What is Early Literacy?
Early Literacy skills are the things children need to learn before they start kindergarten in order for them to be successful at school. They include:
Pre-reading Skills
- Vocabulary
- Narrative and conversation skills
- Print awareness
- Sound awareness
- Letter knowledge
- Love of stories
Pre-writing skills
- Fine and gross motor skills
- Narrative skills
- Letter knowledge
- Recognizing shapes
Executive Control
- Self-control
- The ability to manage emotion
How can you practice Early Literacy skills with your child at home?
Talk, Sing, Read, Write, and Play!
- When you TALK with your child they learn vocabulary, narrative skills, and how conversation works.
- When you SING with your child they learn vocabulary they might not come across in their daily life, and that words are made up of sound parts.
- When you READ with your child they learn how a book works, how words flow on a page, narrative skills, how symbols represent ideas, the shape and orientation of letters, and how stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
- When you WRITE (or just color) with your child they learn fine motor skills, the shape and orientation of letters, and they gain practice expressing themselves with symbols.
- When you PLAY with your child (especially imaginative play) they learn fine (and gross) motor skills, narrative skills, and all of the executive control skills.