Jacqueline Kennedy once said, "There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all." By reading to a baby, parents foster a love of books from the beginning. During snuggle time, grab a book with bright and colorful illustrations and read it to your baby. The bright pictures will grab your baby’s attention and hold it. Playing with board and cloth books helps babies develop a natural curiosity in literacy. Don’t fret when your little munchkin explores the pages with her mouth; this is how babies learn.
Hands-on activities such as rolling Play-Doh and piecing puzzles together can help develop a child's literacy. When toddlers are engaged in these types of activities, they are strengthening and improving the coordination of their hand and finger muscles. These muscles help little learners hold writing tools like crayons or markers. Also, when toddlers make patterns with assorted buttons and shapes they are placing things in certain order. These playtime activities serve as a foundation for literacy because they help toddlers recognize that letters in words follow a sequence during reading.
Very young children learn literacy from the world around them. Children learn to read environmental print before they learn to read a book. When children see signs or logos commonly found in their environment, such as the name of their favorite restaurant or their brand of toothpaste, they are seeing words being used naturally rather than in isolation on paper. Children are more likely to remember these environmental words because they are meaningful to them. When children make meaningful connections between the object and the word, literacy ignites.
Learning to read is a stimulating and fundamental part of any early childhood education program. Most children enter kindergarten knowing a lot about literacy. For five years, they have explored, played, watched, listened and made discoveries at home, in their communities and in early learning environments that will help them become lifelong readers.