When Should You Start Teaching Kids To Read?

Today, on Redhead Mom, I’m sharing a partnered guest post about when you should start teaching kids to read.

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Reading is an important life skill that every child needs to learn. But just when should you start teaching your little one to read? While most kids start properly learning to read at the age of 5, it’s possible to start the learning process much earlier. The following post delves more into when to start teaching kids to read and how to teach them.

When should you start reading to kids?

Familiarizing kids with reading should be the first step – and you can start doing this from the day your child is born. In fact, reading can even start earlier than that!

Studies have found that reading to a baby in the womb may help with bonding and brain development. It can also help your little one to associate reading as a soothing activity when they are born.

When reading to a newborn, aim to read when they are sleepy and make sure they are snuggled close. Choose visually stimulating books that will capture their attention. As they start to develop control of their hands, you can even consider touch-and-feel books to further excite them. This will help books to not just be a source of comfort, but a source of intrigue.

As kids become toddlers, they will start to better understand the words you are reading to them. To engage your kids, consider adding some drama to reading and choose books based around your child’s interest.

Most parents read to their kids at bedtime, but you can read to your kids at any time of day. Audiobooks are popular and great for helping kids to learn new words, however physical books are better for helping teach kids to read.

When should kids start to identify letters?

Before teaching kids to read words, you should consider teaching letters. This can be done as early as 1 or 2 years old. Reading physical books to your child will get them used to seeing each letter in the alphabet, however you can also use other tools.

Alphabet puzzles, letter cards, soft toy letters and color-in letters are all great for helping kids to get used to letters. Meanwhile, there are many electronic toys that teach kids the sound of letters by pressing buttons corresponding to different letters.

The alphabet song is also great for teaching kids the names of each letter. Use alphabet charts or videos as a visual aid to the alphabet song so that they can associate each letter’s sound with its symbol. Most kids will be able to recite the alphabet by the age of 4, while some can recite it much earlier. Repetition of the alphabet song will help them to remember it.

When should kids start to identify words?

Once kids can identify letters and their sounds, they can often begin learning to identify words. This usually happens around the age of 4.

Many kids start by learning how to read their own name. However, if your child’s first name is quite long or complex, you may want to start with other basic words instead like ‘cat’ and ‘dog’. You can use letter fridge magnets or alphabet blocks to spell out these words, or you can teach kids to write them. You can also use word cards with images to help kids associate certain words with images. 

High frequency words like ‘as’, ‘if’ and ‘in’ are useful to teach too, but are harder to accompany with visuals. With these words, focus on the phonetics of each letter – read aloud the individual letters to show how they make up the word when put together.

Of course, not all common words are spelt how they sound. Examples include ‘the’ and ‘what’. This guide to sight words for kindergarten has a few more examples and explains how to teach kids to recognize these non-phonetic words.

Quite often, reading books to your child and pointing to each word as you read can help with word identification. Some research also suggests that turning on subtitles on a TV can help kids to identify words and learn to read faster. 

When should kids be able to read sentences?

At the age of 5, kids should be able to identify the sound of each letter, and should be able to identify enough words to start reading sentences. 

You should start with very basic books that have very simple sentences, and then work your way up. Usually, a child’s school will assign books, however you can buy your own books to read at home. Look at the reading age recommendation to determine whether it is suitable for your child (if your child is picking up reading at a fast rate, you may be able to go above their reading age). 

Be prepared to be patient and consider getting them to only read a few pages at a time at first. Correct them whenever they get a sentence wrong, and praise them whenever they get a sentence right. If children do not want to sit down and read, try to set targets and rewards to motivate them, but try not to nag them. Ideally, reading should not be a chore, but something that your kids are happy to do – you do not want them to develop a negative association with reading. 

By the age of 6 or 7, kids may be able to sit down and read a book by themselves. Most kids will start by reading aloud, but will eventually develop the ability to read silently. Encouraging reading aloud can be good at first, but it allows you to get a better idea of their reading level and to correct them if they get a word or sentence wrong. 

Some kids become avid readers, while others never get into independent reading. Kids are more likely to develop reading as a hobby if they have been regularly read to while growing up and if they are given books that they actually want to read. They may also be more inspired to take up reading if they regularly see their parents reading books or magazines (so make sure you’re reading too).