Get Ready to Read & Learn
Strong speech and language skills are the foundation for learning to read and write. Our school readiness program helps children develop the critical pre-literacy skills they need for classroom success.
Building Blocks of Literacy
Phonological Awareness
The ability to hear and play with sounds. Rhyming, clapping syllables, and identifying the first sound in a word ("Baby starts with B!").
Narrative Skills
Being able to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This is crucial for reading comprehension and writing essays later on.
Print Awareness
Understanding how books work, knowing that letters represent sounds, and recognizing their own name in print.
More Than Just Speech Therapy
School Readiness
You are here. Pre-literacy skills.
Building Reading Confidence
Assess Skills
We check phonological awareness and narrative skills.
Fun Activities
We play rhyming games and sound scavenger hunts.
School Success
Your child enters school feeling ready to learn.
Common Questions
Is this tutoring?
No. We focus on the *language* skills that underlie reading, not just memorizing letters or sight words.
What age is best?
We typically see children ages 4-7 for this program, perfect for the year before (or during) Kindergarten/Grade 1.
My child knows their ABCs. Is this needed?
Knowing letter names is great! But *manipulating sounds* (phonological awareness) is the best predictor of reading success.
Why Trust Functional Communication
Why Start Early?
Research shows that oral language skills in kindergarten are a strong predictor of reading success in later grades. If a child enters school with a strong vocabulary and sound awareness, learning to read becomes much easier.
We turn "instruction" into play. Scavenger hunts for sounds, story-acting, and rhyming games make learning feel like fun, not schoolwork.
School Readiness Support in Your Area
In-home support for early literacy in: