Early Literacy At Home: How parents can help

Especially in these strange times of educational uncertainty due to COVID-19, many parents wonder what they can do at home to help their child learn to read. Check out this blog post to learn about a few simple, fun activities you can do at home to help promote your child’s early literacy skills!

Reading is one of the most powerful skills a child can learn (check out our previous blog if you’ve got a reluctant reader in need of some inspiration). Luckily, there are a ton of fun ways that you can engage your children in early literacy skills at home!

Shared Reading

Reading with your child is the first key to promoting early literacy skills. It teaches your child print knowledge, like how to hold a book and turn its pages. It also shows your child that you, too, value books and reading.

• How to select a book

  • Even in these strange time, libraries are a huge resource - call your local library or visit their website to find out what services are currently offered - many local libraries are offering pick up services and can even help you choose books!

  • Look for books that appeal to your child’s interests and include pictures to support language acquisition and comprehension - involve your child in the selection process!

• Engage with your child through out the reading process:

  • Before reading:

    • Talk about the picture on the cover

    • Make note of common structures in the book, such as the title, author and illustrator names, the dedication page, etc.

    • Make smart guesses and predictions about what might happen in the book based on the cover

  • While reading:

    • Try sitting across from your child so that they can see your mouth as you read to them

    • Comment on and describe the pictures you see in the book, then ask your child to point to pictures

    • Define new words for your child in the book (“That’s a veterinarian! They take care of animals.”)

  • After reading

    • Ask your child if they liked the book and why

    • Practice retelling stories from books to friends and family

    • Come back to favorite books!

Phonological Awareness Skills

The ability to read relies heavily on phonological awareness skills, which are the building blocks of understanding how sounds come together to form words. Here are a few fun activities to promote phonological awareness that you can even do while you’re in the car or making dinner!

• Rhyming Game - take turns naming something you see in the environment and then asking the other person to come up with a rhyming word! For example, if you’re in the car, ask your child to point out something out the window - if your child were to say “tree”, you might say “tree… knee… bee! Those words rhyme!” If your child is able to generate rhymes, they can do the same for you! You can say, “I see a car! Can you think of a word that rhymes with ‘car’?”

• Clapping Game - again, take turns naming items in your environment and then clap out the number of syllables - if you’re in the kitchen preparing dinner, you could say “I see a table! Let clap the syllables in table! Tay-(clap)-bull-(clap) - that word has two syllables!” Continue to do this as a team, taking turns identifying words to clap out!

• Find the First Sound - following the same game, you can play I Spy in your environment and identify the first sound in words that you find! If you’re entertaining your child during bath time, you could ask them a question like, “What is the bathtub full of?” When your child says “water”, you could say “hmmm, water… that word starts with a ‘wuh’ sound!” As your child develops this skill, you can reverse the game and have them tell you the first sound in a word.

Learn About Letters

Letters are everywhere! You can point them out to your child while you’re at the grocery store shopping for your favorite brand of cereal, or while you’re out for a walk looking at street signs. There are many puzzles that include letters, which can be great for beginning to teach your child letter names and sounds - “That’s an ‘M’! It makes the sound ‘mmm’ - that’s the first sound in YOUR name!”

You can also begin to teach your child to recognize, spell, and eventually write their own name! You can start with capital letters and move towards including lower case. You can make fun tracing or coloring activities by just writing your child’s name on a piece of paper and then having the child put stickers on top, or color over your writing!

Need a cheat sheet to remember these fun early literacy activities by? Print out our Strategies for Promoting Early Literacy and Reading at Home and stick it to the fridge!

If your child is still struggling with these skills as they start kindergarten, check with your child’s teacher for other tips and tricks to help your child at home. If you or your child’s teacher have concerns, reach out to schedule a phonological awareness screening or evaluation - we’re here to help!