Learning to say their ABCs is a great start for any preschooler, but it is just as important for your child to learn the sounds of the letters. Preschoolers, who know the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, have an easier time learning to read.

In order to read, every child must know the sounds of the letters as well as the shapes and order. More than that he must be able to recall them quickly. When he sees the letter he should be able to say the letter or vocalize its sound without hesitation. This should happen whether he hears the letters in order or not.

While the alphabet song can be a fun way to start learning the ABCs it is not enough because children also need to be able to identify each individual letter. In fact, this skill is much more important than knowing where it falls in the alphabet as it is the key in learning to read.

Research shows it is important for young children to be able to:

~ Recognize and name letters
~ Recognize beginning letters in familiar words (especially their own name)
~ Recognize both capital and lowercase letters
~ Relate letters to the specific sounds they represent

Knowledge of the alphabet is the foundation to your child’s literacy development and you shouldn’t assume your child will learn this skill in kindergarten. Waiting until kindergarten to learn the ABCs will put your child behind many other students and may cause added stress.

Children who can read independently “translate” alphabet shapes accurately back into sounds. If we want our children to be able to read independently, we needed to teach them:

~ The shapes of the alphabet letters;
~ The various sounds of each letter;
~ The sounds made by combined letters.

You can start teaching the alphabet when your child is young. My son mastered his letters by his second birthday and I helped him do that without flashcards and without whining! He loves working with his “letters” and even now as he approaches his fourth birthday requests a particular game or activity. He doesn’t know he’s learning-he just thinks he’s having fun with his Mommy.

There are many ways that you can help your preschooler learn the sounds and names of the letters of the alphabet.

You don’t need expensive tools and programs and in fact many of those can be counterproductive as they make learning work. My greatest success was simply to work on letters in context with the world whenever he seemed open to the opportunity. The alphabet became simply a part of our daily life including errands and play time.

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According to Bernabe Feria, an expert in reading sciences who holds a doctorate from Oxford University, children learn to read in three stages. They are as follows:

* Stage 1: This stage typically lasts until children are 5 or 6 years old. Children in this stage learn to recognize and write the letters of the alphabet and to use punctuation, and also begin “sounding out” clusters of written letters that form short words.

* Stage 2: This stage continues until children reach age 6 or 7. They learn to immediately recognize a few hundred words on sight and to read in phrases and even whole sentences.

* Stage 3: Children reach this stage around age 8 and typically no later than 10. At this stage they learn how to read with the facility and fluency with which they use spoken language, and should be able to recognize, appreciate and emulate finely crafted language.

As a parent, you can help your children learn the value of reading at any stage through an innovative program called ReadEnt, developed by SFK Media Specially for Kids Corp.

The program’s Reading Movies seamlessly blend reading with interactive films that teach and improve vocabulary and comprehension. Each of the Reading Movies – “Trojan Horse,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “Tales of Gulliver’s Travels” – exposes students to timeless children’s literature while helping them learn through a patented technology called “Action Captions.” As the movie character speaks, the words simultaneously appear on the screen, one at a time, with no disruption to the flow of the movie.

Reading experts and educators indicate that these “Action Captions” activate the cognitive elements of the brain so that the development of both reading and spoken language skills takes place naturally. The ReadEnt reading programs can be used over a period of years to develop different skill sets as children move from one stage to the next.

The program’s Reading Movies, which are interactive with fun quizzes and games, are available for use on the TV or the computer.

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