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Sylvan Learning Center's Beginning Reading Program Prepares Youngsters for Kindergarten and Creates Love of Learning

With competition for the best preschool, the best kindergarten, the best everything becoming more intense, school readiness is top of mind for parents of young children. Sylvan Learning Center, the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages and skill levels, introduced a tutoring program specifically for preschoolers.

Originally designed for children in kindergarten through third grade, the Sylvan Beginning Reading program is now available to youngsters as young as 4½ years old. It is part of a growing trend to provide preschoolers with the tools they need to succeed in school. Studies have shown that many youngsters are not well prepared for their first day in a classroom.

The Sylvan Beginning Reading program is designed to give students a foundation in reading and prepare them to enter the classroom. By the end of the course, children will be able to recognize words, distinguish colors, print their names, write uppercase and lowercase letters and more. The Beginning Reading program can become an invaluable part of parents' efforts to ensure that their children enter kindergarten with the necessary language, cognitive and early reading skills - laying the ground for their future academic success.

"Children love to learn, and the early childhood years - before kindergarten begins - are the most important years for a child's reading development, when they're absorbing everything around them," said Richard E. Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. "Sylvan's Beginning Reading program is great fun for younger children. It develops their skills and builds the confidence they need to succeed in school."

How can parents tell if a structured academic program is right for their child? Sylvan Learning Center gives each child a skills assessment test to determine whether the child is ready for the program. If the child isn't ready, parents should continue to read aloud and share books at home and consider another reevaluation within three months - a few months can make a dramatic difference in a youngster's development.

To start a reading program with preschoolers, Sylvan Learning Center offers the following tips:

• Set aside time for reading and storytelling, which help stimulate reading and writing skills.
• Read aloud to help spark imagination and orient children to verbal language and written words.
• When reading aloud, point to words on the page as you say them. Follow the sentence with your finger so that children begin to recognize how the words appear on the page.
• Read often with young children don't expect them to focus for long periods of time.

About Sylvan Learning

Sylvan Learning is the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages, grades and skill levels. With approximately 30 years of experience and nearly 1,100 centers located throughout North America, Sylvan’s proven process and personalized methods have inspired more than 2 million students to discover the joy of learning. Sylvan’s trained and certified personal instructors provide individual instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, study skills and test-prep for college entrance and state exams. Sylvan helps transform unique kids into uniquely inspired learners with the skills to do better in school and the confidence to do better in everything else. For more information, call 1-800-31-SUCCESS or visit http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com.

For more information, contact:
Jennifer Gaegler, Sylvan Learning Center
(410) 843-8928
jennifer.gaegler@sylvanlearning.com