How parents can promote literacy from birth
Learning to read starts early as babies watch signals all around them by listening to voices, checking faces and reading body language.
According to paediatric experts, reading, speaking and singing are all good ways to help your child. When they hear and use sounds, sound patterns and spoken language it helps prepare them developmentally to learn how to read, write, and succeed in school.
Not all activities need to involve books. Sign language, making music, and storytelling are other ways to nurture skills.
Serve-and-return
Powerful serve-and-return actions between you and your baby help your baby feel safe and strengthen connections. For instance when your baby does something: babbles, points, makes a gesture, or cries they see and hear you respond with eye contact, words, gestures, and or a hug connection is formed. When you share books, words, and songs, you and your baby are involved in dozens of “serve-and-return” interactions.
Literacy and language
Promoting literacy means surrounding your baby with language in many forms. Here are some suggestions taken from the Canadian Paediatric Society’s on-line resources:
1) Talk about what’s going on. Whether you’re changing a diaper, bathing your baby or taking a walk, use words that describe the actions and the things around them. You’ll help them develop vocabulary before they can even talk.
2) Babies babble. It’s how they learn to make sounds with their own voices. Repeat these sounds, and turn them into real words. You’ll help your baby recognize which sounds form language. Your baby will eventually make the connection between the sounds and an object or person, like “dada”.
3) For newborns and very young babies, try rhymes that involve gentle touch, such as patting their feet or giving them a little bounce while you are talking.
4) Reward your baby’s first tries at making sounds with smiles and hugs. This early communication is exciting for your baby, and your approval will encourage them to keep trying.
5) Once your baby starts talking, help them learn the words for the things around them. By labeling and repeating words, you’ll help your child remember them.
6) Personal storytelling about shared experiences is powerful. Your baby can watch your face, participate by nodding or repeating a word, and respond with emotion. Stories are also a “passport” into a baby’s own or another culture.
7) Repeat! Babies love hearing the same story over. Repetition allows them to internalize the story and master its pieces.
8) Make books part of your routine. Encourage storytelling, with repetitive phrases, unique words, or sound effects.
There are many ways to tell stories. Some cultures have vibrant storytelling traditions. Other cultures might use fewer words, relying instead on more facial or interactive expressions to communicate. Families where someone is deaf and/or hard of hearing may prioritize sign language over spoken language.
How youngsters benefit
Children who are read to come to understand that learning Is important. They take more initiative, have better imaginations and show higher levels of self-esteem. Reading books to your child gives you a chance to teach them about many things in other parts of the world – cultures, countries, workplaces, etc. Books with emotions can teach about anger and happiness. Books with stories about people interacting can demonstrate how to share and respect others.
Reading to your child brings you closer together and also affects how they will do in school.
By reading you are showing that learning is important and that books are an wonderful way to get information.
Tips for reading to your child
• Try to show facial expressions and different voices
• Use gestures with your hands to add to the drama.
• Add sound effects.
• Pause for your child to be involved with rhyming or familiar words.
• Add a twist to the story or use your child’s name as the main character.
• Make the story about someone or a place that your child knows.
• Talk about the pictures or ideas in the book.
Reading with your child is not about finishing a book front to back, but about the journey you are sharing.
Fun & Easy Activities
• Visit your local library for story time. Watch and listen to the storyteller for tips you can use the next time you are the one telling or reading the story. Time at the library also introduces children to a wide range of information and resources in different formats. They’re community hubs, help to preserve culture and history. This is free for all.
•Make up songs using your child’s name. Play the “rhyme game” and use words that rhyme with your child’s name. Have your child make up a song using your first name or “Dad”.
• Create your own story and draw pictures to illustrate the story. Making an alphabet book is a great start! This same activity can be used to make a comic book or sports magazine. Children love when they get to create their own characters in the story and use their creative skills!
• Go on a short field trip with your child to a park or conservation area. Talk about what you see along the way. Seek and find the letters in your child’s name on park, traffic or store signs. When you get home ask your child to draw a picture of something you both saw during the trip and you can make a caption for the picture together.
• Use magnetic letters on the fridge or even on a cookie sheet. Make words with the first letter in your child’s name. Your child can explore the letters and make words and you can even leave messages on the fridge for one another, such as, “I love you”.
• Use books during routines, or during waiting times in lines, on the potty, at bath time or bedtime. This can keep your child focused on the task and help pass the time. Expect to read the same story over and over. Ask open-ended questions and let your child participate.
Sources: The Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian Paediatric Society.
Images: Vitaly Gariev Unsplash. Shutterstock. childrensliteracy.ca.
