3 Years to 5 Years

Reading at Leamington

This age is key for development of speech and language and you might notice your child using new words and phrases almost every day. If you can spare ten minutes a day to read with your child you can make a huge difference to their development. You don’t have to read a book, you could read a comic, magazine or a story you have made up yourself.

By 3 years: Children will be saying a lot more words during this time. They will recognise the names and pictures of most common objects and love looking at books. Let them hold the book and choose what they are interested in to talk about. Children of this age enjoy simple stories with pictures.

By 4 years: Your 4 year old will be able to take turns as well as starting to share with adults and other children. Your child will listen to longer stories and answer questions about a story they have just heard, simple questions such as “Who did Cinderella dance with at the ball?”, “Where Cinderella’s sisters nice to her?”. Games like Simon says or musical statues will help develop their listening skills. Talk about the story you have just read and ask your child a couple of question. Can they understand simple “why?” questions?

By 5 years: Your five year old’s attention will be more flexible. They can focus on and listen to stories when they are sitting with their whole class. Your five year old can hold conversations, they know lots of words and can use longer sentences that are better formed. You can ask your child to re-tell stories in roughly the right order and they will start to use language that makes it sound like a story.

Reading at Leamington

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