Reading is a skill without which life would be unimaginable. From beginning to end, the life of everyone is marked by this skill that develops from the early age of the child, before he starts school. The reason why it is necessary to encourage this skill in the child even before starting school is that the child must learn certain basics, that is, master the pre-skills of reading so that in the future he can more easily and safely master the skill of reading and master it completely. Reading is a simple, yet complex concept around which numerous theories have developed. Regardless of the existence of theories, the fact is that reading must be preceded by some other methods and actions. Without cognitive development and the development of motor skills, there is no mastery of the skill of reading. Pre-reading skills are skills that develop in preschool age, and include orderly speech-language development, developed phonological awareness and understanding of the phoneme-grapheme connection. The paper describes various exercises that are used to develop preliminary reading skills, such as recognizing rhyme, throwing out intruders, breaking words into syllables and putting words together from broken syllables, and these exercises can be performed by playing with dolls. The most common types of puppets used in working with children are hand puppets, shadow puppets, marionettes, humanettes, mime puppets and parts of the child's body. With the help of dolls, children can participate in various games that have a positive effect on the pre-skills of reading, thus preparing them for primary school education.