ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS A PARENTS’ GUIDE TO READING -AND WRITING YY, ‘ “PARENTS ARE OUR CHILDREN'S FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT TEACHERS; CLASSROOM TEACHERS ARE PARENTS’ TRUSTEES." MEADOW BROOK ELEMENTARYYour child, like most children, will learn how to read. Whether your child will read and read fluently depends partly on you. Children who read well come from homes in which there are plenty of books, magazines, and newspapers and in which everyone reads-parents, brothers and sisters. Their parents encourage reading and make time for it. T's clear that the family view reading as important. Children who read well have parents who: *Read aloud to them *Talk to them about their ideas and experiences *Take them places *Let them watch limited television and play limited video games *Take an interest in their reading progressWHAT ABOUT PHONICS? The ability to manipulate sounds is called phonological awareness. A child's level of phonological awareness is a very good predicator of beginning reading success. Children develop this awareness as a result of the oral and written language they are exposed to during their preschool years. Nursery rhymes, chants, and songs play a large role in this development. Children also develop a sense of sounds and words as they try to write. Children who are allowed to “invent-spell” develop an early and strong sense of phonological awareness. Children need to develop an understanding of how speech and print are related. SEVEN SIGNS OF EMERGENT LITERACY * Children “pretend read" favorite books, poems, song charts. * Children can read what they wrote even if no one else can. + Children can “track print" that is, show you what to read and point to the words using left to right and top to bottom conventions. + Children know critical jargon, can point to just one wordy. the first word in the sentence, one letter, the first letter in the word, the longest word, etc. Children can recognize some concrete words - their names and names of other children, favorite words from books, poems, and song charts. * Children can recognize if words rhyme and can make up rhymes, * Children can name many letters and can tell you words that begin with the common initial sounds.