3 ways you may already be helping your child learn to read – and what to try next

Learning to read is one of the most challenging things your child will ever do. It involves technical skills – like decoding text – and comprehension skills, such as inferring and predicting. The process takes time, and how your child feels along the way matters a great deal.

Reading books, singing songs, and reciting the alphabet are all wonderful routines you may already have in place. These simple ideas can help enrich and deepen your child’s early reading experiences.

Already reading to your child each day? Try pausing to ask questions

Reading with young children often means reading the same book over and over again 🙃 To make things a bit more interesting, talk about the book as you read. This is called dialogic reading. Having a conversation about the story helps build vocabulary and improves comprehension.

You might ask questions or point out details in the pictures. Start with easy ones: “What’s this animal?” or “What colour is Max’s top?” If your child is engaged, try more complex questions like: “What do you think will happen next?” or “How do you think Zoe feels in this picture?”

Wordless picture books, like Sita’s Hike to the Beach from The Reading Skill Set, are great for practising dialogic reading. A picture-led story naturally invites you to ask questions and chat about what you see. Your child may not be ready to tell the full story on their own just yet – but with your prompts, they’ll be able to tell a little more each time.

Already singing together? Try clapping along to the syllables

Music supports all kinds of early learning, including pattern recognition, basic maths skills, and social-emotional development. Singing together helps your child understand that words are made up of individual sounds, just like music is made of individual beats.

This ability is called phonological awareness, an essential skill for early literacy. Syllables are a great place to start, as they’re among the largest and easiest-to-hear sound units in a word. You can think of them as the beats of a word.

To practise, try clapping the beats of a song: “The in·cy win·cy spi·der climbed up the wa·ter spout.” Go slowly and clap once per syllable. Invite your child to clap along – even if they don’t keep perfect rhythm ❤️

You can also do this while reading books with rhythmic language, such as Making Muffins or Happy Either Way. Tap your finger once per syllable and encourage your child to join in. It’s a great technique for familiar books they’ve nearly memorised.

Already singing the alphabet song? Try linking each letter to its sound

Many children learn to sing the alphabet in order, which is a helpful memory skill. But reading requires more: children need to understand that each letter has a shape and represents a specific sound. Letters make up written words, and sounds make up spoken ones.

To support this, start with lowercase letters, as they appear most often in books. Show your child the letter s and say, “This letter makes the sss sound, like at the start of snake.”

The Wooden Letter Sound Blocks and Movable Alphabet from The Reading Skill Set are excellent tools for this. Each block set introduces six sounds, with four images to match. Your child finds the four pictures that begin with the same sound, and then adds the matching letter on top.

You can also play Letter of the Day. Choose a letter each morning – perhaps the first letter of your child’s name or a family member’s. Show the lowercase letter and say, “Today’s letter is m. It makes the mmm sound, like in mmmonkey. This is what it looks like.”

Throughout the day, ask your child to spot things that begin with that sound – like mummy or music. Write the words down and keep adding to the list. You could even choose meals that match the theme – meatballs on m day or tacos on t day.

The Reading Skill Set

A phonics-based program that motivates your child to read through play.

Learn more

Learn more about the research

Swanson, E. et al. (2011). A synthesis of read-aloud interventions on early reading outcomes among preschool through third graders at risk for reading difficulties.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44(3), 258–275.