What are reading readiness skills?

Reading readiness skills help prepare learners for the task of reading. The particular skills they need to learn will depend on their previous experience with and exposure to reading.

Reading readiness skills need to be taught in a context which gives the expectation that reading is for meaning. The learners need to hear stories read aloud and observe that reading and writing are useful and meaningful.

Reading readiness skills are those abilities necessary for a person to begin the process of learning to read.

Here are some examples of reading readiness skills:

• Aural phonemic awareness
• Teaching someone to handle a book correctly
• Using a pencil correctly
• Understanding and interpreting illustrations
• Discerning shapes
• Understanding the alphabetic principle
• Understanding some concepts and conventions of print

• What are literacy skils?

• Clay 1991
• Dechant 1991
• Gudschinsky 1959
• Morrow, O'Connor, and Smith 1990

• Concept module: reading readiness skills
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): R
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 16 March 1999

© 1999 SIL International