WiseTip: LD-LIT-M2436-P01B

Language Development & Communication

Promoting Emergent Literacy

Use puppets and other props to maintain your child's interest in books and stories.

WHY IT MATTERS

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,

1, 2

Bates, C., and Bates, R. (1999). Mother and daughter set out to promote literacy in a family childcare home and a child care center. Young Child, 54, 12–15.
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.

Lawhon T. (2000). Creating language and print awareness environments for young children. Contemporary Education.;71(3):5.

The value of print awareness and how it is used can be demonstrated by taking children on a walk to read and recognise the different shapes and colours of signs. A discussion about what each sign means will help them see why signs are important.

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.

This learning experience is reinforced by reviewing a chart that has the same signs later.