When you begin thinking about introducing your child to the alphabet, remember that young children learn best when they have opportunities to construct meaning from the information. One way to begin is with things that are familiar to your child, like her name. Once your child gets better at recognizing his name, encourage him to see the similarity between letters in his name and letters in names or other words around him. Point out other words that start with the same letter as her name, like Sharon and Stop.

Create a context in which your child can understand how the alphabet works, and how it relates to reading and writing. Alphabet books introduce the concept that the alphabet is comprised of a group of letters that all have different names and shapes. Your child can see all the alphabet letters together, and can hear that the letters have different names.

Using magazine or catalog pictures, you can also help your child learn the alphabet by helping him connect letters to ideas. Help your child make an alphabet book in which the contents are related to plants and seeds (the A page features apples, the B pages shows beans, etc.) Making connections between concepts and letters in the alphabet will help your child make connections between ideas and words.

One crucial aspect of teaching the alphabet is providing opportunities for your child to express herself through writing. For a young child, writing can be as simple as scribble marks, a drawing, or some approximation of a letter. It does not mean penmanship or copying letters from text.

Through writing, a child makes connections between print and the spoken word. Writing allows your child to recreate what he experienced in a story or other print. By trying to use print to communicate her thoughts and ideas, your child will see the purpose of writing, and learn how print, letters and reading are related.

Give your child many opportunities to write or trace letters in various mediums. One good way to show your child the shapes of each letter is to point them out in alphabet books. Alphabet puzzles in which each letter is a puzzle piece allow him to feel the curves and lines of the letters. Finger-painting gives a child a different sensory experience in forming letters.

Parents have many ways to help a young child learn the alphabet within a context that makes sense to her. Storybook reading, alphabet books, and playing with letters all help expose your child to print, and talking about the meanings of words can create a context for presenting the alphabet. By taking a playful approach grounded in your child's interest, you can help him learn about the alphabet and take an important step toward reading and writing.

Excerpted from "Teaching the Alphabet to Young Children," by Barbara Wasik - an article in the NAEYC journal, Young Children.Visit www.naeyc.org