READING MILESTONE
GUIDE
Take 3 minutes to go through this resource to
check your child's current reading skills!
Useful for children in:
Kindergarten-3rd Grade
How to Use this Guide
This guide will help you see if your child is on track with their early reading skills! It
focuses on oral language, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, phonics
and spelling.
It is not meant to be used as hard and fast rules but rather help you see if there
are any potential red flags.
Start at your child's age. If you are marking several areas "no", then move back to
the previous age and go through that list. Keep moving back to see where your
child has the most "yes's" to see approximately where they are.
Do the same moving up ages if your child is "yes" in most of the areas at their
age.
It is very important all of the early skills are progressing so if you notice your child
is missing some skills, now you have an idea of what they need to be focusing on!
If you go through the guide and realize you are marking "no" quite often for your
child, it is time to look into extra support. The sooner you close the gap for your
child, the better!
It does become more challenging to fill in these early skills when your child gets
into 2nd grade and above so we urge you to take action immediately if you
believe they need more support.
DEVELOPING READERS ACADEMY
Oral Language Skills
KEY Reading Skills
By the end of Writing Skills
Kindergarten (Ages 5-6)
Can your child do this/
At this age your child Is this true for your child?
should be able to... Yes No
Recognize rhyming words
ex. tame and claim rhyme
light and lightning do not!
Clap and counting syllables
ex. di-no-saur has 3 syllables!
Break apart the first sound in a word
ex. the first sound in mat is /m/
Read and write predictable consonants:
m, s, t, l, p, f, c, n, b, r, j, k, v, g, w, d, h, y, z, x
Read and write short vowels:
a as in cat, e as in bed, i as as in tip, o as in box, u
as in sun
Read and write long vowels that are one
letter
Such as: me, he, we, be, so, no, hi
Read digraphs
Such as: sh, ch, wh, th, ng
Writes using close letter/sound
connections
Ex: spas rokit for space rocket
Now what?!
Imagine how amazing it would feel, if you could check every box on this list for your child!
You would know that they have the key foundational skills and are on the path to
successful reading & spelling!
Head to [Link] for all the details!
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN THE SKILLS ABOVE?
HEAD TO [Link] TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP!
KEY Oral Language Skills
Reading Skills
By the end of Writing Skills
1st Grade (Ages 6-7)
Can your child do this/
At this age your child Is this true for your child?
will be able to... Yes No
Break apart words into their sounds and
put sounds together to make words
ex. /n/i/p/ is nip, the sounds in crab are /c/r/a/b/
Tell you the first, last and middle sound in a word.
ex. the first sound in mud is /m/, the middle sound is /u/ and the
last sound is /d/
Change sounds in a word to another
sound out loud
ex. bam to jam, top to Tom, and bed to bad)
Write words with digraphs
Ex. ch, sh, th, wh, ng
Read "soft and hard g and c" words
Ex. change, gap cent and catch
Read and write magic e words (CVCe words)
Ex. make,Pete, dime, hope, cute
Read words with vowel teams
Ex. seek, meat, snow, mail, fight
Read words with r-controlled vowels
Ex. port, bird, turn, her, start
Read all jobs of y
Ex. yellow, candy, sky
Read longer words with open and closed syllables
Ex. sun set, cac tus, ro bot, mu sic
Now what?!
Imagine how amazing it would feel, if you could check every box on this list for your child!
You would know that they have the key foundational skills and are on the path to
successful reading & spelling!
Head to [Link] for all the details!
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN THE SKILLS ABOVE?
HEAD TO [Link] TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP!
KEY Oral Language Skills
Reading Skills
Writing Skills
2nd Grade (& up) (Ages 7+)
Can your child do this/
At this age your child Is this true for your child?
should be able to... Yes No
Write words with vowel teams
Ex. seek, meat, snow, mail, fight
Write words with r-controlled vowels
Ex. port, bird, turn, her. start
Read and write words with digraphs
Ex. ph (/f/ as in graph), gh (/f/ as in cough), ch (/k/ and /sh/
as in machine and echo)
Read and write words with trigraphs
Ex. -tch, -dge
Read and write other r-controlled vowels
Ex. are, air, our, ore, ear, eer, ure etc
Read and write words with diphthongs
Ex. oi, oy, ow, au, aw, oo
Read and write words with silent letters
Ex. kn-, -lm, -mb. gh-, wr-
Read and write words with
Ex. ild, ost, old, olt and ind
Read and write longer words by breaking them
up into their syllables
Ex. cab i net, em broid er y, cas ca ded, va ca tion
Write using just about correct spelling
Ex. Please pass the peas.
Read words accurately and fluently (their
voice sounds like talking when reading)
Now what?!
Imagine how amazing it would feel, if you could check every box on this list for your child!
You would know that they have the key foundational skills and are on the path to
successful reading & spelling!
Head to [Link] for all the details!
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN THE SKILLS ABOVE?
HEAD TO [Link] TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP!
What if we told you there are
only 5 Steps to helping your child
become a fluent reader...
& when your child is a more fluent reader homework will take half the
time, their grades will go up, and their confidence will skyrocket!
Your Child’s
Step 2: Path to Becoming Step 4:
Building Words 2 a Fluent Reader & 4 Longer Words
Speller! 5
1 3
Step 1: Step 5:
Learning Letter Step 3:
s Advanced Words
s Reading Sentence
CRITICAL TIP TO KEEP IN MIND:
Fall in love with the journey instead of the destination !
Some kids will get through these 5 steps quickly, and others will take years. No
matter what path your child is on, every step in the right direction is a reason to
celebrate!
As long as you are in action and helping your child move forward, you can release
the fear and anxiety and lean into excitement that your child is on the path to
success.
You are a great parent and don’t forget it!!
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN THE SKILLS ABOVE?
HEAD TO [Link] TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAN HELP!