| If you have a preschool or kindergarten age child, | | | | read starts out with mastering skills like letter |
| you may be trying to figure out if your child is | | | | identification. A simple game at the store where |
| ready to read. On one hand, you don't want to | | | | your child starts to pick out letters he recognizes |
| push a child who is not ready.This can often lead | | | | on signs is a part of teaching your child to read. |
| to a feeling of failure. On the other hand, if your | | | | Learning to read is not something any parent |
| child is ready to learn how to read, how can you | | | | should leave solely to formal education. From day |
| actually know? | | | | one, you are exposing your child to language. As |
| First of all, do not approach the notion of teaching | | | | they grow, you should be exposing them to |
| your child to read like it is a contest. Whether or | | | | written language more and more. |
| not they read before their best friend or at the | | | | Once a child starts identifying letters they can |
| same time as the neighbor's son does not | | | | start figuring out the sounds those letters make. |
| matter. Get that into your head. The fact that | | | | As basic as it may sound, this is what kids need |
| your young child can read does not mean they | | | | to do before they are ready to formally learn to |
| are smarter than the other children and will not | | | | read. If you do think that your child is ready to |
| necessarily give them any advantage when they | | | | learn to read and you want to get started |
| enter school. | | | | teaching them, you can test their reading |
| At What Age is a Child Ready to Learn to Read? | | | | readiness. You can find free reading tests online, |
| Most children are ready to learn to read | | | | for example. Or you may be able to ask your |
| somewhere between the ages of 5 - 6.5. If a 5 | | | | pre-school teacher for help and advice. Once you |
| year old shows no interest in learning letters and | | | | determine that your child is ready to start learning |
| phonics, there is absolutely no reason to push | | | | reading, you may want to work with them using |
| and no reason to be concerned. Actually, pushing | | | | books and worksheets and make up various |
| too hard, before a child is really ready, can lead to | | | | games that teach phonics. Alternately, you could |
| self-esteem problems and can even further delay | | | | use a phonics software that provides a full |
| their desire since they will associate learning to | | | | curriculum to follow. These reading programs can |
| read with a bad feeling instead of a positive | | | | be reasonably priced and even allow the child to |
| feeling. Teaching a child to read is a process and | | | | work on their own. Many great phonics programs |
| it actually starts when they are babies. You don't | | | | and games are available from a variety of |
| teach them to read in a few lessons and then | | | | sources. |
| one day they start reading books. Learning to | | | | |