Reading Development for 4-8 Year Olds

1. Skill Focus - Listening to Stories and Answering Questions2. Skill Focus - Retell a Story3. Skill Focus - Letter-Sound Correspondence4. Skill Focus - Sight Words5. Skill Focus - Reading (pre-reading)6. Skill Focus - Writing7. Skill Focus - Following Directions8. Skill Focus - Language Development

4-5 Year Olds Should Be Able To:1. Pay attention to a short story and answers simple questions about them.2. Tell stories that stick to topic.3. Name some letters and numbers.4. Recognize common environmental signs5. Sit and listen to books6. Write some letters, grasp a pencil correctly, pre-writing lines7. Follows basic 2 part directions (this and that)8. Work on forming and explaining categories (fruits, furniture, shapes).Sort items into categories.

5-6 Year Olds Should Be Able To:1. Listen to and understand age-appropriate stories read aloud2. Retell a story or talk about an event3. Understand that letters represent speech sounds and match sounds to letters; Identify upper- and

lowercase letters4. Recognize some words by sight5. Know how a book works (e.g., read from left to right and top to bottom in English)6. Print own first and last name; Draw a picture that tells a story and label and write about the

picture; Write upper- and lowercase letters7. Follow 1-2 simple directions in a sequence8. Identify words that rhyme (e.g., cat and hat)

Created by Lauren Barnett, MA, CCC-SLP iHeartSpeech.com

Reading Development for 4-8 Year Olds

1. Skill Focus - Listening to Stories and Answering Questions2. Skill Focus - Retell a Story3. Skill Focus - Letter-Sound Correspondence4. Skill Focus - Sight Words5. Skill Focus - Reading (pre-reading)6. Skill Focus - Writing7. Skill Focus - Following Directions8. Skill Focus - Language Development

6-7 Year Olds Should Be Able To:1. Remember information; Understand what is read2. Tell and retell stories and events in a logical order3. Identify letters, words, and sentences, Sound out words when reading4. Have a sight vocabulary of 100 common words5. Blend separate sounds to form words, Match spoken words with print, Read grade-level material

fluently6. Express ideas through writing; Spell frequently used words correctly; Begin each sentence with

capital letters and use ending punctuation; Write a variety of stories, journal entries, or letters/notes

7.Follow 2-3 step directions in a sequence8. Give directions

7-8 Year Olds Should Be Able To:1. Correctly answer questions about a grade-level story2. Explain key elements of a story (e.g., main idea, main characters, plot); Read, paraphrase/retell a

story in a sequence3. Have fully mastered phonics/sound awareness; Associate speech sounds, syllables, words, and

phrases with their written forms4. Recognize many words by sight5. Read grade-level stories, poetry, or dramatic text silently and aloud with fluency; Read

spontaneously6. Write legibly; Use a variety of sentence types in writing essays, poetry, or short stories (fiction

and nonfiction); Use basic punctuation and capitalization appropriately7. Follow 3-4 oral directions in a sequence8. Understand direction words (location, space & time words)

Created by Lauren Barnett, MA, CCC-SLP iHeartSpeech.com