Reading is a big deal! If you’re like most parents, you’ve likely been reading to your baby from birth. Parents know they should read early and often to babies – but you might not realize that when you read to your child, you are:
- Bonding with your baby
- Stimulating language and cognitive thinking skills
- Enhancing your baby’s memory
- Building your baby’s vocabulary
- Preparing your child for preschool and beyond
Bigger than nursing versus bottle-feeding or homeschooling versus public schools, you can make the most significant difference in your child’s intelligence by speaking to your baby as much as possible, as early as you can.
It can feel awkward having a full-blown conversation with a brand new infant, so one of the best ways to communicate with your little love is to read. Read your books, magazines, cookbooks, or children’s books – it doesn’t matter what you read, just that you’re reading.
At your baby’s check-ups, doctors work loosely from developmental milestones. These milestones are a great way to gauge your child’s progress and make sure they are developing appropriately. When considering milestones for preschool-age children and beyond, keep in mind that all kids are different. Much like infant milestones, some kids take longer to get specific skills than others.
Reading Skills at Three Years Old
By three years old, your little one is probably about to start preschool, if they haven’t already. Kids at this age usually start to develop these reading skills:
- Explore books on their own
- Sit and listen to longer books
- Retell their favorite, familiar stories
- Know the alphabet
- Scribble similar to the way we write
- Recognize some letters, especially the first letter of their name
- Understand that writing is different than drawing
- Pretend to read aloud
Give your child access to their books, and lots of time to explore. Let them spend time holding a pencil and practicing drawing and writing. You can help your child to hold a pencil correctly at this age.
Reading Skills at Four Years Old
After about a year of preschool, your child will most likely begin to:
- Recognize labels and signs they see often
- Recognize rhyming words
- Recognize about 15 uppercase letters
- Recognize letters in their name
- Write their name
- Be able to name the letters or sounds of words
- Match letters to their sounds
- Become aware of syllables
- Try to write words with familiar letters
- Understand that we read from left to right and top to bottom
- Retell familiar stories
Continue to read to your kids throughout their education, as the benefits of reading aloud can continue up to high school.
Find a Preschool that Values Reading
Whether your preschool child is right on track with these developmental reading guidelines or seems to be trailing behind, the best thing you can do is keep reading to your little one. Kids learn to love reading based on the memories of reading aloud with their caregivers.
If you have concerns about your preschool kiddo’s progress, don’t hesitate to talk to your pediatrician. Like with many of children’s struggles, the earlier you intervene, the better.
Finding a daycare and preschool program that recognizes the value of reading to children is extremely important for your babe’s development. When you interview daycares and preschools, be sure to ask how they incorporate the magic of reading into their daily schedules!