An excellent companion to a multisensory phonics program, this structured skill-building program concentrates on the areas where children need the most work. The Preschool Activity Book targets basic preliteracy skills. It orients children toward printed materials and teaches letter sounds. Developmentally appropriate assessment procedures such as informal observation guidelines help educators monitor children's progress. The Kindergarten Activity Book focuses on developing pre-academic skills, early literacy development, and early reading development.
Goals become more intense as children learn phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle.
While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperiled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society. This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural and biological factors. Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read. Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media and government at all levels are discussed. Contrasting the impaired progress of children with reading difficulties against the background of normal progress, this book examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading.