top of page
RAB (7).png
stephen-andrews-u0zTce7KNlY-unsplash.jpg

Reading Development

Learning to read involves developing thinking, motor, listening, speaking, writing, and many other skills.

The lists below show the approximate ages that reading skills begin to emerge.

Some children might show them earlier and some much later.

RAB (7).png
reading to baby

Ages 0-12 Months

RAB (10).png

  • Understands 50 words or more, including words for common items, like "cup," "shoe," or "juice"

  • Understands simple requests and instructions, like "Come here" or "Please drink your milk"

  • Makes sounds to try to repeat your words and speech sounds

  • Starts using hands and eyes in coordination, such as reaching for book, grasps book, and brings to mouth

  • Sits in lap with head steady without support

  • Responds to stories and pictures by vocalizing and patting the pictures

  • Begins to babble, saying "ma," "ba," "da"

  • Answers simple questions nonverbally, like nods or shakes head

  • Watches the face of a person who's talking to them when they speak

  • Smiles, coos, and babbles in a speech-like way

  • Responds to changes in the emotion of the tone of your voice

  • Reaches for and plays with objects, such as board books and alphabet blocks

  • Prefers the human face, especially baby faces, to all other patterns, such as objects or animals

  • Follows moving things with eyes from side to side

RAB (7).png
reading to toddler

Ages 1-2 Years

RAB (10).png

  • Knows the correct way to hold and handle a book

  • Recites parts of frequently read stories

  • Verbalizes desires and feelings, like "I want cookie" or "more milk"

  • Asks one- to two-word questions, such as "Go bye-bye?"

  • Enjoys being read to

  • Gives book to an adult to read when they want to hear a story

  • Has a favorite book and requests it to be read often, again and again

  • No longer puts book in mouth right away

  • Points to pictures to identify objects when asked, "Where is...?"

  • Recognizes the covers and knows the names of their favorite books

  • Recognizes and tries to name familiar objects in storybooks with adult help

  • Starts pretending to read by turning pages and making up stories

  • Tries to imitate simple words

  • Turns board book pages, several at a time

  • Carries book while crawling and walking around the house

  • Begins to associate words they hear frequently with what the words mean

RAB (7).png
reading to preschooler

Ages 2-3 Years

RAB (10).png

  • Begins to pay attention to specific print, such as the letters in their name

  • Knows their first and last name, refers to self by name, and uses "me" and "mine"

  • Learns to turn paper pages, 2-3 pages at a time

  • Begins to name objects based on descriptions

  • Points to common objects when they're named

  • Pretends to read to dolls and stuffed animals

  • Protests when an adult gets a word wrong in a familiar story

  • Reads familiar books to self

  • Recites whole phrases and sometimes whole stories, but may confuse facts

  • Scribbles with a purpose, like trying to draw or write something

  • Uses imagination to create and tell stories

RAB (7).png
reading to child

Ages 3-5 Years

RAB (10).png

  • Asks and answers simple "Who" What" Where" and "Why" questions

  • Begins to attend to beginning or rhyming sounds in words, like in "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater: Peter Eater"

  • Can recognize and identify about half the letters of the alphabet, especially those in their own name

  • Enjoys rhyming and nonsense words

  • Makes symbols that resemble writing

  • Sings the alphabet song with prompting and cues

  • Turns paper pages one at a time, and from left to right

  • Understands sentences involving time concepts, like "Grandma is coming tomorrow."

  • Begins to notice words that rhyme

  • Identifies familiar signs and labels, especially on signs and containers

  • Moves finger along text

  • Start matching letter sounds to letters, like knowing the sound "B" makes

  • Understands that print is read from left-to-right and top-to-bottom

RAB (7).png
reading to child

Ages 4-5 Years

RAB (10).png

  • Can recognize and begin to write their own name

  • Follows three instructions given at one time ("Put the toys away. Wash your hands, and come eat dinner.")

  • Lists items that belong in a category, such as several different animals and types of vehicles

  • Names some colors and some numbers

  • Sings a song or says a poem from memory, such as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "The Wheels on the Bus"

  • Speech is understandable but makes mistakes pronouncing long, difficult words such as "hippopotamus"

  • Starts to copy some capital letters

  • Understands comparatives, like loud, louder, and loudest

  • Understands sequencing of events when clearly explained, like "First, we plug the drain, then we run the water, and finally we take a bath."

  • Understands spatial concepts such as "behind" and "next to"

  • Understands the idea of "same" and "different"

  • Uses some irregular past tense verbs such as "ran" and "fell"

RAB (7).png
pexels-mikhail-nilov-8923030.jpg

Ages 5+ Years

RAB (10).png

  • Creates rhyming words by changing the beginning sound, like changing rat to sat

  • Enjoys being read to

  • Identifies initial, final, and middle sounds in short words

  • Recognizes all letters and matches each letter to the sound it represents

  • Recognizes some familiar words in print

  • Starts to recognize some words by sight without having to sound them out

  • Uses descriptive language to explain or to ask questions, like "Where is black dog?"

  • Writes some letters, numbers, and words

bottom of page