Children begin learning language skills at an early age.
Children learn to communicate from the moment they are born. As they progress through language development stages, they learn the skills they will need to read on their own one day. Listening, speaking and eventually writing all contribute to developing the skill of reading with comprehension.
Birth to 18 Months
From birth to 18 months, babies learn to communicate by listening to the world around them and responding with sounds, and eventually words. These skills will lead to language development and literacy. Parents can help their baby learn language by talking to her, reciting nursery rhymes, reading books and playing games like "peek-a-boo." Babies learn the rhythm of language when they listen to the spoken word. This developmental stage brings a baby from babbling to her first words.
Toddlers
Toddlers ages 18 to 36 months can develop a lifelong love of reading when they are introduced to books. Reading readiness activities include listening and talking about ordinary activities throughout the day. At this stage, children learn new vocabulary, concepts and letters from books. They learn that English text is read left to right, top to bottom, and they learn the elements of a story. Parents can help children at this stage by pointing out signs and letters, discussing pictures and photographs and reading stories. These activities introduce children to language and grammar, laying the foundation for them to become readers.
Preschool
Children ages 3 to 4 increase their vocabularies and language skills, and use their words for conversation and to share ideas. Children of this age become aware of words, and may even start to develop a sight vocabulary and notice familiar words. Parents can help children of this age with reading readiness activities by conversing with the child about everyday experiences like taking the bus and shopping at the store. When reading a book to your child, she will begin to understand the connection between the words you speak and the words written on the page. Rhyming and word play also prepares a child for reading.
Kindergarten
At this stage of language development, children use their memory and picture clues to "read" books. The child can absorb stories by listening, and can also tell stories to others. Kindergarteners become more and more familiar with the language arts of reading and writing as well as listening and speaking. By this stage, many children start to recognize common words and read easy books. Parents can help kindergarten-age children by using new vocabulary words, helping them to "sound out" words if they ask for help, and form words with refrigerator magnet letters or letters cut out from the newspaper or magazines.
First Grade
By the first grade, children build on the language skills they have developed at previous stages and begin to sound out words and recognize a larger list of words by sight. Listening, speaking and writing activities improve communication skills and support the budding reader. By the end of the year, many first graders are reading grade level materials by themselves. Parents can help by guiding young readers to make sense out of the words they read on their own using context clues. When discussing a story, encourage children to talk about the best part and predict how the story will end.
