

Introduction Reading teaches children about the world around them

Before using this handbook as a guide in developing the
children’s reading skills. You should first know what reading
and developmental reading means. And why reading is
important.
 Reading improves a child’s vocabulary
 Reading develops a child’s imagination
 Children who read do better at school and most likely
to succeed
 Reading is a great form of entertainment

What is Reading and Developmental Reading means?

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in
order to construct or derive meaning (reading
comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of
communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all
language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the
reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge,
experiences, attitude, and language community which is
culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires
continuous practice, development, and refinement while the
Developmental Reading is simply the Pattern and sequence of
normal reading growth and skill development in a child in the
learning-to-read process.
As a whole, I can say that reading has so many great
benefits. So, as a teacher it is our main role to do our
best in helping the child develop his reading skills as
early as 3 or 4 years old.
This handbook can serve as a guide in planning
activities to develop the reading skills of children. You
can find methods and strategies needed to teach the
pre-schoolers. We hope that this handbook will be a
useful guide as you teach young children to develop
their reading skills! 

Why reading is important?

I’ll give reasons why reading is important and why we should

encourage children to read.

 Reading exercises the child’s brain

 Reading improves the child’s concentration
 Reading Skills for Children
Reading requires multiple skills and abilities. Most
children begin to develop these skills during their
toddler years, long before they have any understanding
that marks on a page convey meaning. A language-rich
environment in early childhood supports literacy skills.
Print Awareness Skills
 A child must be familiar and comfortable with printed
language to know how to approach it as a reader. English
print flows in a left-to-right direction; the letters that make
up each word are close together, and a space appears
between each word. A sentence begins with a capital
letter and ends with a punctuation mark. None of these
conventions may be obvious to an emergent reader.
Regular read-aloud sessions, signs at home and at school,
library trips, newspaper exploration and other activities
support a child's print skills.
Fluency Skills
 Fluency has to do with ease of reading. A child who
labors over each word has difficulty grasping a
sentence's meaning or emotional impact. Strong
word recognition and decoding abilities help a
young reader understand and enjoy the text.
Fluency skills are thought to come with experience
--- to become a good reader, a child has to read.
However, the National Reading Panel cautions that
silent independent reading alone may not lead to
fluency. Guided oral reading, a technique in which
a child reads aloud with an adult at hand to
smoothly assist with difficult words, may offer
benefits for young readers who are struggling.
Comprehension Skills
 As a young reader moves beyond the basics,
comprehension --- the ability to understand and
relate to the text --- comes to the fore. Reading
 comprehension requires an extensive oral and print of distinct sounds, or phonemes. The letters of the
vocabulary. It also calls for concentration, reasoning skills
alphabet, alone or in combination, represent these
and problem-solving abilities. Comprehension calls for the
phonemes. Putting the letters together in the right
reader's involvement and interaction, and to encourage this
order makes a word that can be read. Phonemic
teachers may use graphic organizers, group discussion and
awareness, the ability to distinguish and use the
analysis techniques.
phonemes in a word, makes reading English
Oral Language Skills possible. Rhyming games support phonemic
awareness. Early childhood educators work with
 Before he learns to read, a child usually learns to speak ---
phonemes and letters --- for example, asking
and, critically, to listen. Good listening skills help a child
children to name items that begin with the same
develop a strong vocabulary and expand his knowledge of
letter sound --- in an effort to support alphabetic
concepts and facts. These factors provide context when he
skills.
begins to read on his own. Conversations with parents,
teachers and peers strengthen a child's skills in verbal
expression and increase his intellectual curiosity.

Alphabetic Skills

 To read English, a child needs a solid grasp of both

phonemes and alphabet letters. A word is made up
 STRATEGIES AND METHODS IN DEVELOPING
THE READING SKILLS OF KINDERGARTEN
5 Classroom Strategies: Language
Early childhood education can play an essential role in
preparing young English language learners (ELLs) for later 1. Provide explicit, systematic instruction in vocabulary.

success in school. Children who have an opportunity to

Children require multiple exposures to words in order
develop basic foundational skills in language and literacy in
to develop a rich understanding of their meaning and use.
preschool enter kindergarten ready to learn to read and write.
Teachers should make a point of introducing interesting new
But how can early childhood educators know if their programs
words for children to learn into each classroom activity.
are providing children with the skills they need? This article
will describe some of the methods and strategies that  Presenting vocabulary thematically helps children
research has proven effective in preparing young ELLs for make associations between words and scaffolds
kindergarten. students' learning.
 Read-aloud that include explanations of targeted
Language Development for Preschool ELLs
vocabulary can support word learning, as can dramatic

Essential to any preschool program for ELLs is effective play organized around a carefully chosen theme.

instruction in language development. Children need explicit

instruction in English vocabulary, as well as opportunities to 2. Ensure that ELLs have ample opportunities to talk with

hear and speak the language throughout the day. Examples of both adults and peers and provide ongoing feedback and

strategies are listed below. encouragement.

 English language learners need lots of opportunities to
engage in social interactions with other children, but they also
need support from adults as they develop the language skills
they need to negotiate those interactions. You can use the
following strategies to foster social interaction:
 For group activities, pair English language learners with
children who have strong English language skills, and
make sure that all the children who speak the same
home language (L1) are not grouped together.
 Provide opportunities for self-directed activities so that
ELLs can choose activities that match both their
interests and their language abilities.
 Encourage child talk by providing prompts when
children need help in expressing themselves (e.g., "Tell
Bobby, 'May I have the red crayon now?'").
 Use open questions, or questions that can have
multiple answers, to help ELLs expand their own
utterances (e.g., "Why do you like this doll best?"
instead of "What is this doll's name?").
3. Expose ELLs to rich language input.
Exposure to rich language, whether through shared
book reading or through teacher talk, has been shown to
enhance children's oral language development. One effective
strategy is for the teacher to provide an ongoing commentary
on activities that are taking place in the classroom in order to
expose children to language associated with the immediate
context.
4. Structure the classroom space and routine to provide
scaffolding for Ells’ language learning.
Arrange the classroom in a way that supports each
type of instructional activity that will take place, and then
keep changes to the physical environment to a minimum.
Once ELLs learn which activities take place in various parts of
the classroom (e.g., centers, circle), the physical environment
will cue them as to what they are to do and how they are to
behave in that area.
Predictable classroom routines can also provide
scaffolding for English language learners by allowing them to
anticipate what will happen each day, including the type of
language they will need for each activity.
5. Encourage continued L1 language development.
Strong L1 skills support both language and literacy
learning in English:
 Encourage parents to talk and read to their children in
their home language as a way of strengthening
children's L1 language skills.
 Incorporate children's home language in the classroom
when possible. Songs and videos can be used
effectively for this purpose if teachers do not speak
their students' language.
Literacy Development for Preschool ELLs
Research has shown that alphabet knowledge, phonological
awareness, and print awareness are early literacy skills that
contribute significantly to later reading achievement (National
Early Literacy Panel, 2008). English language learners can
begin to develop these essential foundational skills in
preschool, even before they have developed strong English
language skills.
Early Literacy Skills
1. Alphabet knowledge
Skills appropriate to preschool include recognizing and
naming upper and lower case letters and beginning to
associate letters with the sounds they make.
2. Phonological awareness
Phonological awareness refers to the ability to
manipulate the sounds that make up language, independent
of meaning. In preschool, children benefit from:
 learning to recognize rhyming words
 listening for syllables within words
 learning to recognize beginning sounds in words
 matching those sounds to letters
3. Print awareness
 Print awareness is an understanding of the features of
books and print. Children should:
 be taught to recognize the parts of a book (e.g., front
and back covers, top and bottom)
 learn that printed letters and words run from left to
right and from top to bottom
 learn that a book has a title, was written by an author,
and has illustrations that were drawn by an illustrator
3 Classroom Strategies: Literacy
1. Design instruction that focuses on all of the foundational
literacy skills.
Activities that promote early literacy skills in preschool
include:
 interactive storybook reading
 "pretend" reading and writing
 games and other activities to help children identify the
letters of the alphabet
 Interactive experiences with language and print
through poems, nursery rhymes and songs.
The emphasis should be on code-based instruction, or
instruction that helps children understand the relationship
between spoken language and print.
2. Recognize that many literacy skills can transfer across
languages.
A child who has developed early literacy skills in his or
her first language will find it easier to develop those same
skills in English. Parents who are not proficient in English
should be encouraged to help prepare their children for
learning to read by using the home language to:
 teach rhymes and songs
 play word games
 share storybooks
Teachers can support parent-child reading by sending
home books in the child's home language. This makes L1 text
available to parents, and it lets them know that the teacher
considers reading to children in the home language to be
important.
3. Accelerate English literacy development by helping ELLs
make the connection between what they know in their
first language and what they need to know in English.
Similarities between English and the child's home
language can be used as a foundation for instruction. For
example, if L1 has some of the same phonemes as English,
start with those phonemes for rhyme or beginning sound
activities because those are sounds the child is already familiar
with.
Children usually have the most difficulty when they
encounter sounds that are present in English but do not occur
in their home language. For this reason, Spanish L1 speakers
often have difficulty with the "short" or lax sounds of a, e, i,
and u and with the consonants j, r, v, and z.
ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DEVELOPING THE
READING SKILLS OF A KINDERGARTEN
Does your child’s classroom have enough technology?
Should it have any at all? When it comes to the modern-day
kindergarten class, these questions are more easily asked than
answered. Given that young children's brains and bodies grow
best when all of their senses are engaged – constructing a city
out of blocks, navigating a climbing structure, dressing up as a
superhero – we know that kindergarten classrooms need all
the tools of the trade for rich sensory play.
What role should technology play? As a rule,
kindergartners shouldn't be spending their days (at home or at
school) planted in front of a glowing screen. But there is
outstanding technology available that can support your child's
academic growth. Technology in kindergarten can also start
your child on the road to technological literacy: knowing to
use tools to solve problems.
The reality is that most kindergartners use technology
minimally. Your kindergartner may have one or more
computer workstations in the classroom, visit a computer lab
once a week, or not use technology at all. If technology is a
regular part of the classroom, your child might use free time
to play a kindergarten-level reading or math game, listen to a
story on tape, or record her own story on the computer. It all
depends on the school's philosophy and resources, as well as
how much, or little, the teacher decides to use technology as
an early learning tool.
Here are some things you might find in your child's
classroom or school:
(If none is available, the teacher may have smaller groups
gather around the computer to introduce a lesson or new
computer skill.)
At the kindergarten level, if your child's classroom
doesn't have any of these bells and whistles, there’s no need
to panic. Kindergartners don't need to know how to use a
computer; there's plenty of time in upper grades for students
to acquire these skills. If technology is part of your child's
classroom, ideally it's used not for "play time" but to
strengthen skills in reading, writing, math, and science.

 Computer(s) with access to the Internet (and Using technology to enhance reading skills
Internet safeguards) and a printer
Young kids who use computers as a learning aid get
 An interactive whiteboard
early practice in keyboarding as well as refining their literacy
 Video and still digital cameras
skills. With audio books, software-based stories, and tales
 One or more tablets
read aloud on the Internet, a child can listen to a beloved
 Educational software that reinforces reading
book as many times as she likes, which helps strengthen
and math skills
reading skills. The class may also be using phonics and reading
 Interactive story books on a computer
software such as Read, Write & Type! These technical tools
 A large-screen display connected to a computer that the
teacher uses to demonstrate a lesson to the whole class.
can be invaluable when a child is developing reading
comprehension skills.
“Technology can be more than a tool for drilling students on
skills; it can be a tool for acquiring the vocabulary and
background knowledge essential to becoming a skilled
reader.”
Tips in Developing the Child’s
Reading Skills
For Age 3-4
At this age you just want to make sure that your child gets off
to the best possible start. It’s all about sharing and enjoying
books as well as introducing some of the very first skills of
reading. These top tips outline some practical information and
ideas for you!
Reading together
Tip 1: Read together every day
Children need to read little and often, so snuggle up with a
book or sit at the screen together at a time that works for you
both (or all!). Also try to keep a regular slot each day for a
special relaxing reading time if possible – we all need that!
Tip 2: Read everywhere you go
Read on the move and show your child how you read words
everywhere you go too. Point out words they might recognize,
including signs and logos in the street or on labels.
Tip 3: Find your favorites and add to them
Children love to listen to and read their favorite books
over and over again and to remember some parts by
heart. That’s fine as enjoyment and memory play a key
part in learning to read. Add to their list of favourites by
reading stories of all kinds, rhymes, poetry and
information books too.
Tip 4: All join in
Start asking your child to join in with bits that are
repeated in stories, e.g. ‘Run run as fast as you can! You
can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!’. Traditional
stories, like The Gingerbread Man, are really good for
this and children will love doing the voices!
Tip 5: Talk about books, words and pictures
Before you start reading a book, talk about the title, the
pictures on the cover (front and back). Look through the
pictures together and ask your child what they think the
story might be about.
Tip 6: Talk about stories and events
As you read and when you’ve finished, sometimes ask
questions about the story.What was your favorite bit?
What do you think about that? What would you do? Get
your child to ask you questions too. Don’t overdo it
though – otherwise you can lose the thread of the plot.
Tip 7: Retell stories
Sometimes after you have shared a story, ask your child
to retell it to you. Help by asking What happened first?
What next? And then what? Can you remember what
happens at the end?! Encourage them to use plenty of
expression.
Tip 8: Listen to and sing songs and rhymes  listen to a story and retell bits of it
 recognize some letter sounds (like the first sound in
Singing lots of songs and nursery rhymes helps your child to
their name)
hear the sounds in words and build up a bank of known
 recognize his or her own name in writing
favorites. Play with words and sounds and make up nonsense
 match some words (like Mum) when they see them
rhymes in songs or nursery rhymes they know. Encourage
in different places
them to join in.
 concentrate for 5-10 minutes.

Early reading skills

For Age 4-5

Tip 1: Talk about letters and sounds

If you draw attention to letters and sounds, your child will
begin to notice them as well. Knowing the letter sounds is a
very important first step in early phonics teaching so start
talking about these at the earliest opportunity.
Tip 2: Signs that your child may be ready to begin learning
early reading skills
At this stage your child will still be enjoying picture
books of all kinds to share with you, but will probably
start bringing home simple decodable books from
school too. Decodable books are designed for your
child to read and practice phonics. So, here are a few
tips to make sure you make the most of all these
different types of books.

There are no hard and fast rules about this but if your child
can do these things then it may be that they are ready to
begin learning early reading skills:
Reading together
Tip 1: Read together every day
Reading with your child continues to be really
important so keep reading lots of different books
together. Most picture books will be too hard for a child
of this age to read alone, but it’s good for them just to
listen to a story or information book and talk about the
pictures with you.
Tip 2: Allow some reading alone time
Try a short reading time when you are reading
(newspaper, magazine, book, on-screen) and your child
is too. It’s good to start this habit of quiet reading time
early, however short to begin with!
Tip 3: Talk about the book before you begin reading
Before reading a book together, always talk about the
title, the pictures and the information on the cover
(front and back). If it’s new, ask what your child thinks
the book might be about. If it’s an old favorite then talk
about the bits you love most! Don’t worry if some
books get chosen again and again!
Tip 4: Read with different voices
When reading aloud use lots of expression and try
different voices for different characters. Get your child
to join in with bits too, such as, ‘They pulled and they
pulled!’ and ‘Fee, fi, fo, fom...’. See if your child can copy
you!
Tip 5: Ask each other questions
Talk about the stories and information books when
you’ve finished reading together and ask
questions. What did you like best? Why did the tiger let
Floppy go? Have you ever played a trick on
anybody? Get your child to ask you questions too.
Tip 6: Retell stories and events
Ask your child about things that happened at school or
with their friends. Sometimes, after you’ve shared a
story or watched a TV program, ask your child to tell
you about it. Help them by asking what happened first?
What next? and then what?
Early reading skills
Tip 1: Listen to your child read
Your child might bring home ‘decodable’ books from
school. Designed to allow your child to learn how to
read independently, these books help children apply
their phonic skills – sounding out the words on the
page. Be patient and be impressed!
Tip 2: Link letter sounds to letter shapes
are tricky and can’t be sounded out so keep pointing
these out to practice them.
Tip 3: Looking at words and letters
After you have read a book, play letter-spotting and
word games like these with your child: Can you find
Dan’s name on this page? Can you find the word ‘and’
on this page? How many words can you find on this
page that begin with ‘t’? Get your child to ask you too!
Tip 4: Sound out first...
If your child gets stuck on a word, check first if it can
be ‘sounded out’ or ‘blended’ by saying the letter
sounds individually and putting them together quickly
to hear the word. If your child can’t work out the word,
then you say it and move on.

Your child will be learning letter sounds at school. Make

sure you know how to say the sounds correctly . And
don’t forget that some words, like said and the,
 Teaching Children to Read

 Teach the sounds of the letters together with their  Do not be rigid in how the child pronounces the

names. sounds.

The sound (or sounds) of the letters are often Regional accents and weak auditory skills make it

different from the name of the letter. In reading, it hard for children to say most sounds in an

is the sounds that count. When you read to the academically correct way. Accept a reasonable

child, point to the letter C, for example and say; "the effort. Recognize that learning sounds is only an

name of this letter is [see] and it makes two sounds: intermediate step to learning to read. It is not the

[kkk] as in the word cat and also [sss] as in the word goal

cent." Then ask child to give you examples.

 Teach lower case letters first.

Have you noticed that nearly all ABC books for

young children teach uppercase letters first? Yet
 capital letters account for only five percent of all
letters in written English. Therefore, pay more
attention to teaching the lower case letters. Lower
case letters are far more important in developing
reading skills.
 Do not worry about grammar at this point.
Preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders are
very concrete in the way they think and cannot
handle complicated concepts. It is not necessary at
this stage to teach them about consonants, vowels,
long and short sounds and such. They can learn to
read just as well without these rules. By age four,
most English speaking children already have an
excellent grasp of grammar and in due time, they
will learn all the formal grammatical rules. At this
point, you need to concentrate only on the
mechanical skill of reading, that is learning to
decode new word and incorporating them in
memory to build fluency
 You read to your child every day.
Won't that help him learn to read? Just as you
cannot learn to play the piano by watching someone
else play, reading must be taught and learned.
Reading to your child builds his love of reading and
books but does not help him acquire reading skills
 because the process of recognizing an occasional
word while the parent is reading is to hit-and-miss.

 Limit the initial reading vocabulary.

Reading is a very complex process. Not all words

can be read using simple phonic rules. Many
 Teach your child writing along with reading.
important words need to be learned by sight.
Children learn to read faster and easier if they learn
Teach only the simple and common words at first.
to write at the same time. The motor memory of
The knowledge of 500 key words called Dolch
the letters, listening to their sounds and seeing
words, is all a young child needs to be able to read
them in writing will reinforce new learning. So,
well
teaching your child to write letters and words.
 your child to read. Unfortunately, most commercial
reading programs emphasize flash and
entertainment over structure and content. These
programs entertain and engage the child but fail at
actually teaching them to read.

 Audio, video or software alone cannot teach

children to read.

The young child can pay attention to any one

activity only for a short time, particularly if it is
challenging. Instructional DVDs and most software
Consider the following questions:
with music are distracting, and weak listening skills
paired with short attention span make most of o What is the right age to start learning to read? Most children
these not particularly effective. Millions of children can begin at age four. You can begin teaching the sounds of
have watched Sesame Street but not many learned letters at about four years. Simple reading instructions can be
to read this way. Parents put a lot of faith in started about the same time.
computers but software by itself also cannot teach
o Can I hurt my child by starting early? Of course not, but you Reading Activities for Ages 3-5
may help significantly. Studies conducted over the last thirty-
1. Fun with Letters
five years concluded that early reading gives the child a
significant advantage in school. Children who start reading
Children enjoy copying words out onto paper. Write your
before the first grade maintain their lead in reading and
child’s name and have him copy it himself with alphabet
comprehension over their "regular pace" peers through grade
stamps, stickers, or magnets. Encourage him to “write” his
school. Early readers are also likelier to excel in other
own words using the letters. Your child will write letters
academic subjects as well.
backwards, spell seemingly randomly, and may hold his
o Can you teach a baby to read? Not really. They can recognize
marker strangely — it’s “all good” at this age when a child
some shapes but it is not really reading. Most children are not
wants to communicate in writing of any kind.
developmentally ready until about 3-4 years of age.
o What about phonics? Any reading program based solely on 2. What Word Starts With…
phonics is both boring and difficult for the child and is
The letter-sound connection is one of the first steps to
incomplete. A successful reading program must combine
reading. Play a guessing game about your child’s favorite
phonics with some elements of whole word approach.
words. What letter does “p-p-p-pirate” start with? How about
o Where to start? The other most important tool for teaching
“M-m-mommy”? Once your child guesses one correctly, see
your child to read is - story time. Point to the words as you
how many words you can come up with together that start
read them their favorite story. This gets the idea into their
with the same letter.
head that those funny shapes on the page are actually words
just waiting to be deciphered.
3. Your Child the Author
Three-year-olds can be chatty, and by age 4, it can be hard to
get a word in edgewise. Take advantage of your child’s
interest in talking by writing a book together. Start out with
something simple, like describing a fun day at a park or visiting
friends. Staple a few pieces of paper together, and write out
one or two of your child’s sentences on each page. Then, read
the story to her and let her illustrate it.
4. A Different Way to Read
Reading to your child is great — but what’s even better is
something called “dialogic” reading. That’s when you ask your
child to participate in the story. Before turning the page, ask
your child what he thinks will happen next. You can also ask
your child what other way the book could have ended. For
example, with the classic book Corduroy, what would have
happened if the little girl hadn’t come back to take Corduroy
home from the toy store?
5. Take Letters Outside
Kids are tactile and enjoy few activities more than poking
things with a stick. Many preschools encourage kids to make
letters out of Play Doh or draw them into sand or clay. The
next time you are out in the park, or at the beach, or in the
snow, use your surroundings to play with letters. Take turns
writing letters in the snow, dirt, or sand.
6. Just the Facts
Try getting your child interested in nonfiction books. At the
library or bookstore, find books on your child’s favorite topics.
Cars, dinosaurs, dogs, and other topics are covered in on-level
books with plenty of pictures, designed especially for kids this
age.