A few days ago I walked in on our Reader in Training (Wilson, age 2.5) alone in his room and witnessed him “reading” a book to himself: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, illustrated by Eric Carle.
“Brown Bear, Brown, Bear, what do you see?” said Wilson in his sweet toddler voice, “I see a…” and then he would pause, peek ahead at the picture on the following page, and return to 
where he left off. “I see a red bird looking at me! Red bird, red bird, what do you see?” and the process would continue: pause, peek, repeat.
It’s the perfect example of how word repetition combined with simple illustrations work together to build pre-literacy skills. Did Wilson actually know any of the words he was “reading”? I wasn’t entirely sure so I decided to find out. “What is this word?” I asked, pointing to the word “blue.” “It says “blue horse, blue horse, what do you see?” he responded. Next, I brought out some flash cards that I’d saved from his older sister’s preschool days. “How about this word?” I asked, showing him the word ‘the.’ “I don’t know,” he said. “There’s a t and a h and a e,” he said.
For those of us who have been reading for a lifetime, witnessing the first steps into reading may not be obvious. We take for granted that we no longer have to recite words on a page; we simply associate those black squiggles with what we’re saying. What Wilson is doing now is making his rhyme match the picture – important pre-reading skills which are part of a good literacy foundation.
After discussing Wilson’s progress with Lynn at Bob Books, she had some valuable suggestions for continuing to build his pre-reading skills:
* Show him where the word “horse” or “blue” is in the text so that he can begin to understand that the letters that make up the word “blue” or “horse” are the same every time.
* Choose a letter of the alphabet like b and practice making the sound “bbbb” every time it appears.
*Go on a letter hunt for “b.” Saying all those fun b words in a gentle way introduces this brand new idea in a way that is playful, interesting and supportive.
Even thought Wilson is not reading actual words yet, his memorizing and “play reading” are wonderful steps forward as he prepares to join the world of young readers. So far he’s doing great and we’ve got plenty of time to work on pre-reading skills before he heads off to school in a few years.
Oh, and speaking of time… for those of you who have been regularly following the Bob Books blog, we wanted to let you know that beginning next week, we will be moving to an every other week posting schedule. In the meantime, please keep those great comments and ideas coming. We love to hear from you!
