Reading is an important skill for children to develop, as it helps them learn new information and expand their knowledge. As a parent, you can play a key role in helping your child develop early reading skills. Here are a few tips for building early reading skills in your child:
- Start reading to your child at a young age: Reading to your child from a young age can help them develop an early love for books and learning. Even your newborn will love hearing you read to them. And you don’t need to be reading picturebooks to them. They will love hearing you read your own novels, the newspaper, or even a recipe for dinner.
- Create a reading-friendly environment: Have books on hand for your child to explore and for you to read to them. You can buy, thrift or borrow books from the library. The Earlybird app has shoppable lists of our favourite books for kids. You could also create a dedicated reading space in your home where your child can enjoy reading. This can be a cozy corner with a bookshelf and comfy seating, or a designated reading area in your child's bedroom.
- Help your child develop their phonemic awareness: Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. To help your child develop this skill, you can play word games that focus on sounds, such as rhyming games or "I Spy" games. The letter sounds theme on the Earlybird app has a bunch of playful ways for you to start building this skill in your kids.
- Make reading fun: Reading should be enjoyable for your child. Make it a fun and engaging activity by incorporating songs, rhymes, and games into your reading sessions.
- Encourage your child to read independently: As your child gets older and becomes more confident in their reading skills, encourage them to read independently. Provide a variety of age-appropriate books for your child to choose from and let them decide what they want to read. Even toddlers and preschoolers can start exploring BOB books or other early readers. Your kid will be so proud when they start figuring out what the words on the pages say.
- Read along with your child: As your child begins to read independently, you can continue to support them by reading along with them. This can help them with tricky words and provide a sense of accomplishment as they read through a book.
Overall, building early reading skills in your child requires reading to them from a young age, creating a reading-friendly environment, encouraging independent reading, helping them develop phonemic awareness, reading along with them, and making reading fun. By teaching your child these skills, you can help them develop a lifelong love for reading and learning.
Check out the literacy activities on the activity tab in the Earlybird app for some super simple, easy playful ways to build your child’s early reading skills. You can find the *FREE* parenting app the Apple app or Google Play store.
