Teaching the Alphabet to Young Children

Parents of young children know the value of learning the alphabet in the early years, recognizing that exposure to letters is an important step toward reading; but many parents have questions about how to best introduce the ABCs to their little ones.

When introducing letters to your child, remember that young children learn best when they have opportunities to construct meaning from the information. One way to begin is with things that are familiar to your child, such as her name. Once she is able to recognize her name in print, encourage her to see the similarity between letters in her name and letters in names or other words around her. Point out other words that start with the same letter as her name, such as Sharon and Stop.