Hindi Kailangang Madaliin! Pre-Reading Activities To Enhance Your Child's Reading Readiness Skills

Your child's early, formative years are key to laying the foundation for reading. Reading (and even the love for it) does not develop overnight. It is a gradual process that includes motivation, practice, and repetition. And since reading is a skill that does not come easily, it is essential to have the skills before a person actually learns how to read, also known as "pre-reading skills".

According to Reading BrightStart, pre-reading skills are summed up as Oral Language, Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, and Beginning Writing. Below is how each skill is described from their site.

Reading Readiness Skills

Oral Language

Oral Language includes the ability to understand spoken language and speak clearly to communicate with others. Developing your child’s oral language skills increases his or her vocabulary and speaking skills, contributes to comprehension and enjoyment of reading, helps your child relate stories in books to his or her own experiences and builds listening and attention skills for school. 

Letter Knowledge

Letter knowledge includes recognition and naming of letter names and letter sounds, along with a general understanding of how print and pictures are processed differently. Learning letters is challenging for young children - they need to learn, over time, to look at letters and listen to letter sounds differently and very carefully.

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is a specialized type of listening skill that is necessary for children to learn to read. Being able to identify and play with these word parts is essential for future success with phonics. Starting around age 3 or 4, your child will begin to show increasing skill at playing with words by changing sounds or syllables. 

Beginning Writing

Beginning writing includes fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination for controlling writing tools, understanding that we can show our thoughts through drawing and writing, and writing letters that represent sounds in words. Learning to read and write are interrelated skills that develop in stages.

READ ALSO: 13+ Tips to Make Sure You're Supporting Your Child's Reading Skills Wherever You Are

So how do we develop these skills? We've summed up several activities below to make your pre-reading journey fun and exciting!

Pre-reading Activities

Use Pictures and Flashcards

You may start using flash cards and choose what interests them like dinosaurs, planets, animals, food items, etc. You can also use an old magazine and cut out pictures that your little one will most likely recognize, stick them to a card stock and write the word or letters associated with the picture: For example: "cat" or "dog" or "milk" or "A" for a picture of an apple or "M" for a picture of planet Mars

Skills: Letter Knowledge, Print Awareness

It's Time for Story Time

Give them a picture and let them tell a story about it. You can pick a simple word or two from their story and write it on a whiteboard or index card. Once story telling is done, point to the word/words as you say it. If you used an index card, you can collect them, punch a little hole on one side, and put them together with a ring binder to read again later on. 

Skills: Narrative Skills, Vocabulary

Read to your kids everyday

Use picture books when you read them stories to develop picture-word association. Just be sure not to hurry things up and slow down the pace --highlighting one word at a time. Similarly, read books that offer a lot of repeated lines and phrases. Repetition enhances retention. Soon, they might finish off your sentence when you've read it to them many times. 

Skills: Vocabulary, Listening, Phonological Awareness, Print Awareness

READ ALSO: Must Add to Family Routine: Dad Reading Bedtime Stories Because the Benefits Are Awesome

Ask "What happens next?" 

Narration:

Read a book to your child and make a recap of the story, prompting your child "what happens next" to a specific part of the story. Choose the obvious ones so they can actively participate during recap.  

Recreate a picture book: You can also buy from thrift shops some picture books that you can cut and separate the pages after reading the story. Reshuffle and intsruct your child to remake the story by memory using the cut pages of the book.

Skills: Sequencing, Print Awareness, Fine Motor Skills 

Time for Rhyme

Kids love rhyme and here's our take on rhyming words: find a box and fill it with common household items and instruct your child to pick two items that rhyme! This is ideal for kids ages 4-5! Sample items: pan - fan, bat - hat, truck - (toy) duck, monkey - donkey (stuffed animals)

Skills: Vocabulary, Rhyming skills, Word Recognition

Play with Magnetic Letters

You can try to "Make the Letters Go Away" through the use of magnetic letters. Spread the letters out and ask them to pick a specific letter until all letters have been called out. For example, Let's make the letter "E" go away. Alternatively, you can use the sound of the letter: Let's make "mmmmm" go away.   

Skills: Letter Knowledge, Phonological awareness

Find the Hidden Treasure

 

 

Pick common objects you can find in the household like toys, marble, hair clip, bow, pencil, etc. and place them inside a bowl of flour, rice, or macaroni. Be creative! Let your kid find what you placed inside and let them tell you what it is. 

For example: What did you find? A toy truck! Is it a yellow toy truck? No? What is it then, a blue one? It's a blue toy truck! Is it a small toy truck? Yes! I'ts a small, blue toy truck! What else did you find? 

Skills: Vocabulary, Oral Language, Fine Motor Skills

Do you swear by other pre-reading activities not mentioned above? Let us know in the comments section!

Other Sources: Very Well Family, Smart Parent Advice