Developing Literacy

How does your child develop literacy?
Literacy skills (reading and writing) start to develop in preschool when teachers begin to expose children to spoken and written language.

During this time you’ll find a teacher using a combination of pictures, printed letters and words, and speaking. Through this process your child begins to make the connection that objects or pictures represent words that have meaning.

There are many ways this occurs in the classroom including:

• Nursery Rhymes: Children love the sing song cadence of nursery rhymes. In many cases children have head these rhymes since they were babies, and a common classroom activity is to have them fill-in-the-blanks on favorite nursery rhymes and stories.

• Scribbling: as we spoke about in a previous blog, scribbling is the start of writing and scribbling on paper should be encouraged as much as possible.

• Printed Letters and Words: Classrooms that are full of pictures and words make for a rich environment for children learning the basics of literacy.

There is no substitute for reading with your child. The time you invest in reading your child will be paid back to you as your child becomes a strong reader. Let your child guess at words as you read. Let them understand that pictures often give clues to the words on the pages.

Here are some other ways that you can reinforce literacy at home:
• Make books available
• Label objects around their room
• Read in front of your child. When they see you read they will want to read too.
• Encourage your child’s creativity. Writing, drawing and even finger painting all encourage literacy.