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How are your children developing as readers, and what can you do to help? Use RIF’s series of “Reading Checkups” to evaluate your children’s progress through six stages of reading development, from picture-pointing to independent reading. Each checkup describes the knowledge and skills that most children demonstrate at a given stage, and suggests how they can be nurtured.

Use the reading checkups the way a doctor uses a growth chart. Look for a steady pattern of growth with a few lulls and spurts. That’s a healthy sign that your child is “doing well” in reading.

Age or grade ranges are listed for each checkup, but just as a guide. We recommend that even if your child is already in school, you begin with the Reading Checkup for Babies & Toddlers and work your way forward. That way you will better appreciate the steady growth your child has already made toward becoming an independent reader.

How Parents Can Help
Parents play a key role in their children’s reading development at every stage. As you mark your child’s progress, don’t forget to check up on what you can be doing to actively promote your child’s interest and skills.

What Do the Checkups Mean?
Notice where most of your checkmarks fall. If your answers are mostly A’s, your child may still be making the transition from an earlier stage. If the answers are mostly B’s, your child is in the middle of this stage. If you checked mostly C’s, then your child is probably stepping up to the next level.

If you have any concerns about your child’s reading progress, talk to your child’s teacher or pediatrician.

Who Is Reading Is Fundamental (RIF)?
RIF’s national network of community-based programs is run by 240,000 volunteers and reaches more than 3.5 million children each year at more than 17,000 schools, libraries and other locations throughout all 50 states. RIF was named by Parenting magazine as one of the ten most effective charities “that make a difference in the lives of children and families.” RIF put nearly 11 million books into children’s hands in 1997.

In preparing this guide, RIF drew upon its own national expertise in motivating young readers and consulted some of the nation’s foremost experts on reading and child development.

Linda B. Gambrell, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education at the University of Maryland.
Dr. Gambrell’s current research is in the area of literacy motivation. She is the co-author of numerous articles and books on reading instruction, including most recently Lively Discussions: Fostering Reading Engagement (with J. Almasi, IRA, 1996).

Margaret González-Jensen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Bilingual Education in the College of Education at Arizona State University West, and a children’s bilingual author.
Dr. González-Jensen’s current research is on classroom use of children’s literature and the nurturing of minority writers. Her most recent children’s titles include And Then It Was Sugar and The Butterfly Pyramid (The Wright Group, 1997).

Peter A. Gorski, M.D.
Executive Director of the Massachusetts Caring for Children Foundation.
Dr. Gorski is a nationally recognized pediatrician who specializes in the emotional, cognitive and social development of infants and young children. Dr. Gorski teaches at Harvard Medical School, is past president of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics National Committee for Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care.

Lee Bennett Hopkins
Poet & author
Award-winning poet and author, has anthologized more than 70 collections of children’s poetry celebrating the universal and high- interest themes of childhood. Dr. Hopkins’ most recent collections include School Supplies: A Book of Poems (Simon & Schuster, 1996) and Song and Dance: A Book of Poems (Simon & Schuster, 1997).

Catherine Snow, Ph.D.
Chair of the Department of Human Development and Psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the National Research Council’s Committee on Preventing Reading Problems.
Her current research is on language and literacy development in the elementary and middle grades, with a special focus on bilingual children.

Dorothy Strickland, Ph.D.
The State of New Jersey Professor of Reading and a past president of both the International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. Dr. Strickland has authored and edited numerous books for parents and educators on children’s literacy, including Emerging Literacy: Young Children Learn to Read and Write (with Lesley Mandel Morrow, IRA, 1989) and Language, Literacy and the Child (with Lee Galda and Berniece Cullinan, Harcourt, 1997).

Richard Venezky, Ph.D.
National Research Advisor for the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Initiative on Reading and Writing, and Unidel Professor of Educational Studies at the University of Delaware.
Dr. Venezky’s academic focus has been in areas of literacy and the use of technology in education. As National Research Advisor, he is developing a nationwide tutoring program and benchmarks for teaching reading and writing.

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