Long before children can formally read and write, they engage in time-honored acts of imitation. Making line after line of scribbles and looking at picture books are the beginning steps of emergent reading. Encouraging words Encourage your child's experiments with writing at all stages. Offer your beginning reader books with accompanying audiotapes. Recite poems and nursery rhymes, sing songs, and play rhyming games with your child.
Predictable books allow children to anticipate which words come next.
Stories and storybooks with repetitive rhyming sections give children a sense of what comes next. Read books with rhyming and repetitive lines or phrases. Encourage your child to tell you why he likes a particular book or story. The author is Sara Wilford, the director of the Early Childhood Center at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Read our Privacy Policy Statement .