The first day children arrive at kindergarten, there is already an achievement gap of about five years.

Some children come to school already knowing the alphabet, some of the letter sounds, and how to count to 30. They are ready and eager to learn. Some children are even reading at a third-grade level.

But some children enter kindergarten with a learning age of about 3 -- with no knowledge of the alphabet or numbers. They don't really understand what reading is all about. This group of children is already years behind other children; they are frequently confused and reluctant to participate; and they find catching up a very difficult task.

"Learning is a continuum that lasts a lifetime," says Nancy Kerr, president of the National Children's Reading Foundation, based in Kennewick. "Learning doesn’t start when a child enters kindergarten at age 5, and it doesn’t end when a student receives a diploma at age 18."

Children need to begin preparing for scholastic success at home, long before they are old enough to enter elementary school, she explains.

"Ideally, parents are their child's first and most loved and effective teacher," says Mrs. Kerr. "It has been said that 'the mother's heart is the child's classroom.' Moms and dads, as well as grandparents and other family members, powerfully influence a child by their words and example."

Schools are different than in years past when most parents went to school, notes Mrs. Kerr. "Our state now has identified important information ('essential learnings') that students should know, and the state tests students at grades 4, 7, and 10 with the statewide WASL test to see if today’s students know the specific information they are required to learn at each grade level."

There are even "essential learnings" for 4-year-olds getting ready to start school, she points out.

Preparation for school, she says, begins at a child's birth.

"In recent years scientists have discovered some amazing things about how young children think and learn," Mrs. Kerr says. "Babies are born learning! Their brains are so active that they are either sleeping or learning all the time. During the first three years of life, essential connections are growing between brain cells (neurons) with astonishing speed. These early pathways provide the learning foundation for a lifetime."

The brain cell connections (synapses), she explains, occur when experiences are repeated over and over, and/or when an experience triggers a strong emotional reaction.

"Experiences in the child’s environment literally sculpts the brain," Mrs. Kerr says.

Newborns and baby minds are active and growing when the child feels very safe and secure. Meeting a baby’s need for food, sleep and love are fundamental.

"Singing, rocking, reading and tender handling then produce 'bonding' between the baby and family members," Mrs. Kerr explains, "and bonding emotionally activates a baby’s brain."

Learning progresses as children enter their toddler years at age 1-2.

"One of the most important things adults can do with children in this age group is lots and LOTS of talking," Mrs. Kerr says. "Talk to your child about everything that is happening during the day."

Family members can talk to toddlers while they are riding in the car, getting dressed, eating, shopping, and doing chores, she says. They can talk to the toddlers about their play, about their toys and about TV.

"The key to talking during routine tasks is to tell lots of descriptive details," says Mrs. Kerr. "Talk about what you are seeing and doing. Just talk, talk, talk. As your child hears the sounds of language, important structures (called dendrites) in his or her brain actually grow and increase. Critical pathways in the brain are established and deepened, and these pathways will eventually allow your child to learn to read and write.

"Every language is made up of phonemes, which are the sounds within words," Mrs. Kerr continues. "In its wondrous way, a child’s brain learns to distinguish every sound, but this requires lots of repetition. By kindergarten, this ability to distinguish different sounds is the greatest predictor of a child's future success in school."

Mrs. Kerr also notes that if families speak more than one language in their home, they should use each language as often as is natural. The best time for a baby to start hearing more that one language is from birth to age 3.

As children approach kindergarten, the key task for 3- and 4-year-olds is learning to recognize shapes and sounds, Mrs. Kerr says. Learning to see the difference between a "b" and a "d" requires fine visual skills that are acquired by lots of repetition and practice.

"Parents can help by having magnetic alphabet letters on the refrigerator, writing signs to label objects around the house and hanging them at the child’s eye-level, and playing games such as 'Which of these things is not like the other?'" the Reading Foundation president explains.

"As always, reading and talking about stories, memorizing rhymes and songs, and going places together is beneficial to the child’s expanding language skills and vocabulary," she says.

According to a federally funded report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers," produced by the Commission on Reading: "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to our children. This is especially so during the preschool years."

And according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: "It takes 1,000 hours of ‘lap time’ for young children to have the readiness skills in place to learn to read."

"It’s never too early or too late to start. Read with your child everyday," urges Mrs. Kerr. "For parents who can’t read, it's just as valuable to look at books and make up stories or talk about the pictures.

"It also doesn’t matter what language you read in, the important thing is time with books every day," she says.

"There is one main rule for guiding your child’s learning," she adds. "It’s got to be fun. If your child is not having fun -- stop. If you are not having fun -- stop. These simple learning experiences can be a natural part of your daily life.

"Your goal," says Mrs. Kerr, "is to not only stimulate your child’s intellectual development, but build loving relationships."

• Mrs. Nancy Kerr is president of the National Children's Reading Foundation, (509) 735-9405 and www.readingfoundation.org on the Internet. She is a trained facilitator of "Healthy Beginnings" by the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.)