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Help your child develop the skills they need to learn to read and write with these ideas and activities from CBeebies

When you see an activity labelled with the ‘Reading and Writing’ icon on CBeebies, it means that it can help your child to develop the skills they need for reading and writing.

For young children, these include enjoying books, rhymes, songs and stories; linking sounds and letters together and handwriting. This leads on to phonics, which children can use to read simple words.

Parents play a really important role in helping their child learn to read and write. The more children see their role models reading and writing, like Dad enjoying a good book or Mum reading a bedtime story, the more they will want to join in and have a go.

The way children learn to read at school has changed a lot so we have produced this special guide for parents to help their child learn to read using phonics, starring the Alphablocks! By using this guide you can equip them with the skills they need to be confident and fluent readers when they get to school.

As well as being a great bonding experience, research has shown that children who have stories read to them from young age find learning to read much easier when the time comes, so it’s never too early to snuggle up together and enjoy a good book. 

When children start experimenting with different-shaped scribbles and patterns it is known as 'mark making'. This is the start of a journey towards being able to write and is a real developmental milestone. By giving your child lots of opportunities to draw and experiment with mark making you can help them to develop imaginatively, creatively and physically. Our special parent’s guide will tell you everything you need to know and give you lots of great ideas to help your child learn to write.

At CBeebies, our learning areas reflect those found in the Early Years curricula of the UK; the EYFS in England and Wales, the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, and the Foundation Stage in Northern Ireland. These are the guidelines that all educational settings (like nurseries, schools and child-minders) follow, to help children develop knowledge, skills and understanding using a fun, play-based approach.

We reflect these learning areas so you can be sure that what your child learns from CBeebies perfectly complements what they are taught when they get to nursery and school.

Reading & writing links to Literacy (England), Languages (Scotland), Language, Literacy and Communication Skills (Wales) and Language and Literacy (Northern Ireland).