Emergent Literacy: Reading

Tips for parents to encourage your children to learn to read

1. Select age appropriate books from the public library or bookstore and read them with your children from birth for at least 30 minutes a day.
2. Talk about or discuss the book, pictures and ideas before reading the book.
3. Point out or ask questions about what the child sees before reading the page.
4. Pause so that the child can fill in a predictable word or phrase.
5. Make comments or carry on a conversation which relates the story to the child's real personal experiences. Include books in the toy box so children can choose to look at them anytime.
6. Extend stories and written language into activities that relate to the child's everyday life and have meaning.
7. Provide models in daily life to validate and give meaning to the printed word.
8. Fill your house with newspapers, books, magazines, signs, recipe cards, grocery lists, food labels, and calendars.
9. Provide many opportunities for children to interact with print like the items above and to handle manipulatives such as alphabet letters, word games, and toys.
10. Make frequent trips to your local public library to borrow print materials for your child, to borrow parenting books and videos and to attend family programs with your babies and preschool children.

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