3 Pre-Reading Skills for Early Readers You Can Practice at Home
Before students even begin to read words on a page, there are several important skills early readers need to master. These are known as pre-reading skills. Many of these skills can be taught or reinforced at home by a parent or guardian. Here are just a few pre-reading skills for Pre-K and Kindergarten students:
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Name Awareness -- Students need to know how to write their first and last names. Ideally, they can also identify the first and last letter in their name. Students can practice building their name with letter tiles, saying and spelling their name out loud, and tracing their name with large crayons or pencils. This is also an opportunity for them to practice their fine motor skills and pencil grip. Sites like education.com have a free tracer generator where you can create your own "name" tracing sheet for your little reader. Or they can spell their name using letter tiles.
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Print Awareness -- Students need to know a set of skills called "concepts of print." This is basically their ability to understand the function of a book, such as how to hold a book, how to read from left to right, and the difference between pictures, letters and words. We created a handy Print Awareness Guide for parents as a part of the Shelby County A to Z resource materials. You can download it here.
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Letter Sound and Identification -- Students need to know all 26 letters of the alphabet and the initial sound that they make (because some letters of the alphabet make more than one sound). At home, try singing the alphabet song while pointing to the letters or doing a movement to match the sound. Students can also get practice by sequencing letter tiles or tracing letters with their fingers or a crayon.
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