- Handles books well 鈥 knows the front and back of the book and can turn individual pages聽
- Gains more hand and finger control for drawing and scribbling聽
- May continue to use the whole hand to hold crayons, markers or other writing tools聽
Reading Readiness Milestones for 3-Year-Olds
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- Shows longer attention span for stories 鈥 enjoys books with more words and remembers the sequence of events for familiar stories聽
- Uses longer sentences when talking 鈥 includes more descriptive words and combines two simple sentences into one. (鈥淚 brushed my teeth and got my shoes.鈥)聽
- Asks questions 鈥 uses the words 鈥渨hat,鈥 鈥渨here,鈥 鈥渨hy鈥 and 鈥渨ho鈥 to ask simple questions聽
- Moves finger from left to right under print聽
- Begins recognizing a few letters 鈥 these often are the first few letters in your child鈥檚 name or those at the beginning of the alphabet.聽
- Have conversations with your child 鈥 ask questions to see what your child thinks about an experience or a story and then elaborate on what your child said.聽
- Choose many different kinds of books, such as picture books, alphabet books, counting and story books.
- Give your child plastic, magnetic or wooden alphabet letters to play with.聽
- Provide writing and drawing opportunities 鈥 use unlined paper, old newspaper or chalk on the sidewalk.聽
- Show how reading and writing help you in your daily life 鈥 such as when you read recipes, write lists, send email or text notes.聽
- Does not enjoy reading stories 鈥 tends to resist book reading with you; does not bring you books to read聽
- Does not hold writing tools with any control 鈥 cannot keep marks or scribbles on a large sheet of paper; does not coordinate looking at the writing surface with hand movements聽
- Does not show steadily growing spoken vocabulary and sentences聽