Standard: V.A.3 - Shows alphabet knowledge

To learn to read, children need to recognize the letters on the page. They need to know that those squiggly lines on the paper have significance. Like phonological awareness, a young child’s knowledge of the alphabet is a strong predictor of later reading skills. Children who enter kindergarten already knowing many or all of the letters of the alphabet are much more likely to have success in their early reading efforts. Being able to recognize the differences among letters is an important first step in recognizing words.

Learning letters can be challenging for young children because many letters look very much alike. Children need to learn that letters have at least two forms: uppercase and lowercase. They also need to understand that the same letter may be formed in different ways:

All of this can be very confusing for a young child. Our job as teachers is to help them get past this confusion.

Checking for Understanding Why do children need to know the letters of the alphabet? What are some of the things that confuse children when learning to recognize letters?