At ages 5 and 6:

Does your child show that he understands that spoken words can be broken down into smaller parts (for example, by noticing word big in bigger)?

Does he seem to understand that you can change a small part of a word and make a different word (for example, by changing first sound and letter of cat, you can make hat, sat, mat, bat, rat, and so on)?

A book has a front cover.

A book has a beginning and an end.

A book has pages.

A page in a book has a top and a bottom.

You turn pages one at a time to follow story. You read a story from left to right of a page. As you read with your babt, begin to remind her about these things. Read title on cover. Talk about picture on cover. Point to place where story starts and,later, where it ends. Let your child help turn pages. When you start a new page, point to where words of story continue and keep following words by moving your finger beneath them. It takes time for a child to learn these things, but when your child does learn them, she or he has solved some of reading's mysteries.