Stages of Reading Development

Ensuring reading success in children can begin in infancy. I wrote this post to give you the tools you need to understand the stages of reading development. From birth through elementary school, there are fun and easy ways you can take to ensure reading success

As a speech-language pathologist with more than 20 years of experience, I have studied language and stages of reading development. I want to give you the tools you need to help ensure your child’s future success. I have developed a set of articles to take you from understanding the importance of reading and essential reading tips when reading to babies to the phonological awareness skills your child needs to read with success.

Reading is a complex skill that develops in stages. Each stage builds on the previous one. To ensure success, each stage should be solid before building on top. Understanding each of these reading stages can help you, as a parent, grandparent, or caregiver, support children as they learn these new skills.

If you ever feel that your child is behind in reading and language development, take a deep breath.

Stages of Reading Development

1. Exposure to Language
2. Vocabulary Development
3. Expressive Language Development
4. Cognitive Development and Verbal Reasoning
5. Phonological Awareness Skills
6. Phonics
7. Beginning readers
8. Emerging readers
9. Proficient readers

1. Exposure to Language (Birth +)

Why it Matters: The beginning reading stages begin with exposure to language from infancy. Early exposure to language sets the stage for understanding language and written text later in their development. Your child may demonstrate interest at this stage by bringing you a book to read. Click here to see my article on reading to babies.

• Early Interaction: From birth, exposure to language is critical. Everything from narrating the process of getting your baby dressed to storytelling, counting, and reading aloud creates opportunities for exposure to language. See my post on Reading to Babies.
• Listening Skills: When you expose your child to language early, they become more aware of sound patterns in the language you are speaking. Did you know babies babble in all sounds and not just those of their native language? You can use infancy to expose your child to music and sounds from many languages.

2. Vocabulary Development

Why It Matters: As your child gets older, their language skills will begin to improve as will their vocabulary. Learning new words is critical for understanding written text later on. With a strong vocabulary, your child can go deeper into understanding texts. A strong vocabulary is a strong foundation for reading and is a crucial stage of reading development

• Word Recognition: Recognizing words in different contexts (hearing words and seeing words) is a strong foundation for reading. If a child is unfamiliar with a word and its meaning, the chance of them being able to read that word decreases.
• Synonyms and Antonyms: Playing word games can help increase vocabulary. You can ask your child to think of another word for “happy” or think of the opposite. You can also play a game of describing objects to help put words into context. Make it a twenty-question type game where you take turns describing and seeing how many turns it takes to guess. You can modify the game to play with children as young as two if they are speaking.

3. Expressive Language Development

Why It Matters: In order to read aloud, children will need a certain level of expressive language skills. However, these skills are also critical for children to express their wants and needs. While I am focusing on reading, as an SLP, I would like to add that if you notice a significant difference between your child’s ability to speak and understand language, you may want to consult a doctor or a speech and language pathologist.

• Sentence Formation: This is a skill that children will work on for years. First sentences may be just two words and gradually, as children incorporate more complex grammar, their sentences will become longer and more structured.
• Narrative Skills: The ability to tell and retell stories is one of the early stages of reading that is not only crucial for success but also fun to work on. The ability to sequence events into beginning, middle, and end is the first step in developing reading skills. Wordless picture books are one of my favorite tools to practice working on this reading stage.

4. Cognitive Development

Why It Matters: Children must be ready to read and understand what they are reading. Reading without comprehension is called hyperlexia. As children begin to grow and understand more, they can take a step toward reading. Children will also have a better understanding of how a story is structured. Click here to see my article on why sequencing is important.

• Imagination: Using imagination is a large step in children’s cognitive development. When children can understand pretend play, it also helps with the understanding of fiction stories. There are so many great books that help inspire imagination.
• Humor/ incongruities: The world of books will begin to open for a child when their cognitive development moves toward humor and understanding silliness. I love this list of funny books that kids and parents can laugh at together.

5. Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness

Why It Matters: Before children can begin to read, they need to be able to recognize and manipulate syllables and sounds. Phonological awareness is the awareness of parts of a word, like the syllables, and how the words sound.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate letters within a word. These are crucial skills that a child must learn to master before they can become a proficient reader. When children understand how sounds come together to make words, they can begin to read. At this stage, your child may start to identify beginning and ending sounds.

• Sound Awareness: Identifying and playing with sounds, such as rhyming or alliteration. Children understand that changing the first letter of a word will change the meaning. Many children like to play rhyming games at this stage of reading.
• Blending Sounds: Putting sounds together can make words. This is the first step to reading.

6. Phonics Skills

Why It Matters: Learning the relationship between letters and their sounds is essential for learning to read. This is the first step that involves anything other than listening. This is the first stage that involves letters! Phonics skills are fundamental for decoding. Your child may demonstrate they have entered this stage when they can recognize the first letter of their name and can point to it on a page.

• Sound-Letter Correspondence: Children begin to learn that letters make sounds (in some cases, more than one sound, like a “c”)
• Print Awareness: Understanding that print carries meaning and recognizing basic features of written language, such as letters and words.

7. Beginning Readers

Why It Matters: This is sometimes called a Novice reader. The child is learning the relationship between sounds and letters and can start to put them together. The child can also recognize high-frequency words and sight words.

It is important at this stage to give your child some nonsense words for them to sound out, like “ket” or “rab”. Many kids may memorize sight words and may have a more difficult time with nonsense words since there is no guessing. Have a look at The 9 Best Books for Beginning Readers for ideas on what to read with your child at this stage of reading.

• Decoding word: Beginning readers will start with simple C-V-C words (consonant, vowel, consonant). These words can be “sounded out”. Children can use the skills they mastered in previous reading stages (like blending) to become more confident in their reading.
• Sight Words: These are the common words that kids should know on sight to be able to develop into fluent readers. These are high-frequency words that may or may not be able to be sounded out. Eg. “The” cannot be sounded out by beginning readers. They will not have learned that “th” goes together to make one sound.

8. Emerging Readers

Overview and Why It Matters: A child at this level can read simple words and use their knowledge of language rules to start reading more complex words and stories. At this stage, decreased exposure to written material and a decreased vocabulary can have a significant impact on their reading abilities.

• Reading Comprehension: Children will begin to increase their understanding of more complex stories and be able to answer questions about the text. The number of words on the page will increase and the types of words will become more variable. Children will depend less on picture cues for content and comprehension.
• Fluency: Reading will become more fluent in this reading stage.

9. Proficient Reads

Overview and Why It Matters: At this stage of reading, the child is now an independent reader. They are no longer learning to read; rather, they are reading to learn. Reading has become a way to improve critical thinking. Texts are now being analyzed and interpreted for deeper meaning, and there are more varied reading materials.

Frequently Asked Questions

Epilogue

When you understand the stages of reading, you can help support your child every step of the way. These are the skills that children need to grow into proficient readers and this does not happen overnight. Most children will be in fourth grade before they have reached proficiency in their reading. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Remember to have fun along the way so that your child will develop a life-long love of reading and books.