Important Skills for Learning to Read

During the preschool and kindergarten years, children develop skills that help them read, write and speak effectively with others. All children are born with the potential to learn these skills, but many will need direct teaching strategies to help them develop the basics of reading. Children who develop these skills will be on their way to becoming readers and, in turn, will be successful learners throughout their lives.

The following are skills that will prepare children for the early months of kindergarten:

• Listening to and retelling a favorite story;
• Identifying letters of the alphabet, most often those in their own names;
• Matching sounds to letters — often the beginning sounds of words, such as “d” in dog;
• Pretend to write letters, lists or descriptions of their art;
• Printing or copying letters of the alphabet;
• Writing and copying words of interest;
• Pretend reading;
• Reading along with an adult;
• Re-reading a favorite book many times;
• Identify characters of the story in the pictures;
• Playing with the sounds of words by rhyming, such as hat, cat, bat.

Information from A Family Guide to Understanding Early Reading Skills, part of The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment-Literacy (KRA-L).