Immerse your child in the written and oral word. Here are a few tips parents of preschoolers can use to help them prepare for the reading process:

Sing, talk and read to your child from infancy on

Play word games with your child.  Believe it or not, nursery rhymes help to teach a child to read, and songs do, too. Talk to your child in a natural way, using the same words you would use with anyone else.

Read aloud to your child every day

Choose a wide variety of books, including nursery rhymes, classic stories and rhyming books to read to your child. Discuss characters and content at their level.

Introduce the alphabet to your child in a fun and creative way

Sing the alphabet song, read alphabet books, practice letters on the worksheets and in the air. Play games with the letters and their sounds.

Make the alphabet fun

Point out the written word in familiar items in your child’s environment. Show your child the printed word for their favorite food, on toys, in books — wherever you see words — at home, in the grocery story, at a restaurant, in a bookstore, toy store or while driving.

Be patient

Learning to read takes time. Children will begin to read when they are ready.  Our job is to nourish them with the proper input so that they can take off like rockets when they are ready.

Denise Ensign is the director of Kumon of Redmond.