PK through Kindergarten
One of the best ways you can help prepare your child to learn to read is to help them become aware of the 44 distinct sounds in spoken English. Reading Coaching shows you how to do that organically as you read, sing and play with your child.
“Research shows that phonological skill is the single best predictor of a child’s ability to learn to read easily.”
— Susan L. Hall and Louisa C. Moats
Key Strategies
- Read for Sounds. Let’s say you’re reading One Fish, Two Fish by Dr. Seuss. Emphasize the many “F” sounds; have fun with it! “One FFFish, Two FFFish. Can you say FFFF?”
- Sing for Sounds. Sing: “I like to eat, eat, eat, eapples and beaneayneays!” (Search Youtube for “I like to eat apples and bananas song.“) Then, sing with different vowel sounds, for example, the “long O” sound: “I like to ote ote opples and bononos”…
- Play with Words.
- Have fun with alliteration such as: “Claire, close your cluttered closet.”
- Play with “spoonerisms,” for example: “little dog” becomes “dittle log.”
- Keep teaching the alphabet and developing “print awareness”
Additional Resources
Book: Straight Talk About Reading, Susan L. Hall and Louisa C. Moats, EdD
Reading Coaching: Preschool