Should a Preschooler Learn to Read Before Kindergarten?

Does my child need to read before kindergarten?

Schools in both countries plan to teach reading from the start. In England, the Department for Education's reading framework says daily phonics sessions "should begin as soon as children start their Reception year", and most children start Reception after their fourth birthday. The same framework adds that those sessions "might be only ten minutes long in the first few days". It also says children should be taught systematically to read as soon as they start school, so that they do not have to rely on adults to read to them.

In the US, the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide on foundational reading skills covers kindergarten through 3rd grade, and the studies behind its advice on sounds and letters took place in kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms. Most states must offer free education from age 5, and kindergarten cutoff dates vary. In the District of Columbia, for example, children who are 5 by September 30 are eligible. So a child who arrives not yet reading is arriving where the teaching begins.

What helps before school starts

The National Early Literacy Panel reviewed research on children from birth to age five. It named six skills that, when mastered before kindergarten, had a significant impact on later literacy: alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness (hearing the sounds inside spoken words), rapid naming of letters or digits, rapid naming of objects or colors, writing letters or your own name, and phonological memory. At home, the first three of those are the easy ones to play with: letters, sounds in words and writing a name.

You do not need to cover all of that before the first day. The practice guide notes that many students enter kindergarten knowing the names of a few letters learned at home or in preschool, such as the letters in their name, and it recommends building on that foundation. Teachers expect to start there.

Letters and writing

Learn each letter's name and its sound together. The practice guide suggests naming the letter first, then saying the sound it makes, and showing it in both uppercase and lowercase. It recommends starting with consonants and short vowel sounds, and gives /s/, /m/, /d/, /p/ and /a/ as an example of a first group. In English a letter's name often differs from its sound. The letter A is "ay", but the sound in "cat" is /a/. Letters can also stand for several sounds, so start with the most common one. Try to keep sounds like /b/ short, without an "uh" on the end. The guide asks teachers to listen for that extra vowel and work to reduce it.

Start with the letters in your child's name. The practice guide suggests having children write letters in meaningful contexts, such as their own name, and the National Early Literacy Panel counted writing letters or one's own name among its six predictors. Show the letters in capitals and in lowercase, and let your child trace them with a finger first and a pencil after.

Let your child spell by ear. The practice guide's panel advises encouraging kindergartners to try spelling words on their own, even when they get them wrong, because it gives them a chance to use what they know about letters and sounds. "Bike" written as "BYK" is real thinking. As children's spelling and language skills grow, they use invented spelling less. You do not need to correct every word. Praise the try, then write the standard spelling next to it.

Everyday print gives plenty of openings, like a cereal box or a shop sign. Ask "What letter does your name start with?" or "What sound do you hear at the start of sun?", then move on. A question asked in passing does more than a worksheet filled in at the table.

Sounds, stories and vocabulary

Sound games prepare directly for sounding out words. The practice guide suggests starting with larger chunks of speech, such as words and syllables, and gradually moving to smaller sounds. Clapping or holding up a finger for each syllable works, and so does asking whether "can" rhymes with "tan". These games are covered in the guide to phonological awareness. A few minutes is enough, and you can play anywhere.

Stories matter just as much. Sénéchal and LeFevre followed 168 middle- and upper middle-class children for five years. Exposure to books was related to vocabulary and listening comprehension, and language skills were directly related to reading in 3rd grade. Parents teaching their children about reading and writing words was related to early literacy skills, which predicted 3rd-grade reading through word reading at the end of 1st grade. That is one group of families, and it does not prove what works for every child. It does suggest that sharing stories and naming letters are two useful things, and different ones. For the first, see reading and language development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends shared reading from birth and continuing at least through kindergarten. The parent leaflet outlined in the reading framework gives practical ideas: read favorite stories over and over, let your child pause and comment on the pictures, chat about the story, and join in with the parts they know. It also says to avoid asking questions to test what your child remembers.

What to avoid

Do not teach your child to guess words from pictures or first letters. The practice guide's panel discourages guessing strategies for unfamiliar words, because they will not work with more advanced texts. The reading framework makes a similar point about decodable books: children should not be forced to guess from pictures, context, the first letters of a word or its shape. When your child gets stuck, help them sound the word out. A small set of very common words with odd spellings, like "was" and "of", are the exception and get taught as whole words. See the guide to sight words.

Do not turn the year before school into a school year. A session that drags on, a child who feels tested, a comparison with a classmate: any of them can take the fun out of it. If your child says no, stop and come back another day with a story or a rhyme instead. The reading framework also suggests not telling children that reading stories is good for them. Keep it short and regular.

What kindergarten and Reception will cover

Knowing what comes helps you pace what you do at home. In England, schools use systematic synthetic phonics, with sessions that start at about ten minutes and, by the end of Reception, reach about an hour a day, split into different activities such as reading books matched to what children know, handwriting and spelling. In the US, the practice guide recommends teaching letters and sounds a few at a time, consonants and short vowels first, then blends such as fl and st, two-letter digraphs such as sh and ch, long vowels with silent e, and vowel teams such as ea and ou. The panel suggests teaching each sound in a blend and then blending them, rather than asking children to memorize blends as units.

A child who starts school with a few familiar letters, who can clap out syllables and who is used to looking at a book with you has something to build on. They do not need to have seen everything. The usual order of sounds is in the guide to the sound progression, and how schools connect letters to sounds is in the guide to synthetic phonics and blending.

What if my child already reads?

Some children start sounding out words on their own before school. There is no reason to stop them. Answer their questions about letters and words without asking for more than they offer, and tell the teacher what they can already do. The reading framework's parent leaflet describes two kinds of book: one the child can read to you because they can work out every word, and one with words they may not be able to read yet, which is for you to read to them and talk about together.

Keep reading aloud even when your child can read simple words. The American Academy of Pediatrics says shared reading should continue at least through kindergarten, and one of the pediatricians quoted in its announcement says reading together weaves "joyful language and rich interactive moments into the fabric of daily life". Stories above their own reading level are still stories they can enjoy with you.