The most effective thing you can do to prepare your preschooler to learn to read is to regularly read to him aloud. An important part of reading is understanding themes and characters. Open a dialogue with your child when you read together by asking him questions about the story. Ask him to find objects in a picture or have him repeat back lines to you to help him better understand the meaning of the words and the story. Reading together also teaches your preschooler basics like how to hold and care for a book.
Children who have access to books and are able to pick books out for themselves will become used to handling them, so they will look forward to reading books instead of finding them intimidating. Libraries offer many opportunities for preschoolers to orient themselves with the world of reading, as they can browse through the shelves to find a whole world of books on any topic they can imagine. Libraries also often host activities geared toward preschool aged children, like story time or puppet shows, that are designed to encourage reading.
Being confident about the alphabet verbally is the first step to learning it visually. Preschoolers can learn the alphabet over time through repetition and song. Begin simply by singing the alphabet song every day. Sing it at mealtimes, as a bath time or bedtime ritual or at red lights. Before you know it, your preschooler will be singing along with you and eventually singing it alone. When your child knows the alphabet fairly well, step up the game by starting the song in the middle of the alphabet to see if he can pick up where you left off.
Children must recognize letters in order to link the letters they know to sounds to begin sounding out words. Start with alphabet books, showing your child letters and having him trace them with his finger. Have him draw or trace them with a pencil casually during coloring sessions. Once he is able to recognize certain letters, create letter searches where he has to find a specific letter or even a short word hidden among others.
Kids love their own names, so start with those letters to get your preschooler interested in letters and writing. Teaching him to recognize and write his name helps him make the connection between simple letters and words, showing him the words have meaning. Never pass up a chance to write his name out, whether it is in pasta, in sidewalk chalk or in the steam on the bathroom mirror. Point out signs that have words with the same first letter as his name as well as other words.
Don’t limit story time to books; give your child the message that words have meaning and those words are everywhere. Tell him what his T-shirts say, what signs say and what his cereal box says. Show him that when you cook you use written recipes, that when you shop you follow a grocery list and that people can communicate from far away with emails or letters. Encourage grandparents to write him cards and notes that you can read out loud to him.