Emergent Literacy: For Talkers
Age 2-3 years old

To develop Print Motivation

  • Make book-sharing a special time for closeness between you and your child.
  • Let your child see you reading.
  • Visit your library often.

Vocabulary

  • Talk with your child about what is going on around you. Talk about feelings—yours and your child’s.
  • When you child talks with you, add more detail to what she says.
  • Speak in the language that is most comfortable for you.
  • Read together every day. When you talk about the story and pictures, your child hears and learns more words.

Print Awareness

  • Read everyday print out loud—labels, signs, lists, menus. Print is everywhere.
  • As you read stories point to some of the words as you read them, especially words that are repeated.
  • Let your child turn the pages.
  • Let your child hold the book and read or tell the story.
  • Hold the book upside down. See if your child turns the book right side up.
Narrative Skills
  • Tell your child stories.
  • Ask your child to tell you about something that happened today.
  • Read books together. Stories help children understand that things happen in order—first, next, last.
  • Read a book that you have read before. Switch roles—you be the listener and let your child tell the story.
Letter Knowledge
  • Help your child spot different shapes and letters.
  • Talk about what is the same and what is different between two objects.
  • Write your child’s name, emphasizing the first letter.
  • Make letters from clay or use magnetic letters.
  • Point out and name letters when reading alphabet books, signs, or labels.
  • Read alphabet books with clear letters and pictures.

Phonological Awareness

  • Say nursery rhymes and make up your own silly, nonsense rhymes.
  • Sing songs. Songs have a different note for each syllable in a word, so children can hear that different sounds put together make up words.
  • Play word games such as, “What sounds like ‘ran’?” or “What starts with the same sound as ‘ball’?”
  • Say rhymes and sing songs in the language that is most comfortable for you.