When children start to read and write it can seem like magic.  How on earth did those little brains work to absorb all the skills needed for those complicated activities?  In reality, learning to read and write isn’t magic; it’s a process that’s well understood and carefully facilitated by you and your child’s teachers.

Top 5 Tips

1. The basis of reading and writing is oral and visual language so reading books to your child, singing songs, telling them stories and talking to them is really important.

2. Be positive about reading and writing and share everything you read with your child, even if it’s just the flyer from the supermarket. We want our children to be interested in learning how to ‘decode’ the letters and words they see on the page.

3. When you’re reading to your child, make sure they understand the meaning of the text. Debate, question and reason with them.

4. Play fun word games such as ‘Simon Says’ and ‘I Spy’. If your child doesn’t know their letters yet, use sounds e.g. I spy with my little eye something beginning with (and say the sound a few times).

5. Continue to communicate with your child in your mother tongue/ native language. It is important English (or whatever language your child is being taught in) becomes an additional language, and doesn’t replace the home language in the first 5-7 years.