• the child demonstrates the organization and basic features of print

• the child is able to follow words from left to right top to bottom, page by page

• The child is able to recognize the difference between a letter and a printed word

• The child is able to identify that a sentence is made up of a group of words

When the child enter first grade the skills that need to be mastered for print concept

• The child can understand the organization and basic features of print

• They can recognize capitalization of the first word and punctuation

(Department of education, 2016)

One key milestone that shows progress and explains what demonstrates mastery in a comprehensive way is rhyming.

A second key milestone that shows progress and explains what demonstrates mastery in a comprehensive way is inital sound awareness where students can hear the first sound in a word like dog, students would hear the d sound first.

(7-8) ( Reading Rockets, 2025).

The second instructional strategy is having students students space written words. For example when a student hears a sentence "The big cat walked " the student only focuses on words like big, cat, and walked. This helps the student understand that spaces speaker words and helps them recognize individual words in print (Gunning, 2025).

Word: 3 years old

Rhyme: 4 years old

Syllable blending: 4

Syllable segmentation: Kindergartens and at age

Syllable deletion: Kindergarten

Onset rime: the middle of kindergarten

For a student that has Dyslexia explicit instruction is very important for a student that has dyslexia. When working one on one with a child that has Dyslexia breaking down a sentence to the child can be a form of differentiation which fits under explicit instruction. Since the student may confuse some letters breaking down the spaces between each word and also having the students say the words helps with print concept but also helps with print concept since the students are learning the structure of a sentence (Gunning, 2025).

One way to differentiate for Dyslexia students is s/he are learning to count the sounds not the letters in a word. With a visual learner, as a teacher by using visually representing the words, syllables with some manipulative for example different colored felts, blocks, papers (The Regents of The University of Michigan, n.d). For kinesthetic learner may benefit from tapping, clapping, jumping, moving hands for blending and moving them apart for segmenting (TRUOR, n.d).

The age range when students typically demonstrate milestone skills realistically is 4 through 9. The grade range when students typically demonstrate milestone skills is realistically is kindergarten through second grade.

First Grade 7-8 Expect to be fluent (Demchak,2025)

The research-supported assessment tool that efficiently measures student progress for the given skill is Phoneme Matching. This will be used to determine whether students are making progress toward meeting the foundational literacy skill by assessing the students ability to identify the words that start with a similar sound. . Another research-supported assessment tool that efficiently measures student progress for the given skill is blending phonemes together. "What word do these sounds make? /h/-/o/-/t/ (correct response: hot) (Reading Rockets,n.d) This will be used to determine whether students are making progress toward meeting the foundational literacy skill by evaluating their skill on being able to combine that sound into a word.

One instructional strategy for phonemic awareness is deletion or subtraction and substitution by the game called change the name. "Have students sit in a circle on the floor. Secretly select one child and change their name by removing the first sound of the name." (Reading Rockets,n.d) "After the child learns how to remove sounds, teach them to substitute the begining sound in their name with a new sound." (Reading Rockets,n.d) A second instructional strategy for phonemic awareness is sound manipulation where the students can hear specific phonemes in words by phonemic isolation by identifying the final sound in the word. An example of this would be duck, students would hear the ending sound of duck which is k.

One differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching the foundational literacy skill to engage and motivate all young learners but specifically support English learners (ELs) is using visual aids like flash cards to represent words and their sounds. A second differentiation strategy that can be used when teaching the foundational literacy skill to engage and motivate all young learners but specifically support students with dyslexia is small group instruction where they can get some reinforcement and use repetition to build up their self-confidence.