Parents and caregivers can do a number of things to support a young child’s early literacy skills. Research has shown that these five simple practices can prepare a child to be school ready: reading, singing, talking, writing, and playing.
Narrate your day. Ask older children to tell you what they did today before they go to bed. With babies and toddlers, talk about what you are doing as you do it. The more you speak, the more words they hear and the larger their vocabulary becomes. Identifying everyday objects, animals, people, weather, colors, feelings, etc., helps children learn words and concepts.
Activity: I spy
Look out the window together and name everything you see. Can you and your child name things in more than one language?
Activity: Sensory
Introduce words such as “hot, cold, wet, soft, sticky” through tactile activities such as water, sand, dough, or preparing meals together.
Activity: Rhyme time
Rhymes are a great way for children to begin to make sense of sounds, language patterns, and numbers.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock!
The clock struck one (hold up one finger)
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck two (hold up two fingers)
The mouse said “Boo!”
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck three (hold up three fingers)
The mouse said “whee!”
Hickory Dickory Dock!
