ABSTRACT
Children learn to read from the moment they are born. This assertion does not apply to the technicalities of decoding script and articulating recognizable phonemes, but to the necessary preconditions of reading. The abilities to make visual discriminations, to categorize and count, and to detect meaning in what is seen, are necessary prerequisites. So are the abilities to understand sounds, and to realize that some are more important than others, some more pleasant and some more meaningful. When parents talk to their babies, share sounds, and demonstrate the visual richness of the world, they are already teaching reading.
