This has to do with what a child is familiar with, in terms of reading, writing, and overall communication, prior to the commencement of actual reading and writing lessons. Literacy development is a basic component of children’s overall development, and it starts well before they enter school. Early literacy development is extremely important because of several reasons.
Literacy development is a dynamic process that develops over time. Early literacy development starts in the first three years of children’s and supports their future reading, writing, language development, and overall learning. If children cannot read, they cannot learn. For children to advance through subjects like science and math, they’ve to be able to read and understand the content. Students who struggle with reading in school tend to get more frustrated when they’re unable to understand fundamental concepts. This causes them to lose interest, self-confidence and fall further behind their peers.
Parents can use these strategies to help their children develop early literacy skills.
Expanding their vocabulary: Developing children’s vocabulary is important because they’ll find it easier to read and write words that are already known to them. Parents can help kids learn words by teaching them how to define the world around them. Books are a highly effective way to introduce vocabulary that may not be in children’s immediate environment.
Fostering a love of books: Parents should introduce kids to books early on, so they can associate them with positive emotions. Having a sufficient number of books in the home library is an effective idea to get the ball rolling.
Teaching the alphabet: When kids are exposed to enough print, at some point, they’ll start to identify common patterns like the letters of the alphabet. Parents can introduce the children to the letters in their names as an initial effort to break a word into its parts. Additionally, kids can learn letters by playing with puzzles, looking at shapes, and talking about different forms. Singing an alphabet song, reading alphabet books, and even playing with keyboards will ensure kids get plenty of practice identifying letters that’ll prepare them for reading, writing, and decoding later on.
Showing enough print: Parents can help children develop early literacy skills by ensuring there’s enough print in the kids’ field of vision. Looking at books, words on posters, signs, cereal boxes, and pointing them out encourages kids to pay attention to print.
In addition to these, parents can also encourage kids to narrate activities as they’re happening or to talk about what they’ve done during the day.
