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Language Development & Communication
Promoting Emergent Literacy
WiseTip: LD-LIT-M0818-P01C

Bring your baby to the local library to join in storytime activities. Borrow books in English and your child's second language to read at home.

8-18 months
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WHY IT MATTERS

Playing music during playtime gives children easy access into practicing language and deciphering meaning. Singing songs with infants and toddlers develops their dual language learning, receptive and expressive skills and phonemic awareness.

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  1. Parlakian, R., & Lerner, C. (2010). Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers. Young Children, 65(2), 14–19. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ898687&site=ehost-live
Fingerplays also help children develop muscle strength and coordination in their fingers, which helps them learn to write and draw later.
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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

To become strong readers, children first need a strong foundation of oral language. Phonological awareness is an important part of this foundation. They need to understand that spoken words are composed of different sounds or phonemes. Exposure to rhyming is an excellent strategy to help children develop phonological (sound) awareness.

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  1. Dunst, C. J., Meter, D., & Hamby, D. W. (2011). Relationship between young children’s nursery rhyme experiences and knowledge and phonological and print-related skills. CELL Review, 4(1), 1–12.

Large crayons and paper lend support to early attempts at writing and drawing.

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  1. Barclay, K., Benelli, C., & Curtis, A. (1995). Literacy begins at birth: What caregivers can learn from parents of children who read early. Young Children, 50(4), 24-28.
Printing a child's name on paper gradually encourages scribbling and eventually print.

A Growing Up Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort study of families of 525 children in Singapore found that if parents started to read to children and expose them to literacy-related activities (for example, read to them, talked about books and took them to the library) before they were 12 months old, children were more inclined to be interested to engage in literacy-related activities after they were 12 months old.

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  1. Mascarenhas, S. S., Moorakonda, R., Agarwal, P., Lim, S. B., Sensaki, S. & Chong, Y. S. (2017). Characteristics and influence of home literacy environment in early childhood-centered literacy orientation. Proceedings in Singapore Healthcare, 26 (2), 81-97.