Editing Reading readiness (section)

==Reading readiness skills==
Skills that indicate whether a child is ready to learn to read include:<ref>Learning First Alliance, What Kids Should Know Before Entering First Grade,  (1998) [http://www.readingrockets.org/article/381], retrieved August 27, 2007.</ref><ref>National Institute for Literacy, A Child Becomes a Reader: Birth through Preschool, 2003.  [http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/low_res_child_reader_B-K.pdf] Retrieved August 27, 2007.</ref>

*Age-appropriate oral language development and vocabulary
*Appreciation of stories and books
*Phonemic awareness (ability to distinguish and manipulate individual sounds of language)
*Understanding of basic print concepts (for example, printed text represents spoken words; spaces between words are meaningful; pages written in English are read left to right starting at the top of the page; books have a title and an author, and so on). 
*Understanding of the alphabetic principle (letters represent the sounds of language)
*Ability to distinguish shapes (visual discrimination)
*Ability to identify at least some letters of the alphabet.