Develop your child's oral vocabulary and phonemic awareness, or ability to distinguish different sounds. Speak with your child often, even before your child has learned to talk. Infants and toddlers under three years of age benefit from rhyming games, nursery rhymes and general conversation. A strong background in oral language will give your child the foundation he needs to master reading.
Read to your child as often as possible. Children who are read to typically associate reading with pleasant memories and are often more interested in learning to read. Hold the book so that your child can see the pictures and words, and follow along with the text with your finger. This will help reinforce the concept that the words you are saying relate to the letters on the page.
Provide books, magazines and games rich in print for your child to use. Children who are exposed to print or text in their lives and who have parents who present an enjoyment of reading will often become curious about reading. Around three to four years of age, your child may pretend to read and should be able to retell his favorite books and answer basic questions about the characters. Continue reading with your child, playing rhyme games and reciting nursery rhymes.
Play word and letter games with your child. Using games and books, you can begin to point out individual letters to your child. You can teach your child the letters in her name, and help your child understand the way individual letters combine to make words. Take advantage of car rides, errands or daily household activities to point out the letters and words on signs and household objects.
Encourage your child to follow along with his finger as you read children's books. This is best done initially with a story that the child has heard many times. You will most likely need to assist your child in pointing to one typed word for each word that you read aloud. This will help emphasize that each group of letters expresses a different and separate word or thought. Try to be expressive and to enunciate clearly when reading with your child.
Work regularly with your child on recognizing and writing letters. This should be done both informally through pointing out letters and words in your daily routine and formally through sitting down with your child and practicing writing and reading letters. By the end of kindergarten, children typically recognize all letters in upper- and lowercase as well as letter sounds. Workbooks are available in stores and online. Many of them provide engaging activities in levels based on the age of your child.
Continue to practice rhyming and reading with your child, and add in some games that focus on counting syllables or replacing one letter or sound in a word and making new words. For example, change the "m" in "make" into an "r" and it becomes "rake."
Find leveled books at your local library or bookstore in addition to illustrated children's books. Leveled books are written to include only words that are at or slightly above the expected reading level for a child of a certain age. These books will give your child age appropriate practice and make her feel good about reading. At the same time, these books provide more difficult words to help your child's reading ability improve.
Set aside a special time each day for homework. Many first grade and kindergarten classes have daily homework assignments. Making a special time and place for homework will allow you to continue your reading routine with your child and to provide him with the support needed to be successful with school assignments.
Provide your child with paper, pencils and crayons. Ask your child to use the pencil and crayons to write a story about her family, pets or topic of interest. A child between the ages of two and four will gain experience holding a pencil and crayons through this task, while also learning that writing and drawing can be used as a means of self-expression.
Encourage your child to practice tracing his name. Some word-processing programs allow you to print in a dashed-line font. If you do not have this capability, you can create your own hand-made letters and words for your child to trace. Most children around the ages of four or five will be able to master writing their names.
Continue to provide some special time dedicated to writing, even if your child's "writing" begins as nothing more than pictures. As your child learns to write letters and words, you will notice some words and letters appearing in the drawings. Ask your child to read her writing to you. With continued practice, you will notice a transition into random letters and then basic words and sentences spelled the way they sound to your child.
Encourage your child as her writing develops. Writing typically takes longer to master than reading. Your child's oral language will be in a state of constant development as well. Continue to play word games with your child, to read as often as possible with your child and to practice reading and writing words and letters.
Work with your child on appropriate spacing between words, punctuation and capital letters as his writing develops. Some behaviors, such as inventive spelling (spelling a word the way it sounds) will show improvements on their own as the child learns more about letter patterns and rules. Other written elements like punctuation will need more direct instruction.