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Language Development & Communication
Promoting Emergent Literacy
WiseTip: LD-LIT-M0818-G01B

Use books as part of your baby’s daily routines e.g. tell stories or let child play with boardbooks while waiting for transport to infantcare or on the way to grandmother’s home, plastic books during bathtime and books before naptime or bedtime. Repeat stories if your baby wants to hear them again.

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  1. Zero to Three’s Critical Competencies for Infant–Toddler Educators (2016). Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2019/reading-with-babies-matters

8-18 months
Caregiving
WHY IT MATTERS

It is beneficial to have a

print-rich environment

Print-Rich Environment - A print-rich environment with labels, signs, logos, and visual displays helps children construct knowledge about print. When the children understand that print has meaning, they learn about how the meanings of written language, and it will motivate them to read.

from infancy, with ongoing access to books and reading as this helps to develop the child’s language ability.
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  1. Lawhon T. (2000). Creating language and print awareness environments for young children. Contemporary Education.;71(3):5.

Children’s concrete sources of first print are symbols, object names and words on cereal boxes, clothing labels and toy packages. From this, children learn about symbols, letters and words that they can then transfer to the abstract. Adults teach children important concepts about print, including left to right and top to bottom directionality,

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  1. Bobys, A. (2000). What does emerging literacy look like? Young Child. 55: 16–22.
that spaces appear between words and that a single letter can be a word.
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  1. Lawhon T. (2000). Creating language and print awareness environments for young children. Contemporary Education.;71(3):5.

Babies may have a favourite story that they request all the time. Starting at about 12 months old, ask babies simple questions about a book's pictures such as, “Where is the moon?” and watch to see if they point or gesture. Repeating stories helps babies remember the words and build vocabulary.