What Can Parents Do To Enhance Early Literacy?

Early childhood refers to the period from birth through age 8. A child’s early literacy development includes building skills such as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, and numeracy, and begins from the moment a child is born. Through the most current research by developmental scientists, we now know that even before an infant can speak the brain acquires a tremendous amount of information about language. By the time a baby speaks or understands their first words, they already understand the sounds language uses, how sounds can be combined to create words and the pace and rhythm of words and phrases.

There is a strong connection between the development of a child early in life and the level of success that the child will experience later in life. For example, infants who demonstrate and master the building blocks of speech at 6 months develop more complex language skills by 2 and 3 years of age and enhance the capacity to read at 4 and 5 years of age. In addition, understanding letters and sounds in kindergarten is one of the most significant predictors of what that child’s tenth grade reading ability will be.

Young children who are encouraged to explore environments rich in language and literacy interactions and who are presented with opportunities to listen to and use language constantly, can begin to create essential building blocks necessary in learning to read. With these supports and beginning skills, children have a much stronger opportunity for success in school.

Adults can help enhance a child’s budding literacy development by providing environments rich in printed materials and full of opportunities to listen to and express themselves in a variety of ways. Actively engaging even the youngest children through songs, games, rhymes and stories helps them create the mental structures that are the building blocks of learning to read and a much stronger opportunity for success in school.