What is reading skill? A guide for parents

It has been shown in all kinds of research that the most important skills for parents to teach their children are the beginning parts of how to read. However, at a very young age, many parents wonder what it is like to read for a two or three year old. While you may not be able to sit down and give them lessons, you can do things that will greatly impact their ability to learn the skill when they are around four or five years old.

First, you need to be seen reading yourself. If you choose to read magazines and newspapers, that’s fine, but if you read books, then it’s even better. Research by various scientists has shown that simply having books around the house, even if you’re not reading them, makes your children much more likely to want to learn to read and much more successful in school. If your child sees you sitting down and enjoying a book, he’ll be eager to learn the skill himself.

Second, while you may not be a teacher and may not have many ideas about how to begin teaching the skill of reading, you need to start with something. It is a tragedy that many children enter kindergarten with only a rudimentary knowledge of the alphabet. By the time your child first enrolls in school, your child should know the order of letters, know a number of words that begin with each letter of the alphabet, and be able to write uppercase and lowercase letters with their pencils.

Third, take your child to the library and make it fun. Get them a library card as soon as you can, and be sure to head over to the kids’ section to explore. Even if they can’t read books, you can get a variety of books to read to them, and you can also let them have comics or picture books. Some libraries lend out educational games, and almost all libraries have audiobooks available for beginning readers to listen to and read on their own.

No matter what you choose to do, don’t underestimate the need to teach your child the basics of reading before he or she enters school. If you want more information on how to teach it, there are hundreds of websites that can teach you what you need to know.