22 Jun Early Literacy Practices with Young Children

People are often surprised when we tell them their very young infant can participate in our Summer Reading Club by doing the Every Child Ready to Read early literacy practices: reading, writing, talking, singing, and playing. 

Then, they’re frequently more confused, saying, “But my newborn can’t talk!” “Is my three-month-old supposed to be writing?”

No, we haven’t lost our minds and become completely detached from what’s age-appropriate for young children! 

Here’s what we mean when we talk about the early literacy practices.

Reading

Any interactions your child has with books count as reading! You reading to them at bedtime counts, even if they fall asleep before you’ve finished. A toddler could flip through a book and look at pictures; it doesn’t matter if the book is right-side-up or not. A baby might chew on an Indestructibles magazine while taking a bath. (Don’t worry; Indestructibles are waterproof.) Maybe your preschooler is starting to recognize letters and practice sounds. Fantastic! That counts, too.

Writing

This includes any sort of activity that strengthens fine motor skills. For infants, that might mean opening and closing their fingers or grasping a blanket as they figure out that they can control their hands and explore the possibilities! Toddlers will progress to maneuvering small toys like cars or banging things together. They also experiment with scribbling with markers and crayons or delighting in finger painting. This is how they build the foundation to eventually form letters and write.

Talking

Hearing the grownups around them talk is how children learn language. The more you talk to your baby – even your newborn – the better! It does not matter if they are nowhere close to being able to talk back to you. Greet them when they wake up, narrate the activities you do with them throughout the day, and point out things around your house. All of that counts as “talking” when it comes to early literacy practices. They’ll be replying to you and sharing their own opinions before you know it!

Singing

Similar to talking, singing to your child is excellent for language development. Singing emphasizes different syllables, breaking down words into their sound-parts. This helps children both learn to speak and later to break down words into smaller parts as they’re learning to read. Songs also often include rhymes, which help children identify similar sounds and eventually predict what word comes next based on the rhyme scheme. Singing to your child throughout the day is a fun, playful way to practice early literacy skills.

Playing

Playing comes naturally to children and has countless benefits for all ages! Anything that involves interacting with their environment in a way that they choose (as much as they are able) counts as playing. For babies, playing might simply be watching a mobile and kicking their legs, or waving a rattle around. As they grow, play will start to look more like what we usually think of as play, like driving around toy trains or caring for dolls. When children play, they exercise creativity, solve problems, and mimic the language of adults doing similar activities.

These early literacy practices – adapted for the age and ability of each child – are proven ways to help your child be ready to read when they get older, and these are things you can start doing right from birth! 

While we use our Summer Reading Club to promote them and incentivize caregivers to engage in these practices, they’re meant to be done all year ‘round! Developing a regular habits of reading, writing, talking, singing, and playing with your child will set them up for success when they reach school.