Readiness for Reading and Writing
at the Primary level
School
• First major experience the child is
exposed to outside the home
• These early experiences
 Mould children’s attitudes to life
and learning
 Develop skills that aid in growth
and development of their
potential
• Hurried child syndrome
• Expectations and demands of
schooling leave child bewildered
and handicapped for growth
• Child needs to be prepared
What is readiness?
• Readiness
– Essentially the state of receptiveness
– The ability to be receptive
• Time when the child’s
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– Physical, neural, intellectual, social and
emotional developments have advanced
to perceive the problem
– to solve it with relative ease
Readiness should be seen as
– A means of increasing children’s capacity to
meet the academic demands of the first years
at school
– Developmental orientation for learning rather
than merely the development of pre requisite
skills
School plays a vital role in readiness
 It is imperative that
readiness activities
need to be
incorporated in the
primary classes
 Inclusion of teachers in
the development of
such activities
becomes critical
What happens when child is not ready?
Definition of reading readiness
• The teachable moment for reading: a point in
time when the pupil is ready to learn how to
read. (Dechant 1991)
• “A transition extending over several months
during which time the child (student)
gradually changes from a non-reader to a
beginning reader. In this case the readiness
program couples the (student's) past learning
with new learning and brings the (student),
gradually, through the transition." (Clay 1991)
Importance of reading
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Key to success in school
Stimulates thinking
Creates new interests
Leads to appreciation of
various kinds and types of
literature besides contributing
to personal and social
adjustment
Components of reading readiness
Development of language skills
Auditory perception
Visual perception
Audio-visual perception
Directionality
Development of reading readiness
I) Initial stage of learning to
read
• Knowledge of the alphabet/Letter
recognition/associating sounds and
symbol of the letter
• Children begin to develop basic sight
vocabulary
• Directional orientation
• Much of the reading is oral
• Children realize that reading is talk
written down
Development of reading readiness
II) Rapid development of reading
skills
• Extension and refinement of the
previous stage
• Child develops word-recognition
skills
• Builds a substantial sight vocabulary
• Development of word meaning
III) Refinement of reading
• Development of advanced
comprehension skills
• Attainment of study skills
• Increase in the reading rate
Preparing children to read
I) Developing desirable interest
and attitude
• Develop interest in reading
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By providing picture books
Pictures of children reading
Read aloud stories
Story making
Information books
Children’s craft books
Newspaper/children’s magazine
Visiting book fair/exhibitions
Preparing children to read
• Helping children see the relationship
between the text and the experience
– Developing “Graphic Sense”
(Writing carries a message)
• Bonding with books
 All types of books- Picture books/
Three dimensional books/Pop-up
books/Touch and learn
books/cartoon books/comic books
 Posters, pictures of children and
adult reading
 Scrap books
Preparing children to read
• Providing a print-rich
environment
 An environment with bulletin board notices,
messages labels, dictated stories, notes,
children’s personal files, labeling things in the
classroom such as lockers, cupboards, book
shelves, windows and doors
 Name cards
 Glove puppets that can be used by children
 Reading corner with attractively displayed
books, flannel board equipped with characters
from stories, newspapers and magazines
 Early literacy album that is filled with
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List of favourite toys, food, game and so on
Drawing with dictated stories
Special scribble messages such as letters/ lists
Wish lists
Preparing children to read
II) Developing large speaking and listening
vocabulary
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Encouraging children to speak and
experiment with different words and phrases
(Free and structured conversations)
Encourage small conversations between
children
Theme-based conversations
Role playing and dramatisation
Rhyming games
Story telling and story making
Listening games
Show and tell activities to be continued even
in the primary classes
Preparing children to read
III) Development of skills
Auditory perception skills
• Auditory perception refers to the
ability of the brain to interpret and
create a clear impression of sounds
• Good auditory skills enable children
to distinguish between
 different pitches
 volumes
 rhythms and
 sources of sounds and words
Preparing children to read
Auditory perception skills include
Auditory
closure
ability to
complete
indistinct
or
inaudible
words to
create a
clear
auditory
image
Auditory
conceptualising
Auditory
discrimination
Auditory
blending
Auditory
localizatio
n
Auditory
memory
Auditory
sequential
memory
Auditory
figure
ground
• ability to
interpret and
form a clear
impression of a
sound or
combination of
sounds
• ability to
detect
similarities
and
differences
when
listening to
sounds.
• blending
sounds
into
words
• ability to
determin
e the
source
of a
sound
using
only the
sense of
hearing
• ability to
store
and later
recall
the
impressi
on
perceive
d by the
ears
• ability to
store a
series of
informat
ion in
the
order it
was
heard
and later
recall it
• ability to
attend
to
importa
nt
sounds
in the
environ
ment
and
ignore
other
sounds.
Children who have difficulties may have
• Problems identifying speech sounds
• Poor listening skills, especially when there is
background noise
• Difficulty discriminating between similar words
/rhyming words
• Poor articulation of sounds and words
• Kinesthetic strengths (and learn better through using
concrete materials and practical experiences)
• Visual strengths (and enjoy learning through using
visual materials such as charts, maps, videos,
demonstrations)
• Good motor skills (and have strengths in design and
technology, art, PE and games)
Activities to enhance auditory perception
skills
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Listening – listen to sounds on a CD/ real objects with
eyes closed and then ask the pupils to:
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point to a picture of the object making the sound and name it
point to a real object that makes the sound and then try it out.
Sound bingo – listening to sounds and covering the
correct picture
Sound walk – pupils drawing pictures or writing down the
names of the sounds they hear on the walk.
Grouping sounds – animals, musical instruments, vehicles
etc. Improvise the activity with words
Odd one out – Initially with sounds such as sound that is
not part of a group of sounds, eg. dogs barking, pig
grunting, cow mooing, musical instrument playing. Then
progress to words
Musical discrimination – discriminating between loud/soft,
high/low, fast/slow notes
Activities to enhance auditory
perception skills
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Clapping or tapping rhythms – Can use pupils'
names and polysyllable words. Linked with picturenoun recognition
Pupils can work in pairs, using picture-noun cards
– take turns to clap syllable beats and choose the
picture-noun card to match the number of beats
Same/different 1 – listen to sets of two everyday
sounds and identify those that are the same and
those that are different
Same/different 2 – listen to sets of two words and
identify those that are the same and those that are
different, eg. bat/bat, bat/bet
Same/different 3 – listen to sets of two words and
identify those that rhyme and those that don't, eg.
cat/mat, bed/bud
Activities to enhance auditory
perception skills
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Hands up 1 – Children put up their hands
when they hear a particular sound/words
(sounds given one at a time)
Hands up 2 – Children put up their hands
when they hear a particular sound against
a background of other sounds
(figure/ground auditory discrimination)
Who is it? – Blindfold a child - ask another
pupil to say a short sentence Blindfolded
child identifies the child by name. Proceed
to sentences later
Sound bingo – discriminating between
initial sounds
Rhyme time with word cards
Telephone talk
Story telling
Visual perception
• Visual perception refers to information
that is perceived through the eyes
• Developing in preschool children and
continues to develop right through primary
school.
• Important skill especially for school
success
 Helps to discriminate well
 Copy text accurately
 Develop visual memory of things observed
 Develop good eye-hand co-ordination and
 Integrate visual information while using other
senses
Components of Visual perception skills
color
perception
and colour
constancy
shape
perception
and shape
constancy
visual
analysis
and
synthesis
visual
closure
visual
figureground
distinction
visual
memory
visual
conceptualizing
visual
patternfollowing
spatial
relations
visual
discrimination
visual
sequence
Children who have visual perception difficulties
may
• Be unable to identify shades of colour
and texture in pictures
• Confuse shapes and symbols in
maths
• Confuse letters, words and objects
that look similar
• Reverse numbers and letters when
writing
• Have problems with learning sight
vocabulary
• Find simple scanning activities
difficult (eg. Word searches,
dictionary work, using an index)
Children who have visual perception difficulties
may
• Have problems with comparative
language (Eg. taller than, shorter than,
longer than)
• Have difficulty completing jigsaw
puzzles
• Have problems with copying from the
board
• Prefer to use multisensory strategies
when learning
• Work with small amounts of visual
material at a time
• Predominantly use phonic strategies
when reading
Activities to develop visual
discrimination skills
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Sorting – colour, shape, size and texture, move to
letters and words
Post-a-shape – matching shapes to the correct
opening
Matching silhouettes – pictorial/ shapes
Pairs 1 – matching objects, shapes and pictures
Pairs 2 – matching letters, using a choice of only four
to six at first. Try to avoid the letters that are easily
confused like b, d and p. Introduce those letters
gradually
Pairs 3 – matching words, using a choice of only four
or five at first
Odd one out – colour/ shape/ size/ pictorial (apple,
orange, banana), then move on to words
Spot the difference – visual similarities and differences
between two pictures. Then letters &words(bat, but, bat)
Activities to develop visual discrimination
skills
• Mix and match – making three-part flipbooks where heads, bodies and tails of
animals can be interchanged
• Match the detail – matching a picture of a
detail (such as a window) to the picture
from which the detail comes such as the
house that has that window)
• Picture-word matching
• Shape words – matching high frequency
words to a shape outline
• Snap – matching a range of pictorial
cards
• Lotto – matching word to word
• Dominoes – matching picture to picture
or word to word
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Activities to develop visual
discrimination
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Words to sentence matching
Letter change (eg. cat, cot, cut)
Onset change (eg. sent, tent, went)
Odd word out – both oral and written (eg.
hand, land, lend, stand)
Pelmanism 1 – rhyming picture pairs
Pelmanism 2 – rhyming word pairs
Word searches – using high frequency words
or rhyming words or finding topic based words
Simple crosswords
Puzzles
What will happen next? Through pictures
Post office corner- Shoe box filled with notes,
letters, cards, birthday invitations
Audio-visual discrimination
• To establish association between sounds and
pictures/objects/words
Activities to enhance audio-visual discrimination
• Listening games
• Matching games with pictures and then move on
to words
• Odd one out with beginning sounds – 4cards
having the same beginning word and one differentpigeon, potato, apple, parrot
• Command cards for action words
• Activity sheets which focus on Beginning sounds,
ending sounds
• Picture housie
• Word housie
• Substitution tables
Directionality (Left-right/top-down
orientation)
• The skill of working from left to right and
top to down direction.
• Is an important skill required for both reading
and writing readiness
Activities that aid directionality
• Book handling- encourage children to quickly
go through pages in the right direction
• Activities with pattern making, sequencing,
ordering to be encouraged
• Children must be encouraged to work from left
to right direction
• Worksheets which focus on working form left to
right
Writing readiness
• The skills and
understandings necessary
for minimum success in
completing a writing task.
• Learning to write is a difficult
task.
• Readiness in writing begins
when the child gets a good
start in reading and
thoroughly enjoys reading.
Prerequisites
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Able to firmly grasp a pencil ( small motor or fine motor skill)
Have eye-hand coordination
Can follow handwriting "rules"
Recognize letters of the alphabet
Basic stroke formation in the form of vertical and horizontal
lines and circles
Can follow verbal instructions
Knows spatial and temporal words- above, below, on top of,
and between
Dominant hand use
Good attention span
Memory skills to remember the formation
Perception skills to visualize what the letter should look like
Children should also know the letters in their name and
attempt to write them
The willingness to try writing and drawing activities
Enhanced writing readiness enables the
child to
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Colour or paint within a given shape
Trace and copy letters
Write letters
Copy complex designs from the
blackboard
Copy letters with the help of cues given
Discriminate differences between
similar-looking letters and then similar
sounding letters
Writing another word below the first
Interchanging the order of the letters
and point out to differences between
them
Steps and techniques involved in preparing
children to write
Developing interest and seeing
relevance of skill of writing in
daily life situation
Creating a need to express
through writing
Developing skills
Developing interest and seeing relevance of
skill of writing in daily life situation
• Develop interest in writing
• This facilitates the child’s effort to
become literate and with this the
learner’s desire for writing grows
• How to develop?
• Posters and pictures of other children and
adults writing
• Illustrated stories/ charts/pictures/words/labels
and other visual aids displayed on the walls
• Bulletin boards - a good medium for fostering
interest in the written word and its meaning
• Informative books
• Story books with more written content
• Display children’s written work
Writing tools
• Children need many
experiences with tools such
as paper, brushes, crayons,
pencils to develop abilities
not only in handling but also
in making refined strokes
• Papers to write/coloured
pencils/markers
• Pictures and magazines
• Note pad to scribble on
• Setting up a small writing corner
Seeing writing in meaningful context
• Recognition of words in day-today experiences. It is important
because the child sees that
writing is useful in her/his day to
day experiences
Activities
• Field visits- supermarket/ station/malls
where they see the importance of labels
and that they tell something
• Reading their names and names of
other children
• Reading traffic signs/street signs
• Drawings with dictated stories
Creating a need to express through
writing
Providing a print rich
environment
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Bulletin boards
Books
Value based stories
Chalk and talk stories
Stories made by children
Post office box
List of children and their phone
numbers
• Calendars
• Greeting cards
• Invitations or advertisements for a book
week
Creating a need to express through
writing
Letter perception
• Noticing similarities and differences
and recognizing the form of letters
• Provide children with
 Books and magazines
 Domino cards
 Flashcards
 Various games and activities- Making
small words from one big word
 Collage composed of pictures that
begin with the same letters and then
move on to words
 Textured /Feely letters to make words
Creating a need to express through
writing
• Basic Strokes
• Pattern writing in the
preprimary is an important
prerequisite for writing
readiness.
Developing skills
Small muscle development
• As the children enter primary school
their small muscles are fairly well
developed
• Activities that would further foster
small muscle development
 Jig-saw puzzles
 All type of creative art work/drawing
painting/Clay work
 Lacing
 Paper folding
 Playing a musical instrument
Developing skills
Visual-motor integration (VMI) is the ability of
the eyes & hands to work together in
smooth, efficient patterns & is required
for writing/copying/drawing/pencilpaper tasks
It involves
 visual perception and
 eye-hand co-ordination
• High correlation between Visual
motor integration and
 writing readiness/handwriting skills/
 coping abilities/reading/mathematical
abilities and academic performance
Developing skills
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90% of learning disabled children have visual
motor defects. (Tranopol)
Such children have difficulty in doing the fine
activities like
drawing geometric forms, cutting with scissors,
tracing, copying design
pasting & coloring.
Can provide children with
Lacing cards
Joining dots
Chalkboard board writing
Writing in dramatic play (Providing print related
props- shopping lists/tickets etc)
Completing mazes
More time to complete written work, or the task
demand is reduced for quality, not quantity.
Teaching computer skills is also a good
compensatory bypass strategy
The teacher
• Cannot make the child learn until the child
herself/himself is not ready to learn
• Has to make the child receptive to
learning
• Has to cater to differential levels of
readiness in teaching a uniform syllabus
• Has to understand the basic concept of
readiness
• Don’t condemn children as being dull and
unintelligent
• Adopting methods of teaching and
individualization.
• This problem can be overcome somewhat,
but it is indeed a difficult task for the
teacher
Summary
• Reading and writing follow a developmental
progression in which graphic forms used
convey a meaning.
• Each progressive stage of learning impacts
the next more advanced stage.
• The ability to read and write depends on the
methods we use to teach.
• If they are consistent with the developmental
age, learning is bound to happen.
• Reading and writing readiness thus, is an
important aspect in the teaching-learning
process.
We are for children!!!!
Children are like wet
cement, whatever falls on
them makes an
impression
Dr.Haim Ginott