When Should My Child Begin to Read?

As we celebrate national reading month, when should we expect children to demonstrate pre-literacy, reading, and writing skills?  Literacy skills develop earlier than many people might think!  Here is a list of early reading and writing skills for children ages two years to five years old!

2 Years

●        Imitates literacy events in play (e.g., “reading” newspaper, menu, books)

●        Listens to short stories read aloud

●        Holds a book correctly

●        Begins to recognize logos

●        Develops awareness that print represents words

●        Pretends to write name

●        Increases control of writing tools

3 Years

●        Likes to listen to stories/books for longer periods of time

●        Pretends to read words on the page

●        Begins to show a difference between writing and drawing

4 years

●        Begins to pay attention to specific print, such as the first letter of his or her name

●        Recognizes logos and other environmental print and understands that print carries a message

●        Talks about characters in a book

●        Retells simple stories

●        Likes to “read” to themselves and others

●        Produces some letter-like forms in scribbles that resemble letters

5 Years

●        Understands story sequence

●        Understands the function and purpose of print

●        Understands print is read from left to right and top to bottom

●        Retells more complex stories

●        Identifies and writes uppercase and lowercase letters

●        Uses more letter-like forms than scribbles

●        Begins to write letters and familiar words

Learn more about pre-literacy and reading milestones on our website: https://talkbayarea.com/speech-and-language