Our children learn to read at school but there’s no reason not to start earlier. You are already teaching your child how to use good manners, to clean up and to maintain great hygiene… so why not practice reading while you’re at it? 

Children cannot read if they don’t first understand the language. Talk to your child early and often in normal vocabulary rather than baby talk even if they cannot yet respond with words. A Stanford University study shows that exposing young children to a variety of words can improve their literacy development as young learners.

Spend quality time with your child by reading together. Read to your child and, when she is capable, listen to her as she reads. Repeat this regularly until she can read a book smoothly on her own.

Focus on letters and sounds as you read to your child. Start with the first letter of a word or the sound of a character. It’s also fun to practice sound recognition in your daily life. Pick out your child’s favorite fruit at the grocery store and ask him what sounds the letters make. For example. banana starts with the -buh sound. This will help him the sounds he already knows with the letters he is learning.

Reading is much more than just sounding out words, however. As you read with your child, ask her questions about the story to practice recognizing details and remembering the story sequence.

Whether it is right before bedtime or for half an hour after lunch on the weekends, try to make reading part of your home routine. Your children love their quality time with you so, if you associate quality time with reading, they’ll also love to read!