PreKorner™ Early Childhood Literacy and Reading Readiness Resources

It is far too common, and far too unnecessary, that we see bright young children enter the kindergarten and early elementary classroom without the reading foundation required to succeed. Given the amount of quality research that has been compiled in recent years, and what we can glean from those findings in terms of what works, every child should be able to enter school "ready to read." As parents, and as dedicated preschool teachers and child care providers, we can do many things to ensure this progress. This includes working with children every day on acquisition and understanding of common vocabulary so often found in young children's literature, phonological and phonemic awareness, and fluency with basic textual material. We can use what is known about the effectiveness of blending instruction with children's play (see the article Play With Me!). We can also look toward what is around the corner, investigating how children learn in the elementary grades and what can be expected of them at that time regarding their ability to read and their foundation for learning and progressing in those abilities.

What things can we do at the preschool level to help young children begin to develop phonemic awareness, common reading vocabulary, and other apsects of language that help to promote reading readiness? These tips for encouraging language development in early childhood provide a few ideas for what works at home and in school when Approaching Reading Readiness.

Read these brief research overviews on proven instructional components in an effective early literacy program.

Research Précis Edition 01-1 deals with basic information related to phonemes and phonemic awareness. Edition 01-2 describes the general components of the Pre-K Guidelines, still in a state of change in 2005.

In addition to these briefs, try the third selection—Research Précis Edition 04-2 Early Numeracy: Number and Language—for a little more detailed view, this time of how language relates to early numeracy and efforts to build an early foundation in awareness and understanding of number attributes.

Speaking of phonemes and phonemic awareness, we now know (again) that the connection of these sounds to the written words children must eventually master cannot be ignored. As well, we realize that it does not stop here—the importance of children's work with sounds and other oral aspects of language in reading continues well past the preschool years. Take a look ahead to our K-12 LearningLeads™ article Improving Reading Comprehension: Making the Oral Reading Connection in the Early Grades for a preview of some of the instructional strategies and expectations that should await your children in the K-2 years.

Looking for a few great activities you can use to help your young children to lay a foundation for future reading success? These activities are brief but powerful examples that directly apply the strategies discussed in the article Approaching Reading Readiness (see second paragraph). Each focuses on a distinct aspect of child language development and reading readiness, and each puts the instructional work in the context of an award-winning piece of children's literature. Download them and start today.

If this is your first time to visit the PreKorner™, or if it has been awhile, be sure to take a look at the PreKorner™ homepage while you are here. If you teach or are interested in K-12 teaching and learning, go to LearningLeads™ to browse similar resources.