The Best Time to Teach Formal Reading to Young Children

Reading Readiness

• Reading readiness refers to a child's preparedness to learn to read. The skills needed include recognizing letters and knowing that letters form words, the ability to turn pages in a book, and to be able to track word shapes consecutively across a page. He also needs to be able to recognize specific word shapes and be able to sound out unfamiliar words. Decoding is a beginning literacy skill, as is recognizing sight words, which are the easy words that make up the foundation of writing.

Physical Maturity

• A child's eyes must physically mature before she is ready to read. According to the Encyclopedia of Children's Health, this occurs during the preschool age, which ranges from age three to age five. Physical requirements for reading include the ability to coordinate both eyes to focus at close range and to sustain it for several minutes at a time. According to "Vision and Reading," an article published by Children's Vision Information Network, children also need to be able to change focus quickly from close range to distance to be able to focus on an information source far away, and then return to focusing at close range. Problems with vision can cause your child to struggle with reading at any age.

Cognitive Maturity

• A slide show prepared for a Title I directors' conference, entitled "Early Reading and Scientifically-Based Research," points out that children need to be able to connect the separate sounds in language. In order to sound out words, they need to understand that letters are symbols for sound, and they need to be able to connect those symbols and sounds to make words. Without this awareness, they are limited to memorizing the shape of the words, which limits their ability to read.

The Real Time to Teach Formal Reading

• The time to teach formal reading is sometime between the age of three and adulthood, or when the child is sufficiently both physically and cognitively ready to learn to read. For most children, reading readiness is developed between age three and seven. Parents can help their children prepare for reading by reading aloud to them, helping them learn the alphabet, encouraging them to watch educational television programming, such as Sesame Street, and providing toys and books that promote reading readiness skills. The American Library Association emphasizes that the single most important thing you can do for your child's ability to learn is to read aloud to her.