Early Childhood On-the-Go!
Early Childhood On-the-Go is a podcast where the Early Childhood Center team at Indiana University talks about all things early childhood.
Early Childhood On-the-Go!
Unlocking Early Literacy: The Five Essential Skills
Literacy begins long before a child reads their first word. In this illuminating conversation with early childhood expert Lynne Hall, we uncover the five foundational literacy skills every young child needs to develop before formal reading instruction begins.
Welcome to the Early Childhood On the Go podcast, where the Early Childhood Center team shares ideas and strategies for professionals and families.
Speaker 2:Dream big start early Early Childhood podcast. Today I'm going to be talking to Lynn Hall about early literacy. We're so excited to have this conversation today. Can you go ahead and give?
Speaker 3:us a little bit of background information about yourself, lynn? Yeah, of course, kayla, so thank you so much for having me here to talk about one of my favorite subjects, which is early literacy. My background includes I was a preschool teacher for over 15 years. I've been a research associate with the Early Childhood Center for about the last 10-11 years, and I have a strong focus on supporting early literacy and what that means for all different types of learners, and so I'm thrilled to be here and talking about this today.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So today we're really going to go over five key early literacy skills I'm going to ask Lynn some questions about so we can learn all about these skills. So we'll just kind of dive right in. Can you explain? Well, first off, we'll start off with phonological awareness. That's our first skill that we're looking into. Can you explain what phonological awareness is and why it's crucial for early literacy development?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. When we think about phonological awareness, it refers to the ability for children to be able to recognize and manipulate the sound structures of language, so including awareness of phonemes, those individual sounds, syllables, onsets and rhymes which are the beginning and ending of words, and then larger units like words and sentences. Phonological awareness is an essential skill for early literacy development.
Speaker 3:It helps children understand how sounds work together to form words and sentences. It includes activities like recognizing rhyming words, identifying the beginning sounds, counting syllables and blending or segmenting sounds into words. Strong phonological skills supports reading and spelling skills by helping children connect sounds to letters, making it a critical foundation for learning to read and write.
Speaker 2:Okay, that sounds super important. So if you are a caregiver or a parent or even an educator, you know what activities can we do to really develop phonological awareness.
Speaker 3:Well, the first thing, Kayla, is to make it fun. You want to provide fun and engaging activities that focus on sounds and wordplay. For example, you can read rhyming books together, emphasize those rhyming words and encourage children to predict the next rhyming word. Singing songs, playing with alliteration, things like Silly Sammy swiftly sips soup, and clapping syllables and words, also helps children tune into those sounds of language. Additionally, parents and caregivers can play games like I Spy with beginning sounds. Additionally, parents and caregivers can play games like I Spy with beginning sounds I Spy is something that starts with M or engage in sound matching activities where children identify objects or pictures that begin with the same sound. These playful interactions not only strengthen phonological awareness, but they lay the foundation again for later reading and writing skills.
Speaker 2:Wow. So these are things that we can really start doing from the very beginning, even with our babies and toddlers, when we're singing those nursery rhymes and those finger plays. That's, I guess. There's so many things that we can start doing from day one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. That encompasses the ability to recognize and manipulate various sound units in spoken language, including syllables, again onsets, those initial sounds in words and rhymes, which is the end of a word. It involves activities like clapping out syllables, recognizing the rhyming words, all those things that we just talked about. Phonemic awareness, on the other hand, is kind of a specific subset of phonological awareness that focuses solely on those individual units the ability to hear, identify and then manipulate individual letter sounds or phonemes. They're the smallest units of sound in language. Phonemic awareness involves skills like blending sounds together to form words. So when we think of a word like cat, we're talking about three different phonemes the C, the A and the T right, so we're segmenting words into their component sounds. Phonological awareness is an essential foundation for reading and writing, just like phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is as well, but it's specifically crucial for decoding and spelling words.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's dive a little bit more into that phonemic awareness. So what role does phonemic awareness play in the child's ability to, let's say, read or write?
Speaker 3:So phonemic awareness plays a crucial role in a child's ability to read and write because it helps them understand the relationship between sounds and letters, which is essential for decoding and encoding, which is when we're writing. When children can isolate, blend, segment and manipulate individual phonemes, those smallest units of sound in language, they gain the skills needed to recognize how sounds correspond to letters and letter combination. This ability allows them to sound out familiar words while reading and break words down into their component sounds when spelling. For example, if a child can hear and manipulate the sounds in the word cat, they can decode it when reading and also write it correctly. Phonemic awareness lays the foundation for phonics instruction and is strongly linked to early reading success. It enables children to unlock the written word by connecting sounds and symbols. Without strong phonemic awareness, children may struggle with both reading fluency and spelling accuracy.
Speaker 2:Once again, this really sounds like an important early literacy skill, so can you share some effective strategies for teaching phonemic awareness to young learners?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Effective strategies that focus on making sound manipulation fun and interactive. Again, we're talking about young children, so we need to keep things fun and light and I can't say strongly enough if children aren't interested, we need to pivot and try a different activity or strategy. One strategy is segmenting and blending sounds. You can start by saying a word very slowly, just like when we were talking about cats. So we're going to say it slowly and we're going to kind of emphasize each sound in the word and then encourage a child to identify those different sounds and then help them blend those sounds back together to say the word. Another useful strategy is sound substitution, where children are asked to change one sound in a word to create a new word, such as clapping M in mat and changing it to H to hat.
Speaker 3:Rhyming games are also super effective. Children can listen for the words that rhyme and then, as they gain skills, they can even generate their own rhymes to reinforce sound patterns. We kind of think of this as when they kind of make up nonsense words that sound the same at the end. Lots of songs and chants can emphasize the sounds, or syllables are a great way to engage children while reinforcing phonemic awareness through rhyme and repetition. Additionally, using visual aids like pictures or letter cards can help children connect sounds with their corresponding letters. And finally, interactive games like I Spy with sounds or playing with magnetic letters give children a hands-on way to explore phonemes in an enjoyable and meaningful way. These strategies, when they're practiced regularly and in a playful context, help children build a solid foundation for early literacy skills.
Speaker 2:So one big thing that I'm really hearing is just keep it fun. Absolutely, we want to keep reading that positive experience, and I, you know when I think of you know even those little toddlers reading or, you know, trying to do activities. Sometimes they're so busy that it gets tricky, but we just want to keep it fun. Low pressure is what you're saying. Yes.
Speaker 3:And one other important thing I want to add, Kayla, when we start thinking about letter sounds. The research has shown that children's ability to identify letter sounds is even more important than their ability to recognize letter formation or what a letter looks like. So when you're playing these games with children and letters, remember we really want to focus on the sounds that a letter makes. It's more important that your child knows that A makes the A or the A sound than that they know how to write it or how to pick it out of a group of letters. Not that we don't want to work on that, but knowing what the letter sounds like is more important when we're talking about our youngest learners.
Speaker 3:Another effective strategy I want folks to remember is what we call kind of eliminating the schwa sound, and that's where using letters or saying their sounds and we're putting an uh at the end. So if we say oh, that's letter R, it says ra. We want to eliminate that uh sound. It says l. It doesn't make the last sound. When we add that, what we call the schwa, that sound at the end of letters, it makes reading more difficult when children get older because they're adding that sound when they're identifying letters in text. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:It does, and I'm actually learning a lot here because I, you know, as a parent, when I was, you know, working with you know my kids on their early literacy skills when they were little, I always focused on that more identification and it's a letter A than those sounds that you're talking about. So I think this is great to share with all caregivers and educators. That might be something new for them. Yeah, absolutely, that's great. So if we're wanting to you know, if a caregiver wants to kind of assess their own child's phonemic awareness skills at home, how would they go about doing that, or is that even important to do?
Speaker 3:I think it's always a good idea to know where our children are with their skill level, whether that's in a classroom setting, at a childcare center or at home. So if that's something that a parent wants to think about, you can assess those skills by engaging in those simple, informal activities that involve listening for manipulating those sounds in the words. So basically, we're going to go back to all of those activities that we've been talking about and kind of assessing how children are doing with those. How are they responding, how are they able to identify those different pieces, if that makes sense. So let's make it a little more concrete.
Speaker 3:So one easy way to assess phonemic awareness is by asking the child to identify the first or last sound in a word, such as asking what sound do you hear at the beginning of dog or what sound do you hear at the end of cat? Again, we're focusing on those sounds. Caregivers can also test segmenting and blending skills by saying a word slowly and asking children to repeat it with those individual sounds. What sounds do you hear in fish? To assess rhyming ability, caregivers can read a short list of words aloud, such as cat, hat and dog, and ask the child which words rhyme Another way to assess phonemic awareness is by asking children to change one sound again in a word. What word do you get if you change the sound in pat to or h? These activities can be done in very playful, low-pressure ways, allowing caregivers to observe children's understanding of phonemic concepts while making them fun and engaging.
Speaker 2:I love that. This is all very practical stuff that you know caregivers can do in the comfort of their own home. So that's great to know. We're moving right along. We're to our third key early literacy skill. We're going to talk about oral language skills. Why are oral language skills considered foundational for literacy development? So, oral language skills why are oral language skills considered foundational for literacy?
Speaker 3:development. So oral language skills are considered foundational for literacy development because they form the building blocks for reading and writing. Before children can decode written words, they need to be able to understand and produce language orally, which includes vocabulary development, sentence structure and the ability to understand and use words. Sounds in words. Strong oral language skills help children recognize the relationship between spoken and written words, which is crucial for both phonological and phonemic awareness. For example, a child who can recognize rhyming words or manipulate sounds in spoken language is more likely to successfully decode those words when they see them in print. Additionally, oral language helps children develop comprehension skills as they learn to understand the meanings of words and sentences in conversation, stories and other spoken texts. Engaging in conversation, storytelling and hearing rich, varied language all contribute to the cognitive and linguistic foundation that support later reading and writing success. Fostering oral language development at an early age sets the stage for strong literacy skills later.
Speaker 2:So I've loved all the ideas that you've shared so far about how to work on early literacy at home. What are some fun ways to encourage children to really expand their vocabulary and oral language skills?
Speaker 3:So one great way, which is not going to be new to anybody, is reading books together and then discussing the story, pointing out new or interesting words and their meanings. Caregivers can make this more interactive by asking questions like what do you think this word means? Can you use this word in a sentence? Another fun approach is playing pretend or engaging in role play, which allows children to use words in context and practice language in different scenarios, like playing store or cooking in a pretend kitchen. Singing songs and chanting rhymes also helps children to hear new vocabulary in a rhythmic, memorable way. You can also play again I Spy with objects around the house, encouraging children to describe what they see using specific vocabulary such as colors, shapes or textures. Additionally, descriptive storytelling, where children help create a story using their imagination and new words, fosters both language development and creativity. These playful activities not only make learning fun, but also build a rich vocabulary that supports later reading and writing.
Speaker 2:These are great ideas and I think one that you mentioned that I've done in the past and I feel like it's almost become kind of a lost art is that oral storytelling. I feel like we see a lot of parents reading books with their kiddos, but there's so much value in just telling a story. How can parents or caregivers get started with that? Do you have any good ideas for that?
Speaker 3:I think the first piece is to really get back to having more conversations with our kids. Life is so busy, right, we're pulled in so many different directions, but getting back to having conversations can really lead us in to the storytelling, and these play a vital role by fostering key language abilities, including vocabulary, comprehension, narrative structure. When children are engaged in storytelling, whether listening to a story or creating one themselves, they learn to recognize the sequence of events, understand character, motivations and grasp the structure of stories, meaning that beginning, middle and an end. This helps develop their comprehension skills, which are essential for reading and understanding text later, develop their comprehension skills, which are essential for reading and understanding text later. Conversations with caregivers also play an important role by introducing again new words, encouraging children to express their thoughts and modeling correct sentence structure. When they're having that back-and-forth dialogue, children learn how language works. They learn about grammar and syntax and how to use words to communicate ideas. Storytelling and conversations encourage children to think critically and expand their vocabulary, both of which are foundational for reading and writing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. Next up, we're going to talk about concepts about kind of print. What are the essential concepts about print that children should learn before they start reading?
Speaker 3:So probably the most important thing they need to learn first is that print has meaning, and then words on a page actually reflect or represent spoken language. Children learn to recognize the directionality of print, so understanding that we read from left to right and from the top to the bottom of the page. They also become familiar with the idea that books have a title, an author, an illustrator, and that these elements convey specific information about the story. Also, children begin to understand that spaces between words separate individual words and that letters, when combined, form words with specific meanings. They also start to recognize letters in their names, as well as the concept that uppercase and lowercase letters are different, but both form the part of written language. These early understandings help children make sense of written text, preparing them to make the connection between spoken and written word, which is essential for learning to read.
Speaker 2:So how can parents and educators create a print-rich environment to support early literacy?
Speaker 3:We want to surround children with a variety of written materials that are both accessible and engaging.
Speaker 3:Of written materials that are both accessible and engaging, this can include labeling objects around the house with simple words door, table, refrigerator to help children make that connection between words and the items they represent. Having books, magazines and, dare I say, old school newspapers readily available encourages children to explore printed text in a natural way. Encourages children to explore printed text in a natural way. Interactive materials like magnets, alphabet charts or writing stations with crayons and paper provide opportunities for children to experiment with writing and letter recognition. Caregivers can also engage children in daily reading routines, such as reading books aloud together or sharing stories that include familiar words and phrases. Writing notes, writing lists or messages to children and involving them in these tasks helps reinforce the idea that writing is a meaningful way to communicate. And then, in this day of texting, I think it's more important than ever that we get back to doing some of this with our younger children. So by consistently surrounding children with print in their daily lives, caregivers provide them with opportunities to observe, interact with and engage in literacy activities.
Speaker 2:Sounds like there's a lot of different options for parents when they're just trying to create that environment. So thank you for sharing those. Yeah, last but not least, we're to talk about early writing skills. This is our fifth early literacy skill that we wanted to cover today. So what are some key milestones in early writing development that parents should look for?
Speaker 3:Sure. So the first thing we think about when it comes to writing skills is that intentional scribbling, and this starts to come around two to three years of age. With that intentional scribbling, and this starts to come around two to three years of age, at this early stage, children are experimenting with holding writing tools, just making random marks or scribbles, and, while they don't yet form letters or words, this is the foundation for later writing skills. Next we think about children that are about three to four years old. We call this the pre-writing and letter-like forms. Children begin to draw shapes or make letter-like symbols that resemble actual letters. They may start to recognize some letters and make attempts to write their name or other, even simple words. Then, when we get to about four to five years old, we think about letter recognition and writing Children. At this stage they can recognize and name letters of the alphabet. They start to write simple words, usually using phonetic spelling as opposed to traditional spelling, and they may also begin to write their names with more accuracy.
Speaker 2:So how can children be encouraged to express themselves through writing at an early age?
Speaker 3:You can start by providing opportunities for creative expression through activities like drawing, coloring and doodling. Again, these lay the foundation for those later writing skills. Be sure to protect your surfaces and offer developmentally appropriate materials so that these experiences can be stress-free for you and the child. Toddlers are going to need giant pieces of paper to be able to move their whole arm to make marks on the paper. One of my favorite writing activities with toddlers is to give them a bucket of water and a paintbrush or a jumbo sidewalk chalk and just let them draw on the sidewalk or the side of the building. As children grow and they have more motor control, they can work on smaller canvases. Likewise, be sure toddlers are using washable and non-toxic materials.
Speaker 3:Offer a variety of writing tools crayons, markers, chalk to spark their interest and make writing feel exciting. You want to engage in interactive reading sessions and encourage them to write by drawing pictures about the stories or the characters. Make writing a part of daily life. Writing simple notes and lists together is important. As children grow, praise their efforts and celebrate small achievements like forming their first letter or writing their name. Make writing positive, enjoyable and incorporated into your daily routines. That way you can foster a love for writing early on.
Speaker 2:Well, I love that you're mentioning to really just find ways to work into your daily routines. I remember when my kiddos were little, one of the first kind of I guess you know early writing thing that we would do is I would have them help me write the grocery list. It was something that you know and theirs would obviously look very different, but they just they saw me doing it and they wanted to help, and so, doing side by side, that was one little thing that we used to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's such a great point because again, in this day of technology and making our lives easier, everything becomes digital right and we kind of lose that art of actually modeling for our children, writing things on paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's changed so much. It's so funny. My son he recently did a field trip to like a one room schoolhouse and one of the activities that they did that day was they wrote in cursive. And it's just so interesting because they're not taught cursive anymore and we grew up doing cursive and so you can see the changes in writing already and it'll be interesting to see what this, what this looks like, even five to 10 years from now.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, Just to get us back on track. What role does play have in developing early literacy skills? We talk about play a lot in early childhood. How can it be incorporated into learning these early writing skills?
Speaker 3:So when we think about early writing, what does that entail? So children have to have some small motor skills and some strength in their hands and in their fingers. So activities like playing with clay or dough, manipulating buttons and zippers and snaps, tearing paper, manipulating collage materials or using those safety scissors can help strengthen those hand muscles and prepare children for holding a pencil later on. Pretend play, such as playing office or store, provides opportunities for children to make lists and signs and pretend notes which mimic real-life writing tasks. Drawing and coloring, often a part of imaginative play, allow children to experiment with shapes and letters. Building that foundation for writing and then offering things like chalk and markers and paper during playtime allows children to freely explore writing and letter formation. Children really learn through play, as we were just talking about. They develop the motor skills, but also gain confidence and a sense of purpose and their ability to communicate through writing.
Speaker 2:I love all those ideas. We just know that kids learn through play, so these are great ways to support those early literacy skills. Well, I think we covered everything that we wanted today about those five key early literacy skills. Thank you so much, lynn. This is such great information. If you're listening, I hope you enjoy this podcast and please tune into Early Childhood On the Go again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks so much for having me and letting me talk about one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Early Childhood On the Go podcast from the Early Childhood Center team at Indiana University. Learn more at iidcindianaedu slash ecc.
