What are the Best Practices for Early Literacy in Childhood Education

As a parent, you want to inspire a love of reading in your child. Reading opens up new doors into other worlds and can help children learn new ideas and skills.

Language and literacy are important parts of school success. Preparing children for kindergarten means helping them build a strong foundation of early literacy skills.

While many parents imagine they need to spend money on expensive programs or technology to promote literacy, this is not the case. Many studies have shown that simple, everyday activities are enough to instill a love of reading and literacy skills in young children.

This article will explore some of the literacy activities parents and caregivers can do to promote language development, reading comprehension, and more.

Contact the educators at Little Sunshine Preschool to learn about how our programs promote early literacy development. We are also happy to answer your questions or schedule a tour of our learning center. We look forward to meeting you and your child soon!

Table of Contents

• Best Practices for Promoting Early Literacy

  • Start early

  • Read everyday

  • Cloth and board books

  • Take turns

  • Ask open-ended questions

  • Make it interesting

  • Be a model

  • Visit the library

• Early learning programs

Best Practices for Promoting Early Literacy

During kindergarten, young children will learn to read and write. However, children’s brains develop more in the years before kindergarten than at any other time in life. It is important to give babies, toddlers, and preschool-aged children plenty of literacy experiences before they step into the kindergarten classroom.

Here are some simple, everyday activities you can do to help a young child develop critical literacy skills before kindergarten.

Start early

While babies may not be able to speak, their brains are busy absorbing information and making meaningful connections. Begin reading to your child as soon as they are born. Reading out loud to your baby allows them to hear thousands of new words and sounds.

If you did not read to your baby right away, start now. It’s never too late!

Read everyday

Set aside time to read to your child every day. Make it part of your daily routine. You could read aloud to your child every evening before bed, at breakfast, before nap, or anytime that works for your family.

Cloth and board books

Provide sturdy, age-appropriate books for babies and toddlers. Cloth or board books will hold up to being dropped, chewed, or pulled. Allow your child to handle books as soon as they can grab them. Read them aloud and encourage children to look at the pictures.

Take turns

By the time your child is about 2, they will be able to hold a book and turn its pages. While reading to your child, let them turn the pages. Respond when they point to pictures. Take turns “reading” pages out loud.

Ask open-ended questions

Reading with children isn’t just about reading the words on the page. Ask open-ended questions (questions that your child can’t answer with just “yes” or “no”) about what is happening in the story. You could ask:

• What do you think will happen next?

• Why did that character do that?

• How do you think that character feels?

Open-ended questions encourage your child to think more deeply about what is happening in the story.

Make it interesting

While reading out loud to your child, use funny voices or different tones of voice for each character. Emphasize certain words, use high and low voices, and convey emotions with your voice.

While this can sometimes feel funny or silly, reading with enthusiasm can help your child develop emergent literacy skills, like phonological awareness and story order.

Be a model

Research has shown that children who love to read are often more successful in school. If you love and prioritize reading, your child will learn that this is an important part of life. They will be more likely to value it, too.

Model literacy by reading in front of your child often. Talk to your family about something you learned by reading a newspaper or book. Share your thoughts about a book you read and ask others in the family about what they’re reading. Include young children in this family literacy conversation.

Visit the library

Make a trip to your local library. Allow your child to spend as much time as possible looking at books. Check out a few to bring home and read them often.

Your library may have more than just books. Many libraries have wonderful, free activities for children of all ages, like story times, art classes, and more.

Early learning programs

Many families rely on childcare centers to care for children while caregivers work. Choosing one that focuses on early childhood literacy will ensure your child gets the care and education they need while away from home.

At Little Sunshine Preschool, we know that your child’s earliest years are critical to their learning and development. Our incredible early learning programs support literacy and other critical school-readiness skills.

Contact our team now to learn more about our programs or to schedule a tour of our center. We look forward to meeting you soon!