Reading Begins at Home

Book excerpt: Reading Begins at Home is a book for parents of pre-schoolers. It is a straight-forward account of proven ways in which parents can help their children with reading - before they go to school. Updated to take account of the latest literacy research, Reading Begins at Home is the perfect book for early childhood educators to share with parents. It presents research-based ideas for at-home instruction in beginning reading concepts. Internationally acclaimed reading authorities Dorothy Butler and Marie Clay offer their expertise to parents, guardians, grandparents, or anyone else interested in nudging young readers toward a lifetime of literacy. Their techniques are based on decades of exploring how young children come to read, on what they have to master to become readers, and on the relationship between a literate home and success in school. Butler and Clay describe one-to-one learning situations that occur in everyday life and suggest ways they can be turned into opportunities for beginning reading instruction. They show how children can be gently introduced to the kind of instruction they will find at school as well as to concepts of print that will soon be key to their success. Through immersion in high-quality books, direct instruction from adults, and simple encouragement, children can begin the process of becoming readers. Parents need to know how to implement these strategies at home. Reading Begins at Home can help them.