Ready, Set, Read!

Ready, Set, Read!

Learn how a child becomes literate from the moment of birth. This course allows you to explore the development of reading and writing from infancy to early school years as you discover what problems to look for and how to assist struggling young readers.
6 Weeks Access / 24 Course Hrs
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In this course, you will learn how a child becomes literate from the moment of birth. First, you will investigate the many things a child's growing mind must do to make sense of the written word and create writing. From there, you will explore the development of reading and writing from infancy to the early school years. You will know what problems to look for and how to assist a struggling reader. You will see how you can boost literacy growth during daily routines and child's play.

Enrollment Options:
6 Weeks Access Course Code: rsr
*Choose start date in cart
$99.00 USD
3 Months Access Course Code: T9314
No Instructor, Start Anytime
$115.00 USD


The first lesson introduces the course philosophy and objectives. Then, you will review examples and anecdotes to show you some of the many ways you interact with reading in your daily lives. You will also explore the history of reading instruction, so you better understand the benefits of research.

Just as a child communicates before using words, young children initiate many literacy-related activities before they actually read and write. This lesson introduces language skills that have the greatest impact on a child becoming a successful reader and writer. You will end this lesson with a new understanding of the complexities of language development.

Everyone gets excited when children learn their ABCs. But what role does this skill play in becoming a reader and writer? And what does it really mean to know your ABCs? This lesson uncovers the differences between rote memory, knowledge of sounds and symbols, phonemic awareness, and how all these things come together for the early reader.

While attention and literacy may seem like big words for little people, the way a child's brain is attending to print in his world has a huge impact on reading, writing, and learning. In this lesson, you will learn about different types of attention and the importance of having an organized thinking system in order to learn about print.

This lesson introduces what's happening when a child works to store information in memory. By the end of this lesson, you will realize how important it is to store information in some sort of order, and also how to get things out of memory again once they're put away. You will then be able to watch a young reader with a new awareness of how this skill impacts her success.

You will understand what understanding is all about in this lesson. How does a child make sense of what you read to him or what he reads to himself? You will explore the many skills a child needs to understand text. Just because a child can say a word doesn't mean he knows the word when reading it.

While you would never want or expect a child under two to read, much pre-literacy work goes on during the early years before a child is really even talking. In this lesson, you will learn how infants grow to become readers and explore the literacy processes that occur during the first two years of life.

This lesson explores the sequence of skills that brings toddlers and preschoolers to the threshold of becoming true readers and writers. You will learn why you should read that favorite story one more time, with enthusiasm. In fact, once you understand how much this repetition is helping your child's literacy, you will want to read it a dozen more times.

Research shows that humans learn literacy skills in the same order. This lesson explains that order and why it's okay if your child doesn't meet these milestones by a specific age. This lesson will guide you through the evolution of reading and writing letters, words, sentences, and complex ideas.

How do all of these pieces come together to produce an able reader? By the end of this lesson, you will know what fluency looks like when a young child is successfully reading. Literacy skills continue to develop so a child can be successful with literacy activities throughout school and life.

Now that you know all about the mental processes and learning sequences that lead to becoming a writer, you will learn new activities that demonstrate how the complex skill of writing emerges. You will learn what to watch for and how to assist a child who's becoming a successful scribe.

What's going on when a child isn't reading or writing when you expect him to? By the end of this lesson, you will know how to assist a child who struggles with literacy learning and how to locate resources for assistance. You will also understand the concept of "learning differences," which can help you focus on the strengths of a child who masters reading and writing slower than their peers.



Hardware Requirements:


Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or newer.
  • Mac: OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 or later.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.


  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.


There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Instructional Material Requirements:






Wonderful course. I am already a teacher, so this course validated some of the things I already knew and updated me on some new information. I felt the lessons proved to be interesting and I liked how the instructor used frequent examples and stories, instead of just feeding us straight information

This course was thorough and up-to-date and addressed many of the issues I, as an English teacher, face with my middle and high school grades' struggling students. Since I began taking the course, I have been noticing some of the struggles that my readers face and I feel that I am better able to boost them over the hurdle they encounter. I have recommended this course to others.

This was my first online course and I really enjoyed it. The instructor was very prompt and helpful in discussions, which helped make a personal connection. The content was very relevant to me personally and I would definitely take an online course again.

Kt was an exceptional teacher. This course was interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of the quizzes. The final exam was right on target, it covered everything that I learned in this course. Every thing was done well. I would definitely take another class from Kt.

This was one of the best classes I have taken. I can't believe how much I learned, I was able to use the information right away. Thank you for this course!

I found this to be the best ed2go class that I've taken. It required critical thinking on my part, rather than just parroting what was said in the actual lesson. In addition, the links provided at the end of each lesson were up to date and useful. I appreciated that the teacher did not try to sound like she was speaking to us and expect rhetorical answers. Great class!

The course is great! The instructor was helpful and her tone was encouraging. The content was well-sequenced and provided excellent examples and connections. I would highly recommend this course and enjoyed taking it.

Enjoyable course and helped me strengthen my skills to enhance my job working with preschoolers, promoting emergent literacy. Thank you.

Valuable information presented in a thorough manner, with excellent assignments to build knowledge, and extremely useful supplemental materials. I would recommend this to beginning and seasoned teachers alike. I came away with a more orderly understanding of the development of literacy and many new ideas to implement in my classroom.