How to Enhance Prereading Skills
You can help your child learn to read before school ever starts. Proficiency in prereading skills is a crucial factor in determining future academic success, according to Reading Rockets, a federally funded reading resource site. Children who begin kindergarten already knowing the basics of book handling and print features usually have better comprehension and reading ability. Help your child develop a love for books while you enhance her reading skills.
Instructions
Read aloud frequently. You will introduce your child to a new story, expose him to new vocabulary words and model fluent reading. Children need to hear smooth, accurate reading often so they can emulate these habits when they become independent readers. Other fluent practices include pausing at punctuation and using expressive intonation at appropriate places in the book. Explain text features. As you read to your child, point out characteristics of the book like the front and back cover and the title page. Point to the words when you read so your child will learn that print is read from left to right and top to bottom. This also helps him learn that print has meaning. Don't forget to explain that illustrations can help him understand the story by providing a visual aid. If your child is pre-K age, usually 3 or 4, try to explain the meanings of literary terms like characters, setting and plot. Talk about what you're reading. Ask questions before and during reading about what your child thinks is going to happen in the story. After reading, get your child to retell as much as he can. These simple discussion techniques help increase comprehension skills like summarizing and predicting. Teach alphabet recognition while reading. After reading a story, pick a few letters to emphasize and tell your child their names and the sounds they make. Show the uppercase and lowercase letter so they will begin to understand that "a" makes the sound sound as "A." Demonstrate the importance of print in everyday life. When you are shopping or traveling in the car, point to signs and ask your child the names of the letters she sees. Make a game of looking for things that start with specific letters. Play games with these words. For example, your child sees a car, and says "car." You say "far," and then ask her to respond with a rhyming word. Encourage her to make up a word if she can't think of a "real" word. If she says "lar" or "zar," you will know that he is hearing the rhyming sound, an important phonemic skill.
