Marie Clay, author of Early Detection of Reading Difficulties, states that learning something as simple as direction (left to right and top to bottom) can be very confusing for young children, but this skill is significant in teaching your child to read. You can provide many fun opportunities for learning and practice; here are some examples:

  • Have her draw an animal on a piece of paper. Cut the paper into pieces and help her reassemble the animal, referring to each part as the top or the bottom.
  • Help your child make patterns with fridge magnets. Help her build the pattern from left to right and then top to bottom.
  • Play Hide-and-Seek with her favorite toy (or blanket, candy, etc.). Give her clues to find the item by using the words top, bottom, right and left.
  • As you are reading to her, point to the words and explain that you are reading left to right and top to bottom.

Keep practicing by coming up with more fun ways to play! Clay encourages parents to continue opportunities for over learning (practicing well beyond the point you think the behavior is learned).

Building vocabulary is important, even for early math skills. Visit these other blog posts to find more fun activities: “I Spy” and Rock Toss.