Reading Readiness: Sharmila Vijayvargi

During the preschool l years, children develop at an extraordinary rate. Each day’s experiences however familiar to adults can be fresh and exciting to curious preschooler. Although your child’s curiosity may be aggravating, especially at the end of a long day. It provides an opportunity for you to help her connect daily experiences with words. Parents too have an opportunity to help children develop language, but these opportunities occur naturally.

While connecting experiences to language is an important foundation for learning to read, no activity is more important for improving your child to succeed as a reader than reading aloud together. When you read to your children, they almost automatically learn about written language. They may also learn that print also goes from left to right, that words are made up of letters, that each letter has at least two forms (capital and small) and that there are spaces between words.

While reading with your child, you will often have opportunities to answer her questions about the names, sounds and shape of the letters. A preschooler is very observant and often focus on company logos and trademarks that include or resemble letters of the alphabet, For example, the golden arches of McDonald's look like M. Television programs also help your child learn letters and the sound they represent. Try to watch these shows with her and you can talk to her about the letters on the screen and point out all other places these letters appear.

Researchers have shown that children who know the names and sounds of letters in preschool years learn to read sooner. Activities can be planned to create interest of the kids to learn to identify letters, sounds and words.

Sharmila Vijayvargi

The Fabindia School, svi4fab@gmail.com