How to know if your child is ready to learn letters!

#1 question I get is "What age should I teach my child letters?"

Because every child is developmentally different, the right question to ask is, "How do I know if my child is ready to learn letters?"

Learning any skill should NEVER be based on a specific age. Of course there are averages and milestones but it is VERY IMPORTANT to understand when a child is ready and follow their pace!

There are two things a child must be in order to be ready to learn letters:

1: Developmentally Ready

2: Interested

Both are CRUCIAL to your child's success with letters. If you start too soon it might be discouraging to the child. If you start too late, their interest might be gone. So let's deep dive into both. 

1: Developmental Readiness

There are 3 developmental skills your child must have:

First, The ability to pronounce the letter sounds.

Simply ask your child to repeat the letter sounds after you to see if they can pronounce it. If you are not sure what the letter sounds are See my video here

Second, The ability to tell the letter shapes apart.

Letters are simply shapes and if the child cannot tell the different letters apart then they will not be successful. For example, the letters, "h" and "n", "b" and "d" look very similar. To see if your child can differentiate letters, print out two sets of lowercase letters and see if your child can match the letters correctly. 

Third, The ability to remember all the letters.

It is important that your child has the memory capacity, if not then it could be frustrating to the child and you. Generally we see that children who know their shapes, colors, basic animals, basic body part names, also have the ability to remember all the letters. 

2: Interest

It is also important that the child is slightly interested in letters. This will show that the child is in a sensitive period which means they are going to be self-motivated to learn that skill.

Here are some signs that your child might be interested in letters:

• Engaged while reading a book with you
• Can hold a book and turn pages correctly
• Pretends to read or write or even make up stories
• Starts to show an understanding of rhymes and/or syllables
• Has a wide vocabulary and can talk in sentences
• Notices or points out letters and words in the environment. 
• Knows the ABC song

While age is not a determining factor, we generally see the most children are ready to learn letters from 2-5 years old. 

Do you want to learn how to teach your child letters in less than 5 minute a day with fun learning games?

Checkout my FREE Montessori Reading Masterclass where I teach you exactly how to teach your child to read with step-by-step instructions!

Watch FREE Reading Masterclass Now