Emergent Literacy: The Importance & Examples

/
""

Table of Contents

What Is Emergent Literacy?

Literacy is the ability to read and write. Emergent literacy begins at birth and consists of all the stages children go through before they can read and write. It involves everything from infants tuning into sounds in their environment, toddlers pointing to pictures, and children scribbling in an attempt to write words.

Emergent Literacy Components

  • Conversational skills
  • Vocabulary skills
  • Story comprehension
  • Language knowledge
  • Print knowledge
  • Phonological awareness
  • Writing development
""

Why Is Emergent Literacy Important?

Emergent literacy lays the foundation for reading and writing. Before either of these can take place, children need many experiences with language to support them in literacy development. Emergent literacy sets your child up for success so they may read and write early. Consequently, they will have more exposure to print, more opportunities to practice reading, develop vocabulary, and comprehension skills. Literacy is more than just an educational skill, it is a life skill. You can help your child on their journey by priming them for literacy.

Emergent Literacy Examples At Home

There are many ways that families can facilitate emergent literacy at home. 

Have conversations:

Families can engage in high-quality, intentional conversations with children. High-quality conversations mean that families speak to their children frequently and in a positive tone rather than commands. A high-quality conversation also means that parents respond in calming ways to children. Research has proven that high-quality, intentional conversations with children helps them develop a robust vocabulary. Research has also shown that children with larger vocabularies become more proficient readers.

 

Ask open-ended questions:

Ask open-ended questions that aim to extend a child’s knowledge. Open-ended questions allow children to think critically and use higher-level skills such as inferencing, and predicting. It is also an opportunity to experiment with words in a safe environment. In addition, answering open-ended questions allows children to work on their expressive language in a thoughtful way. Expressive language refers to words that people speak and later write. It is typically more difficult for children to use expressive language than their receptive language of hearing and later reading. 

 

""

Read to your child:

Read to your child as often as possible. The more exposure to print, the better. Reading to your child holds several benefits. It helps them understand that print carries meaning. They begin to see that the scribbles on the page mean something more. Reading to your child also allows the opportunity to teach children new words in the proper context of a story. You can also help them practice higher-level thinking skills by asking open-ended questions throughout the book. 

Practice phonological awareness:

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken language. Research has shown that phonological awareness skills in preschool are a strong predictor of future reading success. Practice phonological awareness skills such as rhyming and syllable awareness with your children to help build their literacy skills. Visit our guide to building phonological awareness for help on specific activities. Once they are able to isolate individual sounds, they can begin to tie those sounds to letters and learn the alphabetic principle.

Encourage children to experiment with writing:

Children often begin writing by mimicking adult writing. They understand that writing holds meaning and conveys a message. Allow them to participate in as many writing activities with you such as making grocery lists, thank you cards, birthday cards, etc. Parents can also provide their children with a journal to encourage writing activities. Throughout these activities, your child may scribble or use invented letters as their writing. They also might be more comfortable drawing instead of writing. If this is the case, encourage children to label their drawings as a start.

""

More Resources

Emergent literacy is a precursor to reading and writing. Engaging with your child in these activities will help set them up for literacy success. If you would like more activities to do with your child, follow the link to the Florida Center For Reading Research. They have specific activities to target pre-reading skills and provide all the materials for free.

What are some ways that you are working on your child’s emergent literacy needs? Let us know in the comments or on our on connect page. We love to hear from you!

One Comment