Learning to read and write are among the most important skills your child will ever learn. These skills are the foundation on which all other academic achievement is built. Starting early in a child’s development is the key to fostering a child’s love of reading and learning.

“Believe in your child and give him or her every opportunity to excel,” says Penny Felker, director of the Kumon of Bountiful. “Each child has enormous, untapped potential regardless of their background or current ability, and with a little extra support, a child can gain life skills such as confidence, perseverance and motivation.”

Some literacy skills, however, should be taught long before a child enters the classroom for the first time. As the child’s first teacher, it is important for parents to begin exposing their kids to books at a young age.

Here are three of the ways you can help your child establish a strong reading foundation:

1. Read aloud to your child

Children who are read aloud to “get a head start in language and literacy skills and go to school better prepared.” Reading aloud is the single best way to support literacy development. It exposes your child to language and vocabulary, teaches them about books and helps them start identifying words and with their sounds.

2. Make reading fun

Point to words and describe illustrations. Animate your voice to match the mood and characters. Ask your child to predict what will happen next. These are a taste of the countless ways to make reading fun for your child.

Make sure your child is interested in the book to begin with, as that interest will aid in their understanding of the story. Do this by having your child choose books they’d like to read from the library.

3. Be a reading role model

Set an example by letting your child see you read throughout the day. Children who are exposed to active and enthusiastic are likely to model this behavior themselves.

Make your home a haven of reading material—books, newspapers, magazines, etc.—to show them that words are everywhere. In fact, a 20-year study from the University of Nevada showed the difference between “growing up in a bookless home compared to being raised in a home with a 500-book library has as great an effect on the level of education a child will attain” as the education level of the parents.

As you help your child build a foundation, they should develop the following skills:

Book knowledge

Children should understand how to hold a book and where the story begins and ends; that words are read from left to right and stories are read front to back; and that pages are turned one at a time.

Print awareness

Children should understand that the words seen in print and the words heard and said are related and that there’s a difference between pictures and words.

Phonemic awareness

Children need to be able to identify the separate, small sounds called phonemes that make words and to associate the sounds with the written words. For example, the word “cat” is made up of the three sounds: /c/, /a/, /t/. Children who have phonemic awareness can take spoken words apart sound-by-sound and put together sounds to make words.

Through daily practice and mastery of materials, your child will increase confidence, improve concentration and develop better study skills. There are programs that emphasize skills necessary to become an independent learner, as each student works towards the ultimate goal of studying material beyond his or her own grade level. Visit www.kumon.com or call 1-800-222-6284 to learn more.

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