Emergent Literacy

Emergent literacy is a stage in early language development in which children learn skills that are important to the development of literacy (reading and writing) (Roth, Paul, & Pierotti, 2006). This period can be defined by development of phonological awareness skills, narrative knowledge, and an awareness of print in books, magazines, logos, street signs, grocery lists, etc. (Roth, Paul, & Pierotti, 2006). Phonological awareness is a meta-cognitive skill (i.e., an awareness/ability to think about one's own thinking) for the sound structures of language (Stanovich, 1994). Phonological awareness allows one to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate sounds at the sentence, word, syllable, and phoneme (sound) level (Stanovich, 1994). These skills appear when rhyming, telling stories, scribbling, recognizing letters of the alphabet, and identifying signs and logos. 

​Talking, listening, and interacting with stories can help children develop the necessary comprehension skills for learning to read (Nelson, 2010). Emergent literacy skills can be targeted and practiced during daily routines and hands on activities. Reading books, singing repetitive songs and nursery rhymes, acting out scenes and scenarios in pretend play, pairing sounds with letters, and pointing out signs and logos are all great opportunities to engage with your child while developing emergent literacy skills. 

Emergent literacy skills to target during reading, story telling, and play: 

• Rhyming- Point out rhyming in books, stories, and songs and ask your child to consider more words that sound alike. 

• Sound isolation- Identify the first, middle, or last sound in a word (e.g., /k/ is the first sound in “cat”; /t/ is the last sound in “cat”). 

• Sound blending- Present each sound in a word (e.g., /k/-/a/-/t/) and blend the sounds into a word (e.g., /k/-/a/-/t/→ “cat”). 

• Sound and syllable segmenting- Present the word and isolate each sound (e.g., “cat” → /k/-/a/-/t/) or syllable (e.g., “puppy” → pu-ppy). 

• Sound manipulation-  Adding, subtracting, or substituting sounds in words to make new words (e.g., “cat” → “cats” → “mats” → “mat”). 

• Sound and word discrimination- Counting words, syllables, and sounds in a word or sentence. 

• Print concepts- Text reads front to back and left to right (English), Identification of the title, author, illustrator and their roles, Distinguishing between small, large, and unusual fonts, Identification of speech bubbles, Distinguishing punctuation 

• Story grammar- main characters, feelings, setting, complicating action (problem facing characters), dialogue, and coda (ending- resolving action of story); Cohesive devices- understanding and using additive (and), temporal (then), and causal (because) devices.

Fun and engaging activities to try:

• Give your child the opportunity to be the storyteller!
• Ask your child to tell you a story about a time they… (e.g., went swimming, got hurt, helped someone, played with friends, went on an adventure).
• Write down a story your child tells.
• Ask your child to draw a picture about the story you told or read and talk about what they drew (p.s. It's okay if it’s scribbles- ask them to tell you about it or comment on the colors).
• Go on an adventure of your own and talk about how it relates to what you read. 

References:
Nelson, N. (2010). Language and literacy disorders: Infancy through adolescence. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 
Roth, F. P., Paul, D. R., Pierotti, A-M. (2006). Emergent literacy: Early reading and writing development. In Let’s talk:For people with special communication needs. Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/public/speech/emergent-literacy/
Stanovich, K. (1994). Phonological awareness. In Dyslexia and intervention. Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/public/speech/emergent-literacy/