ABSTRACT
If you ask parents what is the best thing to do to help preschool children learn to read, they are likely to say, "Read books to them." Yet many researchers nowadays would say that the best thing a parent can do is teach prereading skills such as alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness, along with some simple phonics skills. A great deal of research is now showing that children on the verge of starting school who lack these skills have considerable difficulties lying ahead of them when they start to learn to read.
