THE 5 EARLY LITERACY PRACTICES
These five simple practices help to develop children's foundational pre-reading skills, as well as their motor development, social skills, numeracy and other developmental mile stones. Here is a brief overview of the 5 practices. Check out the blog for fun tips for singing, writing, talking, playing and reading more with the children in your life.
- Sing - Singing songs and making music together helps children with phonological awareness and narrative skills
- Write - Coloring, doodling and early writing help to develop symbolic thinking skills, letter knowledge and fine motor skills
- Talk - Talking is the first and easiest way children are exposed to language, it helps develop phonological awareness, narrative skills and vocabulary
- Play - Children build their fine and gross motor skills, social skills and language skills (including all of the 6 pre-reading foundations) through play
- Read - Reading develops all of the 6 pre-reading skills, it can also be a great relationship builder between child and caregiver and those strong relationships are vital to a child's development
THE 6 PRE-READING SKILLS
The six pre-reading skills are foundational skills needed for later success in learning to read. Children who have care givers that regularly provide activities that support these skills (such as the 5 practices) are better able to learn to read when the time comes (usually between age 4 and 7). Reading is, of course, a foundational skill to all future academic learning. Here is a brief overview of the 6 skills.
- Vocabulary - Knowledge of words that make up our language(s)
- Letter Knowledge - Knowledge of the alphabet
- Phonological Awareness - Awareness of the sounds of language, the rhythm, syllables, etc.
- Print Motivation - Motivation to read and be read to from any print source
- Narrative Skills - The ability to tell or re-tell a story with the beginning, middle and end
- Print Awareness - Awareness of print and what makes it different from illustrations and other symbols
