Teaching the Arabic alphabet at home: a gentle guide for parents

Many parents want their children to read Arabic, for the Qur'an, for family, or simply for the joy of a second script, but worry that they don't know enough themselves. The good news: young children learn letters through repetition, play and pictures, and you can guide that even while you are learning too.

Start on the right

Arabic is written from right to left. The single most useful habit you can build is to start every letter and every row on the right. In our Arabic books each tracing row has a start dot on the right and an arrow pointing left, so the habit is there from the first page.

One letter, up to four shapes

Arabic letters join together, so most letters change shape depending on where they sit in a word: alone, at the start, in the middle, or at the end. Six letters (ا د ذ ر ز و) never join to the letter after them, so they only have two shapes. Don't try to teach all the shapes at once. Let your child trace the letter on its own first, then look at the shapes together like a little family.

A gentle order to follow

1. Alif, Baa, Taa, Thaa (ا ب ت ث). Baa, Taa and Thaa share a shape and differ only in their dots, which makes a lovely first lesson about dots.
2. Jeem, Hhaa, Khaa (ج ح خ). Another family of one shape with different dots.
3. Daal and Dhaal, Raa and Zay. Short, simple letters that don't join forward.
4. Carry on in alphabet order, a letter or two a day.

Say it, trace it, colour it

• Say the letter name and a picture word: baa for batta (duck).
• Trace the big dotted letter from the start dot, then try it alone.
• Colour the picture while you say the word again.

If you're not a fluent speaker

Sound hints in English letters are only a guide. Some Arabic sounds, like ع (ayn) and ح (hhaa), don't exist in English. Ask a fluent friend, relative or teacher to say the words, or listen to a trusted recording together, and copy the sounds as a family.

Keep it short and happy

Ten minutes a day is plenty at ages 3 to 6. Stop while it's still fun, and celebrate every finished page. Small steps make big progress!

You can find all 28 letters, their four shapes, matching games and colour-and-say pages in Arabic Letters, Book 1 of our Arabic range.