Children start to learn language from the day they are born.

As they grow and develop,

their speech and language skills become increasingly more complex. They learn to
understand and use language to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings, and to
communicate with others. During early speech and language development, children
learn skills that are important to the development of literacy (reading and writing). This
stage, known as emergent literacy, begins at birth and continues through the preschool
years. Children see and interact with print (e.g., books, magazines, grocery lists) in
everyday situations (e.g., home, in preschool, and at daycare) well before they start
elementary school. Parents can see their child's growing appreciation and enjoyment of
print as he or she begins to recognize words that rhyme, scribble with crayons, point out
logos and street signs, and name some letters of the alphabet. Gradually, children
combine what they know about speaking and listening with what they know about print
and become ready to learn to read and write.
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Emergent literacy is a term that is used to explain a child's knowledge of reading and writing
skills before they learn how to read and write words. It signals a belief that, in literate society,
young childreneven one- and two-year-oldsare in the process of becoming literate. Through
the support of parents, caregivers, and educators, a child can successfully progress from
emergent to conventional reading.
The basic components of emergent literacy include:

Print motivation: Being interested in and enjoying books.

Vocabulary: Knowing the names of things.

Print awareness: Noticing print, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to
follow words on a page.

Narrative skills: Being able to describe things and events and to tell stories.

Letter knowledge: Understanding letters are different from each other, knowing their
names and sounds, and recognizing letters everywhere.

Phonological awareness: Being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

Emergent literacy is of critical importance in early education in light of research showing that
children learn skills that prepare them to read years before they start school.

History

Traditionally, society has considered reading and writing in their formalistic senses, and viewed
children as being knowledgeable about literacy only when they were capable of identifying
written words without picture clues, and spelling words that adults could read.
In 1966, New Zealand researcher Marie Clay introduced the concept of emergent reading, using
it to describe the earliest behaviors and concepts young children employ in interacting
with books even before they are capable of reading in the conventional sense.[5] The 1970s and
early 1980s saw robust research activity in children's early language development, early
childhood education, and reexamination of the concept of reading readiness. This work resulted
in Teale and Sulzby assembling a book authored by various leading researchers of the time that
proposed reconceptualizing what happens from birth to the time when children reading and write
conventionally as a period of emergent literacy.[6]
Since then, an extensive body of research has expanded the concept, illuminating that a child's
literacy development begins well before formal introduction in school, and can be influenced by
social interactions with adults, exposure to literacy materials, and the use of engaged learning
activities.[3] While the concept of reading readiness suggested that there was a point in time when
children were ready to learn to read and write, Clay's notion of emergent literacy suggested that
there were continuities in children's literacy development between early literacy behaviors and
those displayed once children could read independently. Clay also emphasized the importance of
the relationship between writing and reading in early literacy development. Until then, it was
believed that children must learn to read before they could learn to write.

Emergent literacy skills

Print motivation
This component relates to a child's interest in and enjoyment of books. A child with print
motivation might enjoy being read to, playing with books, pretending to write, and going to the
library. Children who enjoy books are more likely to want to read, and to keep trying, even when
it is hard.

Vocabulary
The component "vocabulary" relates to the knowing of the names of things. Children with rich
vocabularies are at a tremendous educational advantage, since studies show that vocabulary is
the best predictor of reading comprehension at the end of second and third grades and is
otherwise linked to overall academic achievement.

Print awareness
This component relates to noticing print, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to
follow words on a page. It includes knowing that books are organized from left to right, the words
are read from left to right and top to bottom, and how to tell words from letters. These skills are
invaluable to a child's literacy development because without these skills, a child will have
difficulty learning how to read and write.

Narrative skills
This component relates to the ability to describe things and events and to tell stories.

Letter knowledge
This component relates to the understanding that letters are different from each other, knowing
their names and sounds, and recognizing letters everywhere.

Phonological awareness
This component relates to being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. It
involves rhyme recognition, syllables, onset, and rime. Types of phonological awareness include:
phonemic awareness, syllable awareness, word awareness, and sentence awareness.

Lessons and activities

Emergent literacy lessons may focus on one emergent literacy skill or blend them. Below are
examples of emerging literacy games and activities that each focus primarily on one emergent
literacy skill.
Building vocabulary
Sorting games can help children build vocabulary skills by asking them to identify defining
characteristics of the items being sorted. Special Connections, a teaching resource website
provided by Kansas University, suggests a shoe sorting game in which each child takes off one
of his or her shoes. The children work together to sort the shoes by different characteristics, thus
building vocabulary related to color, types of fasteners (buckle, velcro), shoe type (sandal, gym
shoe), etc. This activity could work with other objects such as legos and pasta. The full activity is
available online.
The Hanen Centre outlines another strategy for teaching vocabulary to promote emergent
literacy.
Letter recognition
Letter recognition games help children learn the letters of the alphabet. In one simple game, the
teacher writes each letter of the alphabet on a separate notecard and passes them out to
students. The students then have to arrange themselves in alphabetical order. This game is
provided by Special Connections, a teaching resource website provided by the University of
Kansas, and is available online.
Phonological awareness
One type of phonological awareness game involves rhyming, which helps children identify similar
sounds in words. In one rhyming game, the teacher can present three different "consonantvowel-consonant" words and ask children which word does not rhyme. For example, cat, log, and
dog. The full activity and other similar rhyming activities are available online.
Other activities include: songs and chants; word play, games, rhymes and riddles; Storybooks,
poetry, nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss; Oral Storytelling; Clapping, jumping, manipulating letters,
blocks. Everything should be playful, engaging, interactive, social, deliberate, and purposeful,

stimulate curiosity, and encourage experimentation with language and comprehensive language
and literacy programs.
Print motivation
Since print motivation involves a child's interest and enjoyment of books, there are a variety of
activities that parents and teachers can share with children to help promote print motivation.
Examples include:

Read often and make it enjoyable

Read when you[ and the child are in a good mood, so the experience is a positive one

Change your voice when you read aloud

Keep books accessible to children

Stop reading when a child becomes tired or loses interest

Print motivation tips adapted from the Loudon County Public Library.
Print awareness
Print awareness is a child's understanding of the parts of a book and how a book works. The
State Library of Louisiana suggests an activity in which a child shares the parts of a book with an
adult. For example, the teacher or parent could ask the child to point out different parts of the
book and its contents, such as the front cover; the title; the first line of the book; a word; a letter;
and the back cover.
George Mason University suggests additional family activities. These include: Make a book with
your children. You might include familiar photographs with labels under each photo, or children
might illustrate the book by themselves. Parents could write the words as the children dictate the
story. Or, when going out to a restaurant, show the menu to your children and point to the words
as you read to them. Let them choose what they want to eat and make it an interactive
experience. This will help children understand how print is connected to real life. Additional
activities can be found online.
Narrative skills
Children can build narrative skills by describing something that happened to him or her, even
something as simple as taking a bath. Parents and teachers can promote narrative skills by
prompting children for further detail. Other activities to promote narrative skills in both babies and
toddlers are available from the Loudon County Library.

Literacy is the in word today in education. We all want our children to read. Early. But literacy is not
something we simply teach, and its not something a child starts to learn when he or she enters
school. Its a complex process that starts at birth, and includes a child learning in four basic areas:
language, listening, writing, and readingall at the same time!

Not only does literacy development incorporate these four areas, but it also involves knowing about
listening, language, writing, and reading. For example, when we read a book to children we should let
them know all books have a title and author; many storybooks start with, once upon a time and end
with, they lived happily ever after; and books have a beginning, middle, and end. In teaching
listening skills we help children listen for the beginning sound of a word, look at how a word is broken
into syllables, and explain how different words rhyme with each other. We teach children that there
are different styles of writing, depending on the purpose. A poem, for example, is written differently
from a No Smoking sign, which is different from written instructions about how to put a toy together,
or how to fix a toilet. Specific elements that are essential to children's development in each of these
areas are 1) responsive adults, 2) active play, 3) quality, responsive, developmentally appropriate
materials, 4) real experiences, 5) teaching in context, and 6) talking about reading, writing, listening,
and language. Each of these areas is described below.