In Excel English Early Skills: your child will learn the visual skills which they need before learning to read.  These include listening carefully and following instructions, following a sequence of events, recognising objects that are the same and recognising objects that are different.

In Excel English Early Skills: Learning About Sequencing, your child will develop the skills of following instructions and systematically following a sequence of events. They will learn to recognise and write some basic symbols and learn about the place and position of objects.

In Excel English Early Skills: Beginning Consonant Sounds, your child will learn the sounds of the letters of the alphabet.  They will concentrate on the beginning sounds of words and understand the relationship between the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they represent.  They will also begin learning to write letters.

In Excel English Early Skills: Ending Consonant Sounds, your child will learn to better understand the relationship between letters and their sounds, and recognise the ending sounds of words.

In Excel English Early Skills: Vowel Sounds, your child will learn about vowel sounds and the letters they represent.  They will listen for the sound of vowels at the beginning of words, recognise vowel sounds in the middle of words and match up words that rhyme.

In Excel English Early Skills: Beginning, Ending and Vowel Sounds, your child will revise their knowledge of the beginning, ending and vowel sounds (covered in English Books 3, 4 and 5) and further develop their knowledge of the relationship between letters and their sounds. They will practise writing letters and identify consonants and vowels in the beginning, middle and ending of words.

In Excel English Early Skills: Reading with Sounds (1), your child will use their knowledge of the sounds of letters to form meaningful words (also called Phonics). They will recognise and group words with the same word patterns and practice writing combinations of letters.

In Excel English Early Skills: your child will further develop their knowledge of single letters and their sounds, and use this knowledge to form meaningful words (also called Phonics). They will recognise and group words with the same word patterns, recognise the different shapes of words and practise writing simple words.

In Excel English Early Skills: Reading for Comprehension, your child will use their knowledge of sounds to read and understand simple sentences. They will also develop their comprehension skills by reading short stories and answering simple questions about them.