Before Letters Comes Sounds
Before Letters Comes Sounds: Preparing Little Ones for Reading Without Worksheets As an educator, one thing I've noticed over the years is that when many parents hear the word "reading," they immediately think about reading books, sight words, and children sounding out sentences. But when we're talking about a two, three, or four year old child, reading begins long before any of that. Reading doesn't start with a reading book. Reading starts with sounds. Before children can read words, they need to hear sounds. They need to recognize sounds. They need to understand that words are made up of individual sounds that can be blended together. This is known as phonological awareness , and research has consistently shown that it is one of the strongest predictors of future reading success. In a landmark study, Bradley and Bryant (1983) found that young children who developed strong awareness of sounds within words became more successful readers later on. More r...