Home-Based Activities and Resources

Introduction to the Five Pre-reading Skills

To help your child become a more proficient reader, learn about the five pre-reading skills,  engage your child in games and activities at home that promote these skills, and watch them thrive as readers, writers, and thinkers.

Focus on Print Awareness

Print awareness is understanding that print is organized in a particular way — for example, knowing that print is read from left to right and top to bottom. It is knowing that words consist of letters and that spaces appear between words. You've got this, and we've got you.

Focus on Letter Awareness

Letter Knowledge is one of the early literacy skills that researchers say is important for children to have in order to learn to read. Letter Knowledge is knowing that the same letter can look different, that letters have names and are related to sounds. You've got this, and we've got you.

Focus on Phonological Awareness

That's a complicated-sounding term, but its meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to: Identify words that rhyme. Count the number of syllables in a name. You've got this, and we've got you.

Focus on Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is the precursor to reading comprehension, so it’s an important skill to develop. Listening comprehension isn’t just hearing what is said—it is the ability to understand the words and relate to them in some way.

For example, when you hear a story read aloud, good listening comprehension skills enable you to understand the story, remember it, discuss it, and even retell it in your own words. You use these same comprehension skills when you read.

You've got this, and we've got you.