The Forgotten Pre-Reading Skill
Guest Post by Malia of Playdough to Plato
You probably already know that before children can learn to read, they need certain pre-reading skills including rhyming, clapping out syllables, and naming the first sound in words. But, did you know that children also need to tell time? Well… maybe that’s an exaggeration. Early readers need to be able to use something called “decontextualized language” – words that describe things that happen in the past or future. Learning this vocabulary helps children track when events occur in books they read and allows them to retell and summarize stories when they are finished.
You can help your child develop decontextualized language by talking about family events that happened in the past or are going to happen in the future. And you can help her understand what “past” and “future” means using a simple calendar. I purchased mine from Lakeshore Learning, a teacher supply store, but any calendar will work well.
To teach your child this concept, take a few minutes at the start of your day to talk about what you will be doing together. For example, you might say, “Today is Wednesday, April 4th, 2012. We are going to eat breakfast and then go to the park. Then we will come home and eat lunch…” If your child needs additional practice understanding the concept of a day, write down a list of your activities together and cross them off as you complete each one.
Once you know that your child understands the meaning of “today”, begin introducing “yesterday”. After you talk about your schedule for the day, clip a clothespin labeled “yesterday” in the correct spot on the calendar. Then, help your child brainstorm different things that happened the day before.
After several days of practice, your child will likely be ready to take the next step. Begin using a “tomorrow” clothespin as well and add conversations about what you all will be doing.
If there are big events happening in the near future, you can mark them with a star.
Without thinking about it, you will be using past, present and future verbs when you talk about the calendar and your child will be well on her way to learning how to tell time… or at least learning how to read.
Malia Hollowell is the founder of Playdough to Plato, a site that shares how parents can teach and motivate their child to read in 20 minutes or less a day. Malia is a National Board Certified elementary teacher, wife, and mother of two young boys.
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I agree but disagree. Not every child needs those pre-reading skills (rhyming, clapping out syllables, and naming the first sound in words, telling time). My son is 4 and he can only kind of rhyme and can’t clap out syllables, and he reads. Not just words, but books. Every kid is different and while these are HELPFUL things, I think it does some kids a disservice to say these are prerequisite. It’s just going to drive a mom nuts if her kid can’t do this and this and this and this…just adds another thing on our supermom to-do lists.
Hi Randi! Your point is an important one. The list of pre-reading skills children typically master is used as a guide that helps parents and teachers make sure to cover a variety of skills. Every child is different and, consequently, will learn different skills at different times and in different orders.
Around what age is a child usually ready to start introducing a calendar?
Hi Lauren! While every child is different, I’ve found that most of my students were ready to start working with a calendar between 4 and 5.
Actually, NAEYC does not support teaching time using calendar until much later. It IS important to use time words such as “before, during, after” and “first, next, last”. Using a pictorial daily schedule helps children with a sense of where they are in their day, etc.
Trish–I was about to post a similar comment! I was thinking, “the ECE field (well, high-quality places) no longer supports calendar time.”
Hi Trish and Karen! Thanks for sharing. This activity is one way to introduce time words including “before, during, after”, etc. and there are certainly many more options. Picking the one that feels most comfortable to you is important and I love your idea about using a pictorial daily schedule.
Trish and Karen,
I happen to be the director and lead teacher of a high quality program and we use a calendar and have a calendar time. However, the emphasis of our calendar and calendar time is to work on counting, patterning, looking forward to special events, discussing the weather for the day, etc. We also use our calendar time to go over our pictorial schedule for the day. I think early childhood programs should use calendars and calendar time, but with the right purpose in mind.
I second your post, Alyssa! My students enjoyed working with the calendar for all of the reasons you mentioned and using present, past and future words is a bonus. :)