Early Literacy Resource
Increase
Talking time with your child (Oral Language)
Children’s books in the home
Reading good picture books
Trips to the local library (virtual)
Writing with your child
Nightly reading
Reading great books more than once
Opportunities for your child to see you reading
Pointing out how texts work
Story telling about experiences
Noticing print in the environment
Taking field trips
Finding words in books
Analyze illustrations/pictures
Rereading familiar books and their own writing
Playing games connected to print
Interest in words and letters
Decrease
Over booked weeks
Negative comments about books
Television viewing time
Video gaming
(Fig 1)
Literacy Tasks Defined
Talking time with your child (Oral Language)
Helping your child develop their oral language is extremely important because the language that
you share in conversations with your child will influence their literacy acquisition. Your child will later
use the phrases they constructed in conversations with you to understand sentences in their own
reading and writing later.
Children’s books in the home
This is more than just increasing the amount of books in your home to show your child that
books are important. You want to make sure that the books that you bring into your home are of high
quality and appropriate for your children. If you will be reading the book to the child (read-aloud) you
will want to select a picture book that’s engaging and worth reading. Your local library can help you pick
out pictures books worth reading. You can build reading engagement by considering your child’s
interests when you select books to read to them.
Reading good picture books
Reading aloud has many literacy advantages and it would take several pages to list them all out.
Instead I’m going to list a few that will highlight the main points. As we read to children we: help them
develop a sense of story, demonstrate reading for purpose, demonstrate phrased and fluent reading,
increase their vocabulary, expand their oral language, demonstrate reading for enjoyment, and open
windows to new experiences.
Trips to the local library (virtual)
Your local libraries are loaded with great books and other literacy resources. Take your child to
the library, get a library card, and find out about all the other available services. Once you have a library
card you will have access to hundreds if not thousands of texts in print and digital format.
Writing with your child
Exposing your children to reading and writing will provide them with unlimited exposure to
letters, sounds, and words. Writing with your child doesn’t mean they need to write a novel all by
themselves. Start simple, have them share a story and then together you compose the message. Share
the pen when you think they can contribute and keep the pen when it’s the hard part.
Nightly reading
We want kids reading every night. Finding texts your children can read early on can be difficult.
Here’s a practical solution. Every child is familiar with the Happy Birthday song. Write to words to the
song on a piece of paper and practice reading it together. Soon your children will be pointing and
reading the Happy Birthday song to you. Feel free to try this with any other poem or song that your
child would be interested in.
Opportunities for your child to see you reading
If you want your children to value reading and to internalize its importance, then you have to
lead by example. Share what you’re reading with them, talk about it with them, and share your
excitement about reading with them.
Pointing out how the text works
If you were teaching your children how to cook you would be explaining everything. You would
tell them what a measuring cup was, how to hold it, how to fill-it without making a mess. You need to
do the same thing when you’re reading. Tell them where you start reading, how you read the title, how
you point to words. Just remember to keep it fun!
Story telling about experiences
Sharing stories with your children helps develop their oral language. It will have positive
impacts on their control of language structures and oral vocabulary. The more you talk with your child
the easier it will be for them when they are engaged in texts later. Spoken structures are also the first
step in the writing process. Let your children share their stories with you and then give them a chance
to become an author with by writing some of them down with your help. Every story you write together
will be a story they can read later.
Noticing print in the environment
We spend a lot of time running errands or waiting in lines. Use that opportunity to engage your
child in environmental print. When you go down the candy aisle, point to the word candy and draw
attention the first letter in the word. There’s no wrong way to do this. What’s important is that they
begin to understand that print is all around them.
Taking field trips
Reading is more than just a visible task (looking at words). A reader must also bring invisible
information (prior knowledge) with them to the text when they read. Taking field trips help your
children build their prior knowledge about the world. By taking field trips you help your children learn
about places (zoos), things (locomotives), and famous people (Lincoln) that they would have never
experienced in their everyday environment. All of these different experiences will support your child as
they engage with printed texts.
Finding words in books
There are many benefits to this, but I’m going to highlight two important ones. The first is
helping your child build phonological awareness, the understanding that speech is made up of sounds.
The second is vocabulary development. Finding words in the text is accomplished by revisiting the text
after it is read and pointing out words you want to share.
Analyze illustrations/pictures
Stopping and talking about the illustrations/pictures is a good habit to get into. It’s important
that your children understand that illustrations and pictures add/support meaning in texts. It’s worth
noting that often your children will notice things that even you, the experience reader, didn’t even
notice.
Rereading familiar books and their own writing
Rereading texts will help your children establish known texts that they can think, talk, and write
about in meaningful ways. It helps them make deeper connections with the text and the language
structures in the text. Keep track of the texts your children are familiar with and be sure to demonstrate
how to make connections between them.
Playing games connected to print
Through games you can help your children gain the ability to recognize letters and words in a
motivating way. Creating a game for your children is as simple as taking a common board game and
adjusting it to include more literacy skills. You can also be creative and make your own game from
scratch to share with your children, don’t forget to include your children in this process. Your children
will love to play games that they helped create.
Interest in words and letters
Make a list of the books you read together and a list of some of the interesting words in those
books. Get your children interested in words and letters. Use this excitement to help them explore the
difference between letters and words. Continue to use this list of words to help your children learn
about the first and last letter in a word.
Decrease
Over booked weeks
Look at your weekly events and block out time to help your child develop literacy skills.
Learning to read is a very important life skill and should be treated as such.
Negative comments about books
Sharing any negative feelings you have towards reading will have a negative impact on your
children when they are learning to read. Be positive and make sure they understand that being a
proficient reader is important and expected.
Television viewing time
I’m not going to tell you that letting your children watch television is all bad because it’s not.
Your children will learn many wonderful things from the television that will support them while they are
engaged in a text. I am going to tell you to decrease their television viewing time and to choose an
activity from the increase chart to replace it.
Video gaming
Video games have beneficial qualities, but I suggest decreasing your children’s video gaming
time to find time for more literacy activities.