Ready for some ideas that will get your preschoolers ready for reading? It’s important to start them young so here’s a simple preschool reading readiness tip.
Phonemic awareness, the precursor to phonics, has to do with hearing and making rhymes, and research indicates that the ability to hear and make rhyme is the number one initial indicator of whether or not a child will become a good reader. Of course, this is not discounting comprehension, but if children can’t read words, they will not understand text. Besides reading prosody* is a leading indicator of comprehension, but we’ll leave that for another lesson.
Back in the day, moms and teachers understood phonemic awareness; they just didn’t have scientifically based educational research to support the value of rhyme. Years ago, children learned nursery rhymes and memorized tons of poetry. In fact, my eighty-year-old mother can quote poetry she learned in grade school, and my grandma born in 1898 only had a third-grade education, but she could read the Bible from cover to cover.
So do you want to help your preschooler become the best reader he or she can be? The first step is as simple as exposing her to Dr. Seuss, rhyming stories, and nursery rhymes. The favorite rhyming book at our house is Hand, Hand, Finger Thumb by Al Perkins which most of my children enjoyed when they were one, and they had it memorized by the time they were three.
Start out reading several books and rhymes a day as you hold them real close to you. Holding them close might not help them read better; it will just let them know you love them. Come to think of it, I’ll bet children who know they’re loved read better, too. I wonder if there’s any scientific research for that?
This is the School Marm
Ringing her bell.
School’s out!
with expression to achieve reading fluency.
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