What first-grade teachers wish parents would do to help their children learn to read

There’s no single age when every child learns to read, but first grade is often considered the year when reading “clicks.” This is when many children begin to read grade-level books with some fluency. 

What does it mean to be a fluent reader? In broad terms, fluency is the ability to blend sounds together quickly and accurately, recognize familiar words by sight, and understand the meaning of text. It’s a process, not a moment—and it can begin at home with you, long before your child enters an elementary school classroom.

You don’t have to be a teacher or literacy expert to help your child start building essential pre-reading skills. We talked to Lovevery experts—including former teachers—to get their best advice. 

Help your child fall in love with reading

Reading is hard, and many children go through periods of resistance as they learn. One of the best ways to prepare for these moments is to help your child enjoy reading from the beginning.

Let your child choose their own books—and read them over and over 

Allowing your child to follow their interests empowers them and shows that you respect their choices. Try to stay curious and supportive about your child’s book selections—even if they choose one they can’t entirely comprehend yet or one that isn’t your first choice 🙃

Something special happens when your child finds a book they love. You can see them connect with it—they may look at it on their own, carry it around with them, or choose a favorite page to focus on. What they’ll almost certainly do is ask you to read it to them again and again. 

This is one of the best things you can do for your child, but it can test your patience after a while. Here are a few ways to keep things fresh and interesting:

• Trade pages with your child. Once they’ve heard a book numerous times, they’ll likely memorize some of their favorite parts. You can invite them to finish sentences for you in rhyming books.
• Invite your child to search for a specific page. Before you start reading, try asking, “Can you find the place where Maria goes down the slide?” Locating a page is an important early literacy skill they can practice with a familiar book.
• Ask questions that aren’t explicitly answered in the book. In addition to straightforward questions like, “What happens next?” try asking something that involves a leap in comprehension: “Why does Dr. Helen show Olivia all of her dentist tools before using them?”

Think beyond the alphabet song

Learning the ABCs is a proud moment for many children, and reciting a sequence is certainly a valuable skill. Singing the alphabet song means your child knows the name of every letter—but to read, they’ll need to recognize each letter’s shape and sound.

Begin with lowercase letters and their sounds

Not all uppercase letters match the corresponding lowercase form. Uppercase is generally easier to read and write, but most of the letters your child sees in books will be lowercase. Start introducing letter shapes by writing each lowercase letter in large print on a piece of paper and inviting your child to trace each shape with their index finger.

That’s why The Reading Skill Set introduces lowercase letters first. The Movable Alphabet introduces them out of order, so your child learns the letters by their shapes instead of relying on their sequence. 

To recognize each letter, your child also needs to know what sound it makes. Individual letter sounds are called phonemes. They’re the smallest units of sound and include both single letters—like the /b/ in bat—and multiple letters that combine to make one sound, like the /ch/ in chair. Isolating the sounds within words is tricky and will likely take time and practice. Begin with the first sound of a word, which is the easiest for your child to hear.

The ABCs With Mr. Z is a story about students who go on a scavenger hunt to find objects around their classroom that start with specific letter sounds. Each letter page features illustrations of items all starting with the same letter sound. Invite your child to  name as many as they can. For example, the S page is a desert scene that includes snakes, sand, and sunshine.

Practice telling stories

Oral language development is another important element of early reading. Your child is already a storyteller—they practice whenever they tell you about something that happened to them. Encouraging this helps your child internalize the elements of a story. Research shows that readers who understand narrative structure tend to have stronger reading comprehension. 

Practice sequencing and storytelling with wordless picture books 

Understanding that a story has a beginning, middle, and end seems like a simple concept, but it’s important for later reading skills. To reinforce this idea, intentionally use sequence words as you tell your child a story: “First, we went to the park. Next, we had a picnic.” 

You can also ask questions that get them thinking about the order of events in their day: “What did you do first when I dropped you off this morning? What did you eat for lunch in the middle of the day? What was the last thing you did before I picked you up?” It’s okay if their answers don’t align with what you expect; the point is to get them thinking and talking.

Wordless picture books—like Sita’s Hike to the Beach—are another way to encourage your child to think about what they’re reading. In fact, telling the story of a wordless book is a form of reading and builds your child’s vocabulary, language comprehension, and awareness of story structure. Encourage them to describe what they see as they tell the story their way—this supports an important aspect of comprehension called inference. Inferring involves drawing conclusions about a story from clues rather than from what’s explicitly shown or written.

The Story Order Cards in The Reading Skill Set are deliberately presented out of chronological order so your child can decide their correct sequence. There is an answer key, but it’s more important for your child to tell you their own version of the story than for them to get the order exactly right.

The Reading Skill Set

A phonics-based program that motivates
your child to read through play.

Learn more