Early reading skills in children

 RAISE AN EARLY READER

Learning to read is one of the most important milestones in your child's life.
Literacy begins at birth and is developed through everyday interactions with your child like pointing out, singing songs and story telling.
Reading to young children is one of the ways to build literacy skills and also prepare them for school.
Several research studies have shown that children who have been read to at home are well prepared to read and write in school as compared to children who have not had any experiences of listening to books read aloud.
Many people believe that children are ready to learn to read and write in kindergarten or first grade,but that's not true.Literacy skills actually starts in the earliest months of the child's life.
Helping your child to learn to read at an early age has several benefits.

Early Language development for Infants to 1 Year:
Read to your infant.Yes,books are important at this stage.Reading aloud will help your child find patterns in the sounds he hears.
Choose books with big texts and with just one object or person are the best.You can buy chubby books with puppets and peepholes.
Bring home cardboard books which can take rough handling.
Babies learn from repetition.Interact as much as you can and talk about whatever is new.

1Year to 2 Years:
By this time your child would have grasped a few words read to him and his listening vocabulary too must be large now.
At 1 year your child is ready to hear proper words so keep talking to him and make story time your everyday routine.
Introduce books with short sentences.Ask him to point to the object of his interest and describe it to him.You can ask him questions like "What's this?","Where is the cat?".
Read the same book over and over because children love repetition.
Keep him interested in your conversation by asking him questions throughout the day.

2Years to 3 Years:
At 3 years your child would have mastered nearly 1000 words.He's learning new words each day and is gradually increasing his vocabulary.
Keep reading his favorite story books.Let him pick the book he wants to read and both of you can enjoy the book.Try connecting the stories to the real world by asking questions.You can include your child's friends or family members in the story and try making up new stories together.

4Year to 5 Years:
Your child's vocabulary is blossoming and he is on the verge of reading.This is a stage where kids are talkative so encourage him by prompting along and asking him questions.
Keep exploring by talking to him and adding new books to his existing collection.

Here's a list of a few interesting children's book:

1)Big Little
by Leslie Patricelli;Ages-0-5

2)Twas the Night Before Christmas
by Clement C. Moore;Ages 0-5

3)Dr. Seuss's ABC
An Amazing Alphabet Book-by Dr. Seuss
Ages 0-5

4)I Love You, Good Night
by Jon Buller and Susan Schade;Ages 0-5

5)Peek-A-Moo!
by Marie Torres Cimarusti ;Ages 0-5

Helping your child develop early reading skills will not only instill confidence in him but it can help your child develop critical thinking skills too.