Expanding Early Literacy & How to Get Started!

Literacy is a term that refers to a person's ability to read and write and is a skill that can be targeted as early as birth! Literacy skills can also include a child's ability to recognize and learn letters, letter sounds, and vocabulary.

Literacy, as many other life skills, is a skill that is learned through help of adults. Parents, teachers, and other professionals can motivate children to work towards achieving these goals in fun and unexpected ways. Here are some helpful things to target with books when encouraging literacy skills with your child at home.

Birth to 12 months:

1. Encourage inspection of pictures- When looking at a book with your child, encourage them to look at and inspect the photos in the book. It may be beneficial to choose a book with simple, uncrowded photos to help them focus on items/objects in the pictures.
2. Point to pictures and words while reading- While you read to your child, point to the pictures and words to help develop their vocabulary.
3. Let them explore the book- Encourage your child to hold the book, look at pages, and feel pages. Textured books are a fun way to include more variety to their reading time! At this age, it is even normal for them to put it in their mouth. Encourage board books so they feel comfortable exploring the book without damaging it!

12 to 18 months:

1. Encourage them to hold the book- Encourage your child to hold the book while you read to them! This will encourage engagement with the book. You can also have them help you turn pages.
2. Ask questions- At this stage, it is beneficial to start asking questions about the book or story to help develop their language skills. For example "Where is the dog?". Remember to pause and allow them time to think and answer you!
3. Expand vocabulary- Try to be mindful of the ways you can expand your child's vocabulary! Label objects and animals that they may not be familiar with. For example, parts of the animal (feet, snout, wings, etc.) or household objects (stairs, sink, counters, etc.).

18 to 24 months:

1. Encourage your child to ask questions and comment- When finished reading a page, encourage them to think of and ask questions! You can also encourage them to comment on the story and characters.
2. Expand book and story vocabulary- At this stage, a good skill to begin developing is your child's book and story vocabulary. You can do this by labeling parts of the book (title, cover, pages, etc), using story vocabulary (beginning, end, etc.), and asking them to help you label or identify these parts!
3. Patience- It is important to remember that your child is learning new skills! Listening, attention, and interest are all components that will grow in time with exposure. Don't be discouraged if your child doesn't want to finish a book or story! Any length of exposure is beneficial to developing their skills.

Kaitlyn Davis, M.S., CF-SLP