March is reading month! We’re excited to bring you some literacy-focused content in the next few weeks, starting off strong with some words from our favorite early childhood development expert, Sandy Portko. Here’s what Sandy had to say about what pre-literacy means and why it’s important:
Often when parents encounter the words “pre-literacy activities” in articles about infant development, there is very little explanation of what these activities involve. Pre-literacy activities are the everyday actions through which individuals communicate with each other and infants learn their native language. In simpler terms, it simply means the spoken words, sound patterns, and intonations of a language along with any gestures or facial patterns that carry meaning. In typical development, children learn to speak their home language long before they learn to read it.
Phonemes
Typically, developing infants without hearing impairments can hear the different sounds of every single language. This ability to easily discriminate different sounds is present until around one year of age. After age one, infants focus on the specific sounds of their own language. This is one reason why it’s critically important to talk to infants from birth onward. You can even talk to your baby in the last two or three months of pregnancy. Babies hear sounds while they are in the womb, and many have been observed to turn toward their mothers’ voices while still in the delivery room.
Talking to infants allows them to easily acquire not only their native language, but also skills that are foundational for their later reading ability. From parent communication, infants and young children first learn the individual sounds of the language. English has 45 different sounds that combinations of the 26 letters of the alphabet can make; these different sounds are called phonemes. The English language also combines two or more phonemes into larger sound patterns that carry more information than a single phoneme does, and we call these combinations “words.”
Play-by-Plays
Finally, babies and young children gradually learn the word sounds are “naming” things and actions. They have started vocabulary development which is essential for learning to read once they reach school age. A healthy, typically developing child can acquire the necessary language foundation for reading by age 2 to 3 if parents talk with them frequently. Parents can do a “play-by-play” of daily activities, such as dressing, diapering, running bath water, feeding, naming toys or objects, or gently touching infants’ arms or legs while naming them. The possibilities are endless in terms of conversation content; it doesn’t matter that these early “conversations” aren’t understood, the repetitions of the sound patterns in combination with gesturing toward actions and objects is how meaning is built up.
Parents often wonder when to start reading to their infants and “the earlier, the better’” may not seem like a helpful answer. A baby who likes to sit and snuggle may respond to pictures in simple books earlier than an infant who wiggles off the lap the minute she is picked up! For a very active little one, looking at two objects on a page before crawling away, while dad sits on the floor with a book, might be a great “story time” episode.
Storytimes
Holding or snuggling with infants and children while talking about pictures in a book, even if they don’t have the patience to finish a story, accomplishes two important things:
- This physical closeness makes the little ones feel nurtured, strengthens the parent-child relationship, and produces positive emotions.
- Infants and children quickly learn to associate books and reading with these positive, warm feelings which can help them look forward to learning to read later.
Children who have had these sorts of positive experiences with early conversations and “cuddle-reading” with parents usually begin to show curiosity and eagerness about letters and numbers around age 4, some even younger. Having a few books that show letters and numbers as part of the story can help this process. One book that I can whole-heartedly recommend is Dr. Seuss’s “A B C”; all five of my kids loved it because of its silly rhymes. I loved it because the rhymes made it one of their favorites and the rhymes emphasized the sound (phoneme) that each letter made. They were hearing these specific sounds on a more frequent schedule than conversation alone might have provided. This book was read three to four times a week during their toddler and preschool years. (I checked Amazon, and this book is available in two different sized board books. I couldn’t tell any difference between them, except for the price.)
Older toddlers and preschoolers love rhyming words and parents can take advantage of this by saying a word—the sillier, the better—and asking the little ones for rhyming words. This kind of word game can be played while riding in the car, taking a walk, or even folding laundry. Searching online for simple silly songs or easy preschool word games can be a fun activity on days when the weather isn’t nice enough for outdoor play.
Pre-literacy activities don’t mean you have to teach your child to read before they even start school. It simply means including these things in daily activities.
- Talk to your baby from day 1—earlier if possible.
- Use simple words and talk a little slower than you typically do.
- Use short, repetitious sentences.
- Speak in a soft voice.
- Introduce books with simple pictures. Simply point and name items in the picture.
- Gradually add books with more words but keep them simple.
- Board books are great because children can turn pages more easily.
- For preschoolers, begin to show them that the black marks in the book are words that they will learn when they are in school.
Thanks for reading!
We encourage you to use these tips and let us know how it goes! Feel free to send us a message on social media or tag us in your posts with @familyfutures on Instagram or Facebook!
