Language and Literacy Development for Young Children

Many parents know that language and literacy development are intimately bound up. One indicator of how easily a child will learn to read, and how successful her or she will be in school, is how developed his or her language skills are before ever entering school. In this article, we'll take a look at stages of a preschooler's development and how to help your child at each stage with language and literacy development.

1. Language skills begin at birth.

Even though your child will not begin to talk until around 9 - 12 months, your infant begins learning language skills long before that time. A child's language skills begin at birth, as he or she communicates with parents through crying, facial expressions, and gesturing. You can help your infant develop language skills by repeating sounds he/she makes, talking to your child as you work or play together, and reading and singing to your child. You don't have to wait until your child is talking to read books - language and literacy development is greatly helped when you read stories to your children from the very beginning of life.

2. Language and literacy development for toddlers.

For young toddlers between the ages of 12 and 24 months, you can help with language and literacy development by providing books with just a few words on simple topics. For example, children at this age are drawn to animal books with bright, big pictures and sturdy, heavy pages. Books about simple daily tasks, such as saying hello and goodbye, also help the toddler's language and literacy development. By this point in your child's language and literacy development, try to find the time to read to your child every night before bed. You don't have to finish the book - even just a few minutes helps your toddler with language and literacy development.

3. Language and literacy development for older toddlers.

By 24 months, most toddlers have begun to talk and generally know at least fifty words that they can combine into simple phrases (Johnston). You can help language and literacy development at this stage by continuing to read to them, now beginning to introduce books about counting, the alphabet, shapes, and colors. As you read, ask your child questions, such as "Where is the...?" Encourage your child to ask questions as well as answer them - if your child begins to ask a question about the story, don't ignore the child and move on but help the child formulate his or her question and then help the child to answer the question. As you read you can also relate the story to real people or animals your child knows, or objects your child already has in his/her own environment.

4. Quality parent-child interactions for preschoolers.

By the time your child is three or four years old, he/she is hopefully experiencing the benefits of the very language-rich environment you have introduced since infancy. Language and literacy development at this age can be grown through quality parent-child interactions, such as trips to the library and meaningful play together with educational toys. The frequency in routine learning activities such as book reading, the quality of parent-child interactions, and providing the preschooler with age-appropriate books and educational toys make a great impact on the child's language and literacy development (Tamis-LeMonda and Rodriguez).

Conclusion

A parent who understands that a child's language and literacy development are crucial to the child's healthy psychosocial development and school success will naturally seek out ways to help his/her child develop language skills and literacy skills from an early age. Even infants between 0 - 6 months are already beginning the process of communicating and acquiring language. Children benefit greatly from rich, informative adult speech that describes their environment and the people and objects in it (Tamis-LeMonda and Rodriguez). Don't fall into the trap of thinking your child is too young for books, or too young to understand your words; reading and speaking to your young child is exactly what the child needs to develop strong literacy skills later in life.

Sources:

"Early Literacy." ZeroToThree.com

Johnston, Judith. "Factors that Influence Language Development." Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, February 24, 2005.

Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine and Rodriguez, Eileen T. "Parents' Role in Fostering Young Children's Learning and Language Development." Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, March 27, 2008.