters of the alphabet have different names and sounds.

What Can Children Do?

• Name the letters of the alphabet.
• Recognise lowercase and capital letters.
• Name each letter’s sound.

What Can Parents Do?

• Teach your child the letters in his or her name.
• Read Alphabet books.
• Ask your child to identify letters on things in the grocery store or on signs around town.

5. Phonemic Awareness:

Phonemic awareness is hearing and understanding that that words are made up of smaller sounds.

What Can Children Do?

• Rhyme.
• Count the syllables in a word.
• Blend sounds together.
• Segment or break words down into individual sounds.
• Substitute one letter sound for another one to make a new word.

What Can Parents Do?

• Sing songs and rhymes.
• Play word games.
• Reading rhyming books.

After a children develop these pre-reading skills, they will continue to learn and grow as a reader. They will learn about phonics, sight words, and much more as they establish the building blocks for reading success!

Some of the above ideas credited to - http://www.abcsofliteracy.com