Help your child focus on the sounds of words through nursery rhymes and song lyrics. Introduce your child to the idea of rhyming, and encourage him in playful conversation to make up his own rhymes. Sing songs like “Down by the Bay” (“Did you ever see a moose / Kissing a goose?”) and help your child invent his own lyrics. Help your child focus on smaller word segments and phonemes by playing games with the sounds of the words; teach songs like “Apples and Bananas” (“I like to eat, eat, eat, eat / apples and bananas / I like to ate, ate, ate, ate / ay-ples and bay-nay-nays”).

Include songs and games that involve clapping, jumping, and other movements to music. This will help your child develop a stronger sense of the rhythm of language and may help development of skills related to right/left bodily coordination or timing that are implicated in dyslexia.

When your child is very young, gently introduce the habit of visually scanning or counting objects from left to right. For example, you might line up a row of toys and hold his hand to count each one, beginning with the left side and moving toward the right. You can begin this even before the child knows the difference between left and right; the idea is to try to create a habit of always beginning from the left and moving to the right, in the hope that will make the transition to reading easier.

Learning Letters

Introduce your child to letters by teaching both the sound and the name of each letter. The letters do not need to be taught in order, but it is important that a young child associates a letter such as K with both its sound (kuh) and its name (“kay”). You may want to start by helping your child learn the letters in his own name, and then move on to names of other family members. Show your child how each letter relates to the sounds in the name, but do not try to drill or teach a very young child to apply that information in other contexts. For example, you might point to each letter in the name Kevin and say the sound; you might even show your child how that name contains the word “in” and later remind him of that pattern when showing him rhyming words like “bin” or “tin.” With a very young child, keep these “lessons” casual, as things that you mention when the occasion arises. You want your child to start to understand the idea that letters represent sounds and that words are composed by combining the sounds in an orderly way; formal instruction can wait until your child starts school.

Draw your child's attention to different letters on signs and in print, such a words on the front of cereal boxes. Encourage him to make his own letters by molding them with clay or playdough, and supply toys such as magnetic letters that allow him to move and touch the letters.

Never push your young child to learn something he seems to have difficulty with. It is cute when a preschooler has learned to sing his ABCs, but if he doesn't have a clue as to what each letter looks like or that letters represent sounds, it is not going to help him read. Once frustration sets in, your child is not likely to learn from the experience.