It’s important that your child sees you reading. At home, point out that you are reading the newspaper or a recipe. On car rides, be intentional as you point out signs on the road or the names on storefronts. It’s also important to write and draw with your child. For example, when children draw pictures, their verbal comments can regularly be written on the page and read aloud.
We all want to provide our preschoolers with opportunities leading to later academic success. But as well-meaning parents, sometimes we’re vulnerable to thinking “inside information” or alternative fast tracks will get us there. Research and advice from early childhood experts on emerging literacy is more reliable than the latest hype. The advice doesn’t often have a sexy ring to it, but these professionals suggest the best foundation––those steps that lead your child to the point she’s ready to read––comes from daily experiences at home.
In “Children’s Learning Opportunities Report,” Carl Dunst conceptualizes the opportunities for language development and early literacy in terms of incidental and intentional opportunities.
Incidental opportunities might include watching leaves blow while on a walk, blowing on food when it’s too hot, or talking about body parts during bath time. Intentional activities might include story hour at the library or a trip to the zoo. Dunst says children need activity settings matched to their interests and competencies to practice existing skills and learn new abilities.
Tip No. 1: Identify Your Child’s Interests
The Village Family Service Center’s early childhood experts emphasize to parents that it is important to identify your child’s interests because it makes learning easier and more fun.
“Children won’t have to work as hard to get ‘into’ learning if it is a subject they really enjoy,” says Kelly Olson, regional director and in-office counselor at The Village in Moorhead. For example, having a boy read a “typical girl” book versus spy, pirate, or adventure books could greatly increase his resistance to learning.
“Having a parent spend time with a child doing or researching a topic they enjoy is also very rewarding for a child,” Olson says. “Children love spending time with their parents and will love it when their parents are participating or talking about topics they enjoy.” Olson says this acts as a natural reinforcer for the child.
When identifying your child’s interests, ask yourself the following questions:
• What makes your child smile or laugh?
• What makes your child happy?
• What are your child’s favorite things?
• What is enjoyable to your child?
• What does your child work hard at doing?
Tip No. 2: Identify Talents
Once you figure out your child’s interests, Olson says, try to create opportunities to explore these interests. “These opportunities might be museums or books about dinosaurs, special reading times at Barnes and Noble with a special author,” she says.
When identifying your child’s competencies, ask yourself the following questions:
• What gets and keeps your child’s attention?
• What is your child good at doing?
• What “brings out the best” in your child?
• What does your child like to do a lot?
• What gets your child to try new things?
Everyday Learning Gives Them an Edge. It’s the everyday stuff! Repetition during meal time, bath time, diaper changes, and bedtime story routines primes young children for later school success. Sound lazy or too simple? It’s huge. Rosenkoetter and Barton’s “Bridges to Literacy: Early Routines That Promote Later School Success,” encourages parents to think of building bridges to literacy by providing experiences that include “print, responsiveness, repetition, modeling and motivation, and oral language.”
“Lots of preschoolers like shows like ‘Dora and Diego’ and ‘Thomas the Train’––having books that have their favorite characters can be a powerful motivator,” says Shannon Grave, an in-office counselor and autism spectrum disorders specialist at The Village. “Of course, seeing their parents read is a huge factor as well. Parents who read are indeed more likely to have children who read.”
Tip No. 3: Think Print
Reading time may be brief but must happen everyday. Reading helps kids explore new worlds, laugh across generations, and learn about amazing and ordinary things. Sharing stories can be a balm for irritable or fussy children. Rosenkoetter and Barton indicate: “Shared reading also provides security and calms children’s restlessness.”
Reading together should be relaxing and fun. It is not just about the exposure to language, but it’s also about creating happy reading memories which set the stage for a love of reading.
Tip No. 4: Be Responsive
For early literacy, you want your child to learn that language is fun, she can do it well, and she can get results from using it. When your child speaks, help her feel successful by giving her attention and lots of positive affirmation.
Tip No. 5: Provide Routine
Provide routine schedules that use familiar phrases (such as “let’s have some lunch” or “scrub-a-dub-dub”) and cues at key times during the day. Nap and bedtime routines should be kept the same, and reading the same book over and over helps strengthen the foundation for later academic success.
Tip No. 6: Be a Consistent Model and Motivator
It’s important that your child sees you reading. At home, point out that you are reading the newspaper or a recipe. On car rides, be intentional as you point out signs on the road or the names on storefronts. It’s also important to write and draw with your child. For example, when children draw pictures, their verbal comments can regularly be written on the page and read aloud.
Tip No. 7: Talk
Quantity matters, so talk a lot. You want to expose your child to as many words an hour as possible. Talk to your child during work and play. Chitchat has a big payoff and translates into broader vocabularies and higher levels of reading later. As parents we can help them read their world long before they learn to read.
