Unlike learning to walk or even speak, reading is not an innate skill that children intuitively learn. Learning to read requires instruction and support at a pace that your child can follow. The process of reading is known as decoding because like cracking a code, a child must learn how to break down what they see on a page and put together, as well as predict, the meaning of text. A great place to start with preschoolers is learning letter-sound relationships and then moving on to recognising syllables before learning to blend and segment words. Try our list of hands-on phonics activities!