Inside: Four ways you can set your baby up for literacy success. And yes, these early literacy skills do not involve letters at all.
HINT: I bet you're already doing a great job!
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What are Early Literacy Skills for Babies?
There is so much that contributes to Early Literacy development for babies and most of it doesn't actually involve showing them letters at all. Early Literacy skills are all about communication: learning how to represent our needs, wants and feelings with language.
Four Key Building Blocks for Developing Early Literacy Skills
So how exactly do we go about immersing our little ones in language in ways that will build their Early Literacy skills? Here are four ‘building blocks’ which you can implement at home:
- Modelling language
- Sing to your child
- Teach object permanence
- Choose repetitive routines that promote literacy
1. Modelling Language
Your voice and facial expressions
Your baby loves watching your face move as you talk and they’re also starting to figure out the muscles in their own face and how to use their hands. The benefits of talking face to face to your baby are unmatched when it comes to their social, emotional and language development.
Have you noticed their little eyes become alert and focused on you as you speak? The more you exaggerate your facial expressions and talk directly to your baby, the more they are experiencing the range of emotions and sounds that we use when we communicate.
Try this: Lie your baby on your lap at a time when they are happy and awake. You might feel silly like you’re talking to yourself… but asking questions and answering them as if you are having a little conversation is perfect modelling of how we talk and research shows this contributes massively to language development.
You might say things like, ‘What shall we do today?’ ‘Are we going to go for a walk to see grandma?’ ‘Oopsie, have you got something in your nappy?’ Watch how they respond. He or she might do nothing but look at you or smile, but remember all of the brain building going on behind the scenes as you interact.
Narrating
Narrating simply means describing what you’re doing as you go about everyday tasks like changing a nappy or tidying up. Narrating lets your baby know what’s happening, why, and what’s going to happen next all while modelling language and building early literacy skills. Imagine you are a sports commentator and you are giving them the play by play.
Try this: While changing their nappy, talk to your little one about each step of what you are doing. For example, ‘It’s time for a clean nappy! Let’s have a look. What do we have here… Ooh. Ok, now, I’m going to wipe your bottom.’
Try this: While getting them dressed you might like to narrate as you put on their clothes. For example, ‘Let’s put on your socks. One foot… There we go. Now, the other foot… All done!’
One of my favourite moments as a mum is when my children both began saying these things back to me because they were so used to my narrations. ‘Arms up!’ they say, as I take off their clothes. ‘One… Two…!’ as I put each leg into their trousers. Even at three my son says these things as he dresses himself.
2. Singing
Singing is a great way to build memory through songs that use rhythm and rhyme and repetition. Most songs and nursery rhymes tell stories with various emotions or vocabulary weaved in.
Singing Activity 1
Collect a bag of objects or pictures that each relate to a song or nursery rhyme. For example:
- Spider - Insy Wincy Spider
- Star - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Duck - Three Little Ducks
- Rabbit - Sleeping Bunnies
- Bus - Wheels on the Bus
- Farm animal - Old Macdonald Had a Farm
Show your baby how to reach into the bag and pull out an object and watch their excitement as they choose which song to sing! You can use this activity during play time, nappy changes, or as something to add to their bedtime routine. Using objects helps with making connections between words and meaning.
Singing Activity 2
The benefits of adding in movement when singing include deepening memory and understanding of the words in the song, and later, gross motor skills as your child learns to do the actions for themselves.
Try sitting your little one on your knee and singing these rhymes while gently moving their arms to do the actions:
We're going up, we're going up, as high as we can go...
(slowly lift arms high up into the air)
We’re going down, we’re going down, we’re going way down low…
(slowly lower arms)
Up, up, up, up, up, up, up
Down, down, down, down, down
Rain is falling down, (wiggle fingers)
Rain is falling down,
Pitter, patter, pitter, patter (tap on their tummy)
Rain is falling down.
3. Object Permanence
Did you know that Child Psychologist Jean Piaget (1954) suggested that in order for a baby to begin to understand that something can be represented by a word or picture, they must learn something called ‘Object Permanence’? Object permanence is the idea that even if you cannot see something, it is still there. According to Piaget, this is an important stepping stone to Early Literacy for infants.
One of the first ways our children experience this idea is when we leave a room. At some point, they learn that ‘Even though I can’t see mummy, she is still nearby’, and we can actually teach this through activities that involve their senses.
Here are 3 Object Permanence activities you can try with your baby that develop Early Literacy skills.
Object Permanence Activity 1: Ball in a Toilet Roll
Show your baby the toilet roll and the ball you have chosen to roll through it. NOTE: be mindful of choking when letting your child hold or play with small objects.
On a flat surface, roll the ball into the toilet roll so that it stops in the middle. Model for your child, ‘Where has it gone?’
You’ll probably find that a child over 6 months will reach out and pick up the toilet roll and then see the ball roll out.
Object Permanence Activity 2: Tissue Box Hide and Seek
Hide a scarf, a muslin or even a few socks inside an empty tissue box and let your baby pull them out. Each time you put them back, they can no longer see them and they must search to make sure that they are still there.
Object Permanence Activity 3: Under the Cup
Similar to rolling a ball through a toilet roll, hide a favourite toy under a cup and ask, ‘Where is it?’ As soon as your child understands that the object is still there but hidden, they have learned Object Permanence.
4. Repetition
The little things that we repeat every day with our children are actually golden opportunities for bringing language into our homes through repetition, just like how I have suggested narrating daily tasks for our babies. As with learning to count or any other physical or cognitive skill, repetition is what allows your child’s brain to form strong connections for memory.
Here are two other ways you can introduce language-rich routines at home to hone Early Literacy skills:
Literacy Routine 1: Teeth brushing song
(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
Find your toothbrush
Find your toothbrush
Toothpaste too
Toothpaste too
Brushing, brushing, brushing
Brushing, brushing, brushing
Spit and rinse
Spit and rinse
Teeth brushing is something you will do every day from approximately six months and a repetitive song like this one helps to make links between the things we need and the steps for looking after our teeth.
Literacy Routine 2: Bedtime books
Chances are you already read your child books at bedtime (or some other time of day that works for your/their schedule). Do you ever think about the voices that you use when you read to your child? Or the way the story is written to bounce and rhyme? I
n the same way that children come to remember their favourite nursery rhymes, choosing the same books at bedtime and repeating them again and again is one of the most natural ways that children learn common sentence structures, phrases, and things that people (or characters) do and say. Before you know it, this translates to their ability to communicate, express themselves and relate their own lives to what they read. Read more about supporting speech development in children.
Here are some of my favourite baby books for repetition and language:
10 Minutes to Bed (by Rhiannon Fielding)
Postman Bear (by Julia Donaldson)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (by Eric Carle)
Looking for more books for your little ones? Here’s a list of our favourite books for toddlers!
More Questions about Early Literacy Skills for Babies
We often think that literacy is all about reading and writing, and ‘literacy’ is the term we use to refer to the reading and writing skills of older children. However, with babies we are really looking at their ability to communicate with us through gesturing, grabbing or touching, or making noises that tell you there is something they need or want. As their literacy skills develop, by one year they will likely begin mimicking words (or the beginning sounds of words) and pretending to read books by turning pages and making noises as if they are reading. This is called ‘emergent’ reading.
Introducing babies to books even when they may not be ready to hold a book or point at pictures is shown to positively influence later interest in reading. Repetitively reading a range of books introduces our children to the sounds and rhythm of English as well as common phrases and things that people do and say. This contributes hugely to their understanding of language as well as later helping to develop other skills like the ability to describe events and tell stories .
Keep these language building activities up with your child and before you know it they’ll be talking and reading right back to you!
Looking for some fun and easy activities to do with your little one? Download the Best Activities for 1 Year Olds Activity Pack here!
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