Most children develop some form of a vocabulary before they get confident in walking proves the great value of literacy. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are skills that we are taught at a young age and continue developing throughout our lives.
While at first, it may be just a couple of words, in most cases, preschoolers can express their thoughts, emotions, and feelings through developed phrases and sentences. The period of emergent literacy involves learning letters and words from hearing conversations and connecting the same to printed stories.
How Does Verbalization Affect Literacy?
One of the essential duties you have as a parent is to help your child become confident at verbalization. Numerous studies suggest that kids with weak verbal abilities have difficulties when it comes to writing and reading. The main reason for this is because both active and passive speech directly affects literacy.
As children listen to you, they can develop their own phonological algorithms and point to letters or words that they hear. Not only that but by entering conversations with your kids, you will be stimulating them to practice the usage of different phonetics, isolating sounds and rhymes. Through these activities, children get more confident with speaking, which later affects their ability to write and pronounce words correctly.
Prevent Emergent Illiteracy
The best way to guide your kid through the period of emergent literacy is to prevent the potential risks. In most cases, children who suffer from chronic medical conditions, including ear infections or cerebral palsy, may have trouble acquiring relevant skills. Studies suggest that children coming from families with a history of illiteracy or poverty are at significant risk of going down the same route.
Once again, you as a parent should do your best to detect, prevent, and cope with the existing risks to ensure the best development for your children.
What To Do As A Parent?
While you can hire a speech pathologist if you can’t stimulate your child to listen or talk through regular activities, we recommend investing additional effort by making reading/writing practices fun and a part of your everyday routine. The simplest way to stimulate your children into talking is to ask them about the names of animals or objects that they encounter.
Along with that, by singing and rhyming the songs they enjoy, you will introduce new words and phrases in their vocabulary. The same goes for reading/rereading stories and asking them to name the images in these books.
Concluding Thoughts
Guiding and supporting your children to the period of emergent literacy is of great importance. They are sure to enjoy it as long as the practices are made fun and playful.
