Fostering Early Literacy in the Preschool Years
A couple of weeks ago, our blog addressed the basis of language and early literacy development in infancy and toddlerhood and ideas for how to encourage children’s development in these areas. This week, we’d like to discuss a bit more about this topic, but in the preschool years.
What happens in Preschool aged children?
So much growth! This is a very important window where we can maximize children’s exposure to opportunities around language and literacy. Ideally, children need ample opportunities to interact around books and other print, to draw and paint, and exposure to other stimulating materials. They also the social interactions with their peers and plenty of time for “pretend play” which also serves a great role in the fostering of language development.
What can we do as parents and childcare providers, in terms of encouraging the development of early literacy during this time period?
There is so much we can do. Ideally, we want to surround children with books and read to/with them, expose them to other forms of print/alphabetic materials, and to help to foster their language development. Routines can be created around listening to stories such as before bedtime or during quiet-time so it fits into your day (which is probably pretty busy these days).
We want to have a ton of conversations! Teachers can engage children in one-to-one conversations if in an early childhood setting, or small group conversations where children have plenty of opportunities to talk with each other. At home, parents can use everyday moments as opportunities to build language, like when at the store, driving around and talking about letters on signs for example, (STOP sign, etc) preparing meals, or even while doing chores. It doesn’t have to be time consuming but can fit into everyday routines you are already doing. Having conversations with your children is one of the most important things you can do to foster their language skills- so have those dinnertime conversations. They matter. Your children are taking everything in. Kids can also practice drawing and initial writing (that may look more like scribbles initially :-) and can play with letters on puzzles or magnets and can practice putting simple words together using things like refrigerator magnets.
By kindergarten, we hope that kids have had exposure to letters and letter sounds, and the idea that words are made up of sounds. As they grow, they will have the understanding that the word, cat, for example, starts with ‘c’ , ends with ‘t’ and contains the sounds - c-a-t. There are great books for fostering the development of beginning and ending sounds and rhyming. Like, Dr Suess’, “The Cat in the Hat,” “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish,” or Guarino’s, “Is your Mama a Llama,” or “Big Red Barn” by Margaret Wise Brown. And countless others, these are just a few examples. Reading books aloud to children is a great way to foster connection and is one of the single best activities we can do to foster children’s future success and a love for reading (https://www.nyp.org/acn/community-programs/reach-out-and-read).
Now that many things are online, the local libraries have some wonderful programs that they have set up for kids of all ages. Preschool story time happens weekly through the Cortland Free Library, and they have “take and make” activities as well. Homer Library has some great resources as well. So when you are busy and trying to juggle a million things (as we all are right now), you can have your children tune into an online story time session (geared towards babies/toddlers or preschool aged kids). Screen time is not great for young children, but if you have to use the screen especially if you are busy and need a break, please think of choosing these quality programs. But as much as possible, take out those traditional books, and read with your kids. And when you are getting your children outside to enjoy the beautiful fall weather, don’t forget to have those conversations :-)
Some Resources
https://gradelevelreading.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/FACE-Research.pdf
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-tips-parents-multiple-languages
https://www.hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-72-issue-2/herbooknote/young-children-learning-at-home-and-school_64