From earliest infancy, children begin to connect that print has meaning. When caregivers read to the baby, she associates the sounds with the book. The infant also builds phonemic awareness by differentiating sounds the caregivers make. A baby can distinguish a parent's voice from a stranger. She can tell an angry tone from a happy tone. During this stage, the child hears and responds to her name. She begins to make vowel sound vocalizations at this age. These skills are all important for the development of literacy. It is vital during this phase that caregivers read to, sing to and talk with the baby.
During this stage, the child begins to recognize and associate meaning with spoken words. He makes more consonant sounds and babbles frequently. As he is read to, he will help turn the pages from left to right. He can follow simple directions. The child understands that communication is a process of interacting with another person. By the end of this stage, the infant should speak at least one word with correct meaning.
During this phase, children begin to point out pictures in books as the parent names them. Later, she begins to name the pictures herself. Her vocabulary initially consists of mostly nouns, followed by verbs and modifiers. The child recognizes familiar rhymes, stories and songs. She can understand and respond to simple questions. By the end of this stage, she will have a vocabulary of around 200 words. This increase in vocabulary is essential for future literacy development.
By this age, the child speaks clearly enough for family members to understand his speech most of the time. Most of his utterances are two to three words in length. He recognizes names for family members, such as momma, daddy, grandma and so on. He can say his full name. The toddler can identify familiar objects by name and purpose. He can verbally answer questions in response to books his caregivers read to him. He may begin to echo words as they are read or sung to him.
At three years, the child can "read" her books to herself from memory or by making stories from the pictures. She can hold a book correctly and turn the pages as she "reads." Her speech is clear enough for strangers to recognize the words most of the time. She can respond to more complicated questions. She will pretend to write, holding a pencil with the entire fist. The 3-year-old will associate meaning with her own writing and may "read" it aloud.
During the preschool stage, the child will recognize some letters, particularly those in his name. He may use a single letter to stand for an entire word in his writing. He may use primarily capital letters and may reverse some of them. By the end of this period, the child should begin to associate letters with their corresponding sounds. He will begin to match spoken words to printed words.