Is Your Child Ready to Learn to Read? If you have a preschool or kindergarten age child, you may be trying to figure out if your child is ready to read. On one hand, you don't want to push a child who is not ready.This can often lead to a feeling of failure. On the other hand, if your child is ready to learn how to read, how can you actually know? First of all, do not approach the notion of teaching your child to read like it is a contest. Whether or not they read before their best friend or at the same time as the neighbor's son does not matter. Get that into your head. The fact that your young child can read does not mean they are smarter than the other children and will not necessarily give them any advantage when they enter school.At What Age is a Child Ready to Learn to Read?Most children are ready to learn to read somewhere between the ages of 5 - 6.5. If a 5 year old shows no interest in learning letters and phonics, there is absolutely no reason to push and no reason to be concerned. Actually, pushing too hard, before a child is really ready, can lead to self-esteem problems and can even further delay their desire since they will associate learning to read with a bad feeling instead of a positive feeling. Teaching a child to read is a process and it actually starts when they are babies. You don't teach them to read in a few lessons and then one day they start reading books. Learning to read starts out with mastering skills like letter identification. A simple game at the store where your child starts to pick out letters he recognizes on signs is a part of teaching your child to read. Learning to read is not something any parent should leave solely to formal education. From day one, you are exposing your child to language. As they grow, you should be exposing them to written language more and more.Once a child starts identifying letters they can start figuring out the sounds those letters make. As basic as it may sound, this is what kids need to do before they are ready to formally learn to read. If you do think that your child is ready to learn to read and you want to get started teaching them, you can test their reading readiness. You can find free reading tests online, for example. Or you may be able to ask your pre-school teacher for help and advice. Once you determine that your child is ready to start learning reading, you may want to work with them using books and worksheets and make up various games that teach phonics. Alternately, you could use a phonics software that provides a full curriculum to follow. These reading programs can be reasonably priced and even allow the child to work on their own. Many great phonics programs and games are available from a variety of sources.

If you have a preschool or kindergarten age child, you may be trying to figure out if your child is ready to read. On one hand, you don't want to push a child who is not ready.This can often lead to a feeling of failure. On the other hand, if your child is ready to learn how to read, how can you actually know?

First of all, do not approach the notion of teaching your child to read like it is a contest. Whether or not they read before their best friend or at the same time as the neighbor's son does not matter. Get that into your head. The fact that your young child can read does not mean they are smarter than the other children and will not necessarily give them any advantage when they enter school.

At What Age is a Child Ready to Learn to Read?
Most children are ready to learn to read somewhere between the ages of 5 - 6.5. If a 5 year old shows no interest in learning letters and phonics, there is absolutely no reason to push and no reason to be concerned. Actually, pushing too hard, before a child is really ready, can lead to self-esteem problems and can even further delay their desire since they will associate learning to read with a bad feeling instead of a positive feeling. Teaching a child to read is a process and it actually starts when they are babies. You don't teach them to read in a few lessons and then one day they start reading books. Learning to read starts out with mastering skills like letter identification. A simple game at the store where your child starts to pick out letters he recognizes on signs is a part of teaching your child to read. Learning to read is not something any parent should leave solely to formal education. From day one, you are exposing your child to language. As they grow, you should be exposing them to written language more and more.

Once a child starts identifying letters they can start figuring out the sounds those letters make. As basic as it may sound, this is what kids need to do before they are ready to formally learn to read. If you do think that your child is ready to learn to read and you want to get started teaching them, you can test their reading readiness. You can find free reading tests online, for example. Or you may be able to ask your pre-school teacher for help and advice. Once you determine that your child is ready to start learning reading, you may want to work with them using books and worksheets and make up various games that teach phonics. Alternately, you could use a phonics software that provides a full curriculum to follow. These reading programs can be reasonably priced and even allow the child to work on their own. Many great phonics programs and games are available from a variety of sources.