ORSO, VOLPE and GHEPARDO are in here somewhere, along with three more

Six Italian animal names are hidden in this grid, and six pictures tell your child which to look for: a bear, a fox, a lemur, a moose, a seal and a cheetah. The child scans the rows and columns, finds ORSO among the letters, and draws a ring round it. That act of recognising a word rather than sounding it out is the first proper reading anyone does in a language they are only beginning.

The words vary usefully in length. ORSO, ALCE and FOCA are four letters each and go quickly. VOLPE and LEMURE take a little longer. GHEPARDO is the eight-letter one, and it is worth showing your child that the h after the g is silent — it exists only to keep the g hard, as in gold. Italian leans on that spelling often, so meeting it once here saves a good deal of confusion later on.

Print it after a trip to the zoo, or beside a picture book about wild animals. Most children want to say the names as they find them, which is exactly what you want: ask for the Italian while the pencil is still resting on the circle. If a word will not come, the picture beside the grid hands it back without anybody having to correct anyone.