Some children arrive at the kindergarten door knowing how to read.  These children are called Early Readers. These little ones read without being formally taught.

Early Readers acquire the skill naturally.  Mom or dad do not schedule formal classes teaching letters, sounds, and syllables.

If you watched, you would see a more natural way of learning.

You would see a child sitting on the parent’s lap, listening to a story.  The parent would be moving their finger over the line of print..

Gradually, and on the child’s schedule, the child would associate sounds with certain letters on the page.

How do Early Readers come to be?

Research shows four factors present in the home environment of nearly every early reader.

I’ll point to those four  factors.

#1.   The child is read to on a regular basis.  In a Delores Durkin study in 1966, all of the early readers were read to regularly.  The parents were avid readers.  The children regularly saw their parents reading.  The reading material included books, magazines, street signs, billboards.

#2.  A variety of printed materials are available.  Books, magazines, newspapers, and even comics.  Studies reported that the more printed materials found in the home, the higher the student’s writing, reading, and math skills.

#3.  Paper and pencil are available for the child.  Without exception, the researcher explained, the starting point for written language was an interest in scribbling and drawing.  Beyond scribbling, the child developed an interest in copying shapes and the alphabet.

#4.  The people in the child’s environment are supportive.  They were willing to answer endless questions.  They freely praised the child’s efforts at reading and writing.  They supported the child by making frequent trips to the library, writing the child’s stories, and displaying the child’s work in a prominent place.

None of these factors involved pushing a child to read early.  They did involve the parent’s natural interest and support.