One of my most exciting periods of parenting came when my children began to crack the mysterious, symbolic structure of reading. A word of caution to parents. Enjoy watching their interests develop and help your children play their way to reading.
Children come to reading in different ways.
One of my children painstakingly sounded out each letter and worked diligently to blend them into words. During a shopping excursion, I asked my daughter if she could read any of the words on a sign. That's a term coined by a colleague of mine who believes books that toddlers enjoy later serve as great first reading material. The few, simple, predictable words in board books which once supported language learning can do the same for emergent readers. Two recently released board books make for perfect reading primers.