Pre-Reading Skills for Preschoolers

Pre-reading skills for preschoolers will give your child the tools they will need before they start learning to read.

Teaching preschoolers how to read is best taught by reading. Children need to learn to read the same way they learn to talk, by being immersed in it – by making it fun and enjoyable and part of everyday life. Reading books, signs, recipes, magazines, and cereal boxes. Reading about anything they are interested in.

So often, when a parent or teacher wants to start teaching a child to read, they look for a program, worksheets, or some kind of drill work. These can have their place if they’re fun and engaging, and your child enjoys them. However, they should only supplement your actual story times. Actual reading to your child should be the biggest part of your “reading program.”

Pre-Reading Skills for Preschoolers

During storytime, there is an immense amount of learning taking place between the covers of books. As you snuggle up with your little one and read aloud to them, they are building knowledge and a rich vocabulary. They learn that written words have meaning. With simple guidance, they soon learn that stories are read top to bottom, front to back, and left to right. And that books have titles, authors, and illustrators.

Many children even have a favorite author (although they may not know it unless you point it out ). For instance, if your child loves Little Critter books, then they love books written by Mercer Mayer.

Teaching Pre-Reading Skill Activities

As you read to your child, there are many ways you can encourage pre-reading skills. Books with repeating phrases and rhyming text are a big hit with preschoolers. Some children may even be able “read” some of the words with you.

Here’s a few things you mix into your reading, but be sure to keep these fun and not a chore.

Guide them in learning how to:

• turn pages
• identify the front and back of the book
• predict what a new story will be about by the cover
• make predictions about what will happen in the story as you read
• identify the main characters of the stories
• recall the series of events that took place
• retell the story
• point out the title, author, and illustrator
• Encourage your child to chime in at familiar texts

Sentences and Punctuation

Older preschoolers can begin learning the basics about sentences and simple punctuation while enjoying read-alouds. Here’s a few things you can incorporate into your storytime.

• Point out that sentences begin with a capital letter.
• Show your child what an exclamation point looks like. Discuss how a word or sentence is read when you see these marks. Exclamatory words (interjections )are naturally FUN to preschoolers!
• Likewise, show what a question mark looks like in a story and discuss how a sentence is read when you see this punctuation.
• Try this punctuation game:
  • write an exclamation mark, a question mark, and a period each on a card, and then play a game with your child by saying a sentence, asking a question, or making an exclamation, and let them hold up the appropriate card.
  • Switch roles and let them pose sentences to you, and you hold up the appropriate card.

A sure-fire way to build strong reading skills in preschoolers is by instilling a love of reading from the very beginning. If books are an enjoyable, fun part of your child’s everyday routine in these early years, they will have a strong, solid foundation to build on for the rest of their life.

Be sure to check out more reading resources:

• 15 Picture Books to Teach Problem Solving to Kids
• Language Arts Activities
• Booklists