Teach Your Child to Recognize the Letters of the Alphabet

Children who have basic literacy skills like letter recognition before they enter kindergarten will be better prepared for success in school. Before they can learn to read, children need to be able to recognize letters of the alphabet and know what sounds they make. Most parents sing the alphabet song with their child but there are many other fun and engaging ways to introduce letter names and sounds that are not difficult and won't cost much either.

Steps

Creating a Language-Rich Environment

1. Make reading fun. Reading readiness starts at home, so have a blast exploring stories with your little one. It’s also a great bonding experience for the whole family.
   • Use different voices for characters and animals, make your own sound effects, and make exaggerated expressions when you’re reading a story together.
   • End the day by reading together. After bath time and getting PJs on, make it a habit let your child pick out a few books and snuggle on the couch together while you read. You can go back to favorites again and again and rotate in new stories.
   • Let your child make up their own stories to go along with pictures in a book they like. It doesn’t matter if it’s the real story, just let them be creative and use their imagination.
2. Create a reading and writing center. A designated corner with a bean bag chair or a child-sized table can become a special nook for relaxing and exploring.
   • Purchase children’s books and magazines and arrange them on a shelf or in bins.
   • If you are on a budget, use your public library or scour second-hand sales and thrift stores for inexpensive books. Baby shower gifts, swaps, and hand-me-downs from friends whose kids have grown out of books are also great.
   • Provide writing tools like pencils, markers, crayons, and different types of paper for your child to experiment with.

Introducing Letter Names and Sounds

1. Display the alphabet in different forms in your home. Kids will be excited to play with letters in different textures and sizes.
   • Purchase sets of foam and magnetic letters, letter cards, and letter blocks and have them easily accessible for your child to touch, move around, sort, and arrange.
   • Make letters yourself out of popsicle sticks, sandpaper, Styrofoam, or other craft supplies if you’re on a budget.
2. Teach your child letter names and sounds using the materials you have collected. Make fun activities where you point out individual letters and say the letter names part of your daily routine and play time with your child.
   • Toss two or three foam letters at a time into the tub with your child at bath time. While your child plays in the bath, call out each letter by name. For example, for the letter B say: "The B is tickling your toes...Oh, the B is swimming around you...Give Mommy the B." Do this activity, using different letters each time, until your child has learned all of the letters of the alphabet and can call them by name.
   • Make towers, houses, and other structures with alphabet blocks, pointing out the letters on the blocks and calling them by name.
   • Arrange magnetic letters on the refrigerator or white board. Allow your child to experiment with them, putting them in alphabetical order, or sing the alphabet song together and point to each letter as you say its name.
3. Sculpt and draw letters out of different materials. Demonstrate first then help your child make their own letter creations.
   • Make letters out of clay, fabric, pipe cleaners, or yarn.
   • Use shaving cream, salt, sugar, or finger paint to draw letters.

Reinforcing What Your Child Has Learned

1. Play games to help your child remember and recognize letters. Playing is one of the ways young children learn best, and it’s also great entertainment.
   • Draw parts of a letter one by one and let your child try to guess what letter you are making.
   • Call out letter names and have your child try to make the shape with their body.
   • Sing the traditional alphabet song together or look up alternate songs online.
2. Use learning tools like letter cards to reinforce letter names and sounds.
   • Have your child put letter cards in alphabetical order or turn them upside down and say the names of the letters together as you turn each one over.
   • Use letter cards for games like matching and memory.
3. Discover letters in your surroundings wherever you go. Use street signs, billboards, magazines, clothing, or anything with words on it.
   • Play a game of “I Spy” and find letters and objects that begin with letter sounds your child knows.
   • Point out stop signs, exit signs, golden arches, and other familiar signs and talk about what they mean. Kids can learn to “read” the meanings of these objects before they can actually read the words.

Tips

• Be sure to review letters your child already knows as you introduce new ones.
• Add a time challenge to games to make them more exciting or give a small reward for getting letter names correct.

Warnings

• Be patient and avoid comparing your child to others. Remember that children learn at different paces.

Things You'll Need

• Foam letters
• Magnetic letters
• Letter blocks
• Clay, yarn, pipe cleaners, fabric, and other materials
• Letter cards

Related Articles

• Write a Children's Story
• Homeschool Your Children
• Be Patient When Doing Homework with Your Young Child
• Make Letters of the English Alphabet
• Use Technology to Teach Your Toddler the Alphabet
• Teach Letter Sounds

Sources and Citations

See also

• Teach Your Child Phonological Awareness
• Respond when Your Preschooler Calls You Names
• Decide if You Should Hold Your Child Back from Kindergarten
• Encourage Kids to Read
• Set Up a Preschool Classroom
• Teach Your Child to Read
• Start a Preschool in India
• Tell Time
• Teach a Child Bilingual Reading
• Set up a Kindergarten Classroom

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What links here

• Learn the Alphabet Backwards
• Teach Kids to Tell Time
• Understand and Use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
• Read Aloud to a Child