By Dr Karen Boardman, EdD, FCCT, Edge Hill University — The Conversation, 22 November 2021
Learning to read does not begin when a child puzzles over the words in a book for the first time. In the early weeks of their lives and even before birth, babies are skilfully processing important information about the sounds they hear — attuning to tones, patterns of language and distinguishing their own familiar adults’ voices. Making sense of sounds, patterns, words and sentences are important skills that will help a child as they progress towards reading.
Early reading for under-threes is rooted in their daily lives. It involves lots of listening, communication, speech and language activities — not just sharing books. As their language and communication skills develop, under-threes learn to use pictures, words and sounds, tell and retell familiar stories, and sing songs and rhymes. Here are five tips to support early reading for children aged under three.
1. Create a “chatty” environment. Encourage and support lots of communication. Research shows that talking to babies and toddlers helps them build vocabulary. Take turns in conversations and comment on their activities and the routines of the day. This will enable under-threes to begin to develop receptive language — the ability to understand others.
2. Have fun with rhythm and music making. Play lots of rhyming games, sing nursery rhymes, comment on rhyming patterns in songs and make lots of music. Repetition and predictable rhyme helps children remember new words. Alliteration and assonance in poetry and nursery rhymes draws attention to the individual sounds and patterns in words.
3. Share meaningful images. Use images such as pictures and photographs of familiar places, objects, families and communities to create meaningful shared experiences. Make books with photographs or apps to encourage talk and interaction about children’s home cultures and families. Reading pictures and following images helps children learn to read as they begin to make connections and understand sequences of stories.
4. Draw attention to print in daily life. Use your environment and local community to point out words at home, at nursery or out and about. This could be print on cereal boxes, signs or logos. Encountering print in their environment helps under-threes recognise letters, sounds and images that have meaning.
5. Engage with books frequently. Shared book reading, story time and retelling stories together are valuable points of connection and social interaction for under-threes. Puppets, props and role-play help to make books or stories and rhymes interactive and help children recreate stories through imaginative play. Choose a range of books — cloth, sensory, picture books and story books or online story apps. This article has been republished under Creative Commons licence.